SPAWNVEG(3)

✨ SPAWNVEG(3) ✨

okay so bestie, we're talking about spawnveg from the Library Functions Manual — it's literally process spawn with process group and session control and it's giving main character energy for real 💅

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <ast.h>

int spawnveg(const char* command, char** argv, char** envv, pid_t pgid);

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so spwanveg (yes that's how it's spelled in the original, no I'm not fixing it, we respect the source 😭) combines fork(2), exec(2), setpgid(2) and setsid(2) into a single call. one call. iconic. periodt.

command, argv and envv are as in execve(2). and pgid is the vibe check for the new process group and session:

• <0 — The new process becomes a session leader. is called in the child context. (yes the sentence is missing its subject in the original, we're keeping it exactly as-is, don't come for me 🙈)
• 0 — The new process is in the callers process group.
• 1 — The new process becomes a process group leader.
• >1 — The new process joins the process group pgid.

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🎀 COMMENTS 🎀

It is possible to code all process creation (except for vfork(2) hack like in csh(1)) using spawnveg. lowkey obsessed with how much this one function can do 🫶

The proc(3) routines and ksh(1) do this on systems that don't support fork(2). and this makes porting to NT and Windows a snap: a simple iffe(1) probe provides a spawnveg implementation using the NT or Windows process primitives. like, literally a snap. no cap 🔥

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

fork(2), exec(2), setpgid(2), setsid(2), spawnve(2)

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and that's the whole page bestie, you ate that 💖 this was SPAWNVEG(3) from the Library Functions Manual, dated at the bottom with SPAWNVEG(3) — go forth and spawn responsibly 🌈✨