At 02:52 PM 5/9/95 GMT, Ross Ridge wrote: >>2) terminate with an _exit() rather than the (implied) exit() > >Bad idea. The implied exit() *is* flushing the stdio buffers, otherwise .... >If exit() were used instead of _exit() in this example, it could result >in the message being printed twice, once in the parent process and once >in the child process. Not knowing exactly what the person's program was doing, the suggestion for _exit() was more basic. While what you say will prevent the message from printing twice, it can prevent it from printing at all. Where shared descriptors are present from a vfork(), the exit() function in the child will not only flush the buffers but close the file too. As a result, when the parent process attempts to print to this descriptor it will fail -- closed file. So instead of only one error message, it may result in none. I've been caught on this on our HP-UX systems before.! :) I don't know the status of this on MPE systems. Regards. ---- Jim "seMPEr" Wowchuk Internet: [log in to unmask] Vanguard Computer Services Compu$erve: 100036,106 _--_|\ Post: PO Box 18, North Ryde, NSW 2113 / \ Phone: +61 (2) 888-9688 \.--.__/ <---Sydney NSW Fax: +61 (2) 888-3056 v Australia