what the double-fork? 1 ▲ erock's devlog 97 days ago · 5 min read1010 words · Tech · hide • I built zmx as a multi-faceted learning exercise. I wanted to learn more about zig, posix, daemons, ptys, libghostty, and terminals. Creating a program that fits into my core dev toolchain was merely a side-effect. While researching about how to create a daemon, buried in the implementation of abduco, I discovered the double-fork. • abduco.c • Hidden behind the double-fork technique is a cascade of terms and concepts that are fundamental to how linux manages processes. This post is me coming to the surface and intended to be a reminder when I read zmx and say "what the double-fork?" what is a daemon? • A daemon belongs to a session that has no controlling terminal. In linux terms, it does not have a controlling terminal. For example, when backgrounding a process using ctrl-z+bg or {cmd} &, the session still has a controlling terminal which means it can control those background processes. This is not ideal for a daemon. how does fork work in a program? • When using fork(2) in a… Commenting on Bubbles has been removed. Why? If you want to talk about this post, write to the author, use the comments on their blog if it has them, or reply with a "RE:" post on your own blog. Suggestions? feedback@bubbles.town
