Re: FEATURE REQUEST : shell option to automatically terminate child processes on parent death

[Saint Michael]

I support this feature.


On Sat, Nov 11, 2023, 11:29 AM Corto Beau <corto.beau@laposte.net> wrote:

> Configuration Information [Automatically generated, do not change]:
> Machine: x86_64
> OS: linux-gnu
> Compiler: gcc
> Compilation CFLAGS: -g -O2
> uname output: Linux zinc 6.6.1-arch1-1 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Wed, 08
> Nov 2023 16:05:38 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux
> Machine Type: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
>
> Bash Version: 5.2 Patch
> Level: 21
> Release Status: release
>
> Description:
> Hi,
>
> I would like to suggest a new shell option to ensure child processes are
> automatically killed when the parent dies.
>
> Right now, it's already possible to emulate this feature by setting a
> trap to kill all child processes on exit (trap "kill 0" EXIT), but
> obviously it doesn't work if the process is terminated by a signal that
> cannot be caught (like SIGKILL).
>
> On Linux, it can be done by setting the PR_SET_PDEATHSIG flag to
> propagate the parent termination signal to the child, regardless of
> whether the signal can be caught or not.
>
> The rationale for this feature is that scripts spawning background
> processes to listen to various events (udev events, window manager
> events, etc) often leave orphan processes behind when terminated
> forcefully.
>
> I've attached a proof-of-concept patch.