[Python-Dev] PEP 433: Add cloexec argument to functions creating file descriptors

Nick Coghlan ncoghlan at gmail.com
Sun Jan 13 12:33:30 CET 2013


On Sun, Jan 13, 2013 at 9:15 PM, Antoine Pitrou <solipsis at pitrou.net> wrote:
>> It also means we're free to implement a mechanism that tries to close
>> all sensitive file descriptors in _PyOS_AfterFork.
>
> Ouch! This actually shows that "noinherit" is a very bad name. The PEP
> is about closing fds after exec(), *not* after fork(). So "cloexec" is
> really the right, precise, non-ambiguous name here.

No, 'cloexec' is a terrible name, because, aside from the cryptic
opacity of it, it's also wrong on Windows, which doesn't have the
fork() vs exec() distinction.

Cheers,
Nick.


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


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