[comp.sys.apollo] Failing fork

hanche@imf.unit.no (Harald Hanche-Olsen) (01/14/91)

Are there any reasons that a fork() could fail other than those listed
in the manual page?  The reason I am asking is some trouble we are
having with the X11R4 version of xdm, which frequently fails
(returning -1) in a fork() call after the user has logged out.  This
happens with less than 20 processes running, plenty of free disk space
on the root file system, and `ps' does not suggest that the process
has bloated to anything more than its proper size.  What's more,
experiments show that other processes fork with no problems, so we're
not running out of resources.  So I am left with the conjecture that
there are other conditions that could hinder a fork().  I just cannot
imagine what those conditions are.  Suggestions?

All this on a DN3000 running SR10.3.  No DM running, and all X11
software is release 4 (including /lib/x11lib).

- Harald Hanche-Olsen <hanche@imf.unit.no>
  Division of Mathematical Sciences
  The Norwegian Institute of Technology
  N-7034 Trondheim, NORWAY