waitPID - wait or check for a child process to terminate
PIDin NoHangFlag waitPID -> Status NormalExitFlag PIDout
-> 0
1. {(sleep 3) sysexec} spoon false waitPID
2. {(ls) sysexec} spoon false waitPID
Note the parent process' SLI-Prompt appearing AFTER execution of the
command finished.
This is different to the call "{(ls) sysexec} spoon" only.
3. 23 false waitPID
The waitPID function suspends execution of the calling process
until status information for the given child is available,
or until delivery of a signal whose action is either to
execute a signal-catching function or to terminate the
process. If status information is available prior to the call
to waitPID, it returns immediately.
The waitPID function returns the process ID of the child for
which status is being reported.
Zero is returned immediately, if the NoHangFlag is set
and no status is available.
Alternatives: Function waitPID_i_b (undocumented)
-> behaviour and synopsis are the same.
In : PIDin(integer): -1: Wait for any child process.
positive: Wait for the specific child whose
process ID is equal to PIDin.
( 0: -not supported-)
(less than -1: -not supported-)
NoHangFlag(boolean):
If true, causes waitPID function not to suspend execution
of the calling process if status is not immediately
available for any of the child processes specified by
PIDin. In this case, zero is returned as only result.
Out: PIDout(integer):
The process ID of the child for which status is being
reported.
NormalExitFlag(boolean):
True, if status is returned for a child that terminated
normally, i.e. by a call to exit() or by returning from
main(). In that case, the exit code is reported in the Status
argument (see below).
False, if status is returned for a child that terminated due
to a signal that was not caught. In that case, the number of
that signal is reported in the Status argument (see below).
Status(integer):
If NormalExitFlag is true, this reports the child's exit
code, i.e. the low-order eight bits of the status argument
that the child passed to exit(), or the value the child
process returned from main().
If NormalExitFlag is false, this reports the number of the
signal that caused the termination of the child process. Look
up this number in signaldict, to know what it means.
-
The features normally used only by the UNIX-shell-program
(such as the WUNTRACED-option) are currently not supported,
although values <=0 can be passed through PIDin.
See any documentation of POSIX-function waitpid().
Discription text is mainly taken from
Donald A. Lewine, "POSIX programmer's guide", O'Reilly&Associates,Inc.
R Kupper
Apr 13 1999
/var/www/debian/nest/nest-simulator-2.20.0/sli/processes.h