% man baby

The Loony Bin ( loonies@bloodaxe.demon.co.uk )
Sun, 5 May 1996 12:05:03 +0100


Hiya folks...

Sometimes I really wonder about the people who write these things...see
for yourselves...

Wishes & Dreams...

- ANDREA
        xx
-- 
************<andrea@bloodaxe.demon.co.uk>************
******************<ajc6@ukc.ac.uk>*******************
***                                               ***
***                THE LOONY BIN                  ***
***          loonies@bloodaxe.demon.co.uk         ***
***                                               ***
******************Internet Goddess*******************
*********************ANDROMEDA***********************

  ------- Forwarded message follows -------

% man baby


baby(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    baby(1)



NAME
     baby - create new process from two parents

SYNOPSIS
     baby -sex m | f [ -name name ]

DESCRIPTION
     Baby is initiated when  one  parent  process  polls  another
     server  process  through a socket connection in the BSD ver-
     sion or through pipes in the System V implementation.   Baby
     runs  at low priority for approximately forty weeks and then
     terminates with a heavy system load.  Most  systems  require
     constant  monitoring  when  baby reaches its final stages of
     execution.

     Older implentations of baby did not require both  initiating
     processes to be present at the time of completion.  In those
     versions the initiating process which was  not  present  was
     awakened  and  notified  of the results upon completion.  It
     has since been determined that the presence of  both  parent
     processes result in a generally lower system load at comple-
     tion, and thus current versions of baby expect  both  parent
     processes to be active during the final stages.

     Successful completion of baby results in  the  creation  and
     naming  of  a  new process.  Parent processes then broadcast
     messages to all other processes, local and remote, informing
     them of their new status.

OPTIONS
     -sex define the gender of the created process

     -name
          assign the name name to the new process

EXAMPLES
     baby -sex f -name Jacqueline

          Completed successfully on July  9,  1992 at 9:11pm.
          Jacqueline's vital  statistics:  8  pounds 3 oz, 20
          inches, long dark hair.  The parent process, Kim
          Dunbar, is  reportedly doing fine.

SEE ALSO
     cigar(6), dump(5), cry(3).

BUGS
     Despite its complexity, baby only knows one signal, SIGCHLD,
     (or SIGCLD in the System V implementation), which it uses to
     contact the parent processes.  One or both parent  processes
     must then inspect the baby process to determine the cause of
     the signal.



Sun Release 4.1     Last change: July 6, 1991                   1




baby(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    baby(1)



     The sleep command may not work as expected on either  parent
     process  for  some  time  afterward, as each new instance of
     baby sends intermittent  signals  to  the  parent  processes
     which must be handled by the parents immediately.

     A baby process will frequently dump core,  requiring  either
     or both parent processes to clean up after it.

     Despite the reams of available documentation on invoking and
     maintaining baby, most parent processes are overwhelmed.

AUTHORS
     From a man page by Joe Beck, <beck@cs.ualberta.ca>.