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baby(1) [linux man page]

BABY(1)                                                       General Commands Manual                                                      BABY(1)

NAME
baby -- create new process from two parents SYNOPSIS
baby -sex [m|f] [-name name] DESCRIPTION
baby is initiated when one parent process polls another server process through a socket connection in the BSD version or through pipes in the System V implementation. baby runs at low priority for approximately forty weeks and then terminates with a heavy system load. Most systems require constant monitoring when baby reaches its final stages of execution. Older implementations of baby did not require both initiating processes to be present at the time of completion. In those versions the initiating process which was not present was awakened and notified of the results upon completion. It has since been determined that the presence of both parent processes result in a generally lower system load at completion, and thus current versions of baby expect both par- ent processes to be active during the final stages. Successful completion of baby results in the creation and naming of a new process. Parent processes then broadcast messages to all other processes, local and remote, informing them of their new status. OPTIONS
-sex define the gender of the created process -name assign the name name to the new process EXAMPLES
baby -sex f -name Jacqueline completed successfully on July 9, 1992 at 9:11pm. Jacqueline's vital statistics: 8 pounds 3 oz, 20 inches, long dark hair. The parent process, Kim Dunbar, is reportedly doing fine. SEE ALSO
cigar(6), dump(5), cry(3). BUGS
Despite its complexity, baby only knows one signal, SIGCHLD, (or SIGCLD in the System V implementation), which it uses to contact the par- ent processes. One or both parent processes must then inspect the baby process to determine the cause of the signal. The sleep(1) command may not work as expected on either parent process for some time afterward, as each new instance of baby sends inter- mittent signals to the parent processes which must be handled by the parents immediately. A baby process will frequently dump core, requiring either or both parent processes to clean up after it. Despite the reams of available documentation on invoking and maintaining baby, most parent processes are overwhelmed. AUTHORS
From a man page by Joe Beck, <beck@cs.ualberta.ca>. BABY(1)

Check Out this Related Man Page

fork(2) 							System Calls Manual							   fork(2)

Name
       fork - create a new process

Syntax
       #include <sys/types.h>
       #include <unistd.h>

       pid = fork()
       pid_t pid;

Description
       The  system  call causes creation of a new process.  The new process (child process) is an exact copy of the calling process except for the
       following:

       o    The child process has a unique process ID.

       o    The child process has a different parent process ID (that is, the process ID of the parent process).

       o    The child process has its own copy of the parent's descriptors.  These descriptors reference the same underlying objects, so that, for
	    instance,  file  pointers  in file objects are shared between the child and the parent, so that a on a descriptor in the child process
	    can affect a subsequent read or write by the parent.  This descriptor copying is also used by the shell to	establish  standard  input
	    and output for newly created processes as well as to set up pipes.

       o    The child processes resource utilizations are set to 0.  For further information, see

Return Values
       Upon  successful  completion,  returns  a  value  of  0	to the child process and returns the process ID of the child process to the parent
       process.  Otherwise, a value of -1 is returned to the parent process, no child process is created, and the global variable errno is set	to
       indicate the error.

Diagnostics
       The system call fails and no child process are created under the following conditions:

       [EAGAIN]       The system-imposed limit {PROC_MAX} on the total number of processes under execution would be exceeded.

       [EAGAIN]       The system-imposed limit {CHILD_MAX} on the total number of processes under execution by a single user would be exceeded.

       [ENOMEM]       There is insufficient swap space for the new process.

See Also
       execve(2), wait(2)

																	   fork(2)
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