Merge lp:~bilalakhtar/unity-lens-applications/fix-child-process-reaping-lp-1020115 into lp:unity-lens-applications

[Bilal Akhtar]

Simple one-line fix to the reaping of the child process when a command is run from Alt+F2 or something is selected in the applications place.

Running getppid on the child process without this change returns 1. Running getppid on the child process with this branch returns the pid of the applications daemon, as expected. This fixes issues with polkit in software updater, etc (see linked bug report).

Bug report also contains a python test case.

[Mikkel Kamstrup Erlandsen (kamstrup)]

From the docs of the flag you added "the child will not be automatically reaped; you must use g_child_watch_add() yourself (or call waitpid() or handle SIGCHLD yourself), or the child will become a zombie.".

review: Disapprove

[Bilal Akhtar (bilalakhtar)]

But since the child would be spawned asynchronously, I don't see the problem here. It's not like Unity still needs to watch the child, right?

[Mikkel Kamstrup Erlandsen (kamstrup)]

The problem is that all spawned sub processes now becomes zombies, if I am not mistaken.

[Michal Hruby (mhr3)]

Rejecting since this is a system-wide problem and would only workaround the issue in apps scope.

Unmerged revisions

287. By Bilal Akhtar on 2012-07-02

Fix reaping of child process when using the applications place (LP: #1020115)

=== modified file 'src/daemon.vala'
--- src/daemon.vala	2012-04-23 13:58:42 +0000
+++ src/daemon.vala	2012-07-02 22:47:28 +0000
@@ -999,7 +999,7 @@
       {
           try {
             unowned string home_dir = GLib.Environment.get_home_dir ();
-            Process.spawn_async (home_dir, args, null, SpawnFlags.SEARCH_PATH, null, null);
+            Process.spawn_async (home_dir, args, null, SpawnFlags.SEARCH_PATH + SpawnFlags.DO_NOT_REAP_CHILD, null, null);
           } catch (SpawnError e) {
             warning ("Failed to spawn software-center or direct URI activation '%s': %s",
                      uri, e.message);