ptg10805159248 Process Control Chapter 8
mean that the race condition doesn’t exist; it simply means that we can’t see it on this
particular system.) The following actual output shows how the results can vary:
$./a.out
ooutput from child
utput from parent
$./a.out
ooutput from child
utput from parent
$./a.out
output from child
output from parent
We need to change the program in Figure8.12 to use theTELLandWAITfunctions. The
program in Figure8.13 does this. The lines preceded by a plus sign arenew lines.
#include "apue.h"
static void charatatime(char *);
int
main(void)
{
pid_t pid;
+TELL_WAIT();
+
if ((pid = fork()) < 0) {
err_sys("fork error");
}else if (pid == 0) {
+WAIT_PARENT(); /* parent goes first */
charatatime("output from child\n");
}else {
charatatime("output from parent\n");
+TELL_CHILD(pid);
}
exit(0);
}
static void
charatatime(char *str)
{
char *ptr;
int c;
setbuf(stdout, NULL); /* set unbuffered */
for (ptr = str; (c = *ptr++) != 0; )
putc(c, stdout);
}Figure 8.13 Modification of Figure8.12 to avoid race conditionWhen we run this program, the output is as we expect; there is no intermixing of output
from the two processes.