[Python-Dev] Should execv() call _run_exitfuncs()? If not, should _run_exitfuncs() be private?

[Nick Coghlan]

Rocky Bernstein wrote:
> As a hobby I've been writing a debugger. One of the
> commands,"restart", works by calling an execv(). You may need to do
> this when
> the program you are debugging is threaded or when one needs to ensure
> that all program state is reinitialized.
> 
> Recently, I added remote debugging via TCP sockets and noticed that
> execv() in Python doesn't arrange exit hooks to get called. Should it?
> 
> One can run _run_exitfuncs() from the atexit module, but the leading
> underscore of the function call suggests it is private. Should it be?

One of the advantages in Python handling 'private' APIs by convention
rather than having it enforced by the compiler is that for some
applications (like debuggers), a higher degree of coupling is more
appropriate than sticking strictly to the public, guaranteed stable API.

So I'd say call the private API anyway. While in theory it *could*
change, it probably won't, and the use case is too esoteric to justify
the overhead of making it public.

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia
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