Brett McCoy wrote: > On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 9:38 AM, Thomas Hruska <[email protected]> wrote: >> Brett McCoy wrote: > >>> Did you try using system()? It only returns after the called program >>> finishes running. >>> >>> Note that the exec...() family of calls will replace the current >>> process image with the new one that has been called. Normally you >>> would would fork() first and then call exec...(). >> That won't happen under Windows. Windows doesn't offer a mechanism to >> do what Linux exec() does. > > Oooh... really? Didn't know that. > > -- Brett > ------------------------------------------------------------ > "In the rhythm of music a secret is hidden; > If I were to divulge it, it would overturn the world." > -- Jelaleddin Rumi
Under *NIX, exec() overwrites the current process working set with a new process and starts at the entry point of the new process. fork() starts a new process by copying the working set of the current process and continuing in both processes from there. Windows has no built-in equivalent mechanism. There is no API to copy a working set to a new process. And there is also no API to overwrite the current working set with another process and start over. CreateProcess() is essentially a combined fork()-exec() call. The way that API was designed makes it really hard to separate that singular call into two separate components. The way Windows is designed, creating a true fork()/exec() set would be VERY difficult. The numerous types of HANDLEs would have to be duplicated precisely and not all HANDLEs are well-suited for that. -- Thomas Hruska CubicleSoft President Ph: 517-803-4197 *NEW* MyTaskFocus 1.1 Get on task. Stay on task. http://www.CubicleSoft.com/MyTaskFocus/
