[PATCH] thread-exec-2.5.34-B1, BK-curr
This implements one of the last missing POSIX threading details - exec() semantics. Previous kernels had code that tried to handle it, but that code had a number of disadvantages: - it only worked if the exec()-ing thread was the thread group leader, creating an assymetry. This does not work if the thread group leader has exited already. - it was racy: it sent a SIGKILL to every thread in the group but did not wait for them to actually process the SIGKILL. It did a yield() but that is not enough. All 'other' threads have to finish processing before we can continue with the exec(). This adds the same logic, but extended with the following enhancements: - works from non-leader threads just as much as the thread group leader. - waits for all other threads to exit before continuing with the exec(). - reuses the PID of the group. It would perhaps be a more generic approach to add a new syscall, sys_ungroup() - which would do largely what de_thread() does in this patch. But it's not really needed now - posix_spawn() is currently implemented via starting a non-CLONE_THREAD helper thread that does a sys_exec(). There's no API currently that needs a direct exec() from a thread - but it could be created (such as pthread_exec_np()). It would have the advantage of not having to go through a helper thread, but the difference is minimal.
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