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>.

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