[Bug driver/18006] New: Please replace vfork() with fork()

["d dot yu dot bolkhovityanov at inp dot nsk dot su" <gcc-bugzilla@gcc.gnu.org>]

When built gcc-4.0 (20041010 snapshot), I discovered that GCC again uses vfork()
instead of regular fork().  This is a "bad thing" due to following reasons:

- vfork() is deprecated -- it was a BSD kludge from old no-MMU-days (a
politically-correct reason :-).

- At least in Linux, vfork()s can't be followed by strace/ltrace, which makes
debugging obscure situations MUCH harder.

Of course, one can say "so -- build your own copy with vfork() disabled" (BTW --
how? There is no "--enable-vfork/--disable-vfork".).

But even having an OPPORTUNITY for vfork() to be used is a danger -- someone
else can supply you a vfork'ed GCC, which is undebuggable.  For example, I've
spent many hours trying to find out why some cross-compiler for PPC fails (it
simply ignored the "-B" switch), while being able to strace it could give the
clue in a minute.

Interestingly, gcc-3.4.2, built in exactly the same way (../gcc-3.4.2/configure
--prefix=/tmp/gcc-3.4 --enable-languages=c,c++) does "the right thing" -- it
uses fork().

-- 
           Summary: Please replace vfork() with fork()
           Product: gcc
           Version: 4.0.0
            Status: UNCONFIRMED
          Severity: enhancement
          Priority: P2
         Component: driver
        AssignedTo: unassigned at gcc dot gnu dot org
        ReportedBy: d dot yu dot bolkhovityanov at inp dot nsk dot su
                CC: gcc-bugs at gcc dot gnu dot org


http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=18006