Avoid fork(3) - prefer vfork(2)

[x42]

The problem with fork() is that it duplicates the page tables and file-descriptors of the parent process. It is inherently not realtime-safe. Any processes that has realtime threads (here a plugin-host) should not use fork(). In context of pro-audio on POSIX systems, prefer vfork(); execve();

https://github.com/sadko4u/lsp-plugins/blob/543e17e9de3b8dc9de6e31438d1223d792054626/src/ui/tk/widgets/LSPHyperlink.cpp#L107

PS. You may also investigate using posix_spawn(), but that's a library function on Linux.

[sadko4u]

The things should go right after this commit: 03174d7

@x42 please verify.

[x42]

Fine IFF __USE_GNU is defined at compile time. Can that happen?

If so, you could use a wrapper application that does the file re-direct after vfork+exec.

[sadko4u]

@x42 right
Changed code to use vfork() directly when __USE_GNU is not defined.
Here's the following commit: 88a8ede

[x42]

Looks good. Thanks!

Could that happen in the first place though? On what POSIX OS + compiler is __USE_GNU not defined? Can that even happen?

[sadko4u]

@x42 __USE_GNU is not defined on FreeBSD 11. There, <spawn.h> does not provide a flag that tells posix_spawn to prefer vfork().

[sadko4u]

Merged changes into devel branch: 4bef72f

[sadko4u]

Removed github-issue-54 branch

[sadko4u]

Available in the 1.1.11 release!