pid rollover?

[Jim Rosenberg]

Our system is an Altos 2000 running Xenix System V.  The CPU is a 386, and the
C compiler produces 4 as sizeof(int).  However we seem to be hitting rollover
of pids at 32K, implying that the kernel must be using short as the type of a
pid -- at least internally.  I have two questions.  Why wouldn't the kernel use
a true int for a pid, preventing rollover until 2147483647 or so?  Surely this
isn't just because someone thought it would louse up the output format of ps??

As system administrator should I be concerned about letting the pids roll over?
We've had this happen several times with no apparent ill effects.  I'm not
concerned about the kernel -- it seems to know what to do when pids roll over.
But what about all those programs using mktemp() or $$ ?  Does anyone have any
horror stories about applications that behaved badly after pid rollover?
-- 
Jim Rosenberg                        pitt
Oglevee Computer Systems                 >--!amanue!oglvee!jr
151 Oglevee Lane                      cgh
Connellsville, PA 15425                                #include <disclaimer.h>