Re: Kill system call

David ``Joel Katz'' Schwartz (stimpson@stimpson.igc.net)
Fri, 22 Mar 1996 12:37:04 -0500 (EST)

Actually, the Linux implementation allows you to test both
whether a process exists _and_ whether you have permission to send a
signal to it. Please don't change it. I _like_ being able to do both.

JK

On Fri, 22 Mar 1996, Linus Torvalds wrote:

> No, only badly written tests break on linux. POSIX expressly states that
> ESEARCH means that the process doesn't exist, so THAT is what you should check
> against. POSIX also very expressly sais that EPERM means you don't have the
> permissions to send a signal to the process, so if you get EPERM you know that
> yes, the process exists, but I don't have the rights to signal it.
>
> Is it broken? It would be reasonably easy to fix, but do we really want to?
>
> Linus
>