Is System V.4 fork reliable?

[Peter da Silva]

Isn't the problem that EAGAIN is being overloaded for two purposes: out
of process table space (likely long-term on the time-scale programs
operate, and should be an error *for most programs*) and out of memory
(likely short term, so you should back off and try again)? Since only the
kernel can distinguish these two cases, it should be the one to implement
the retry (like, if fork failed because it couldn't get the buffer don't
drop all the way to system mode: allocate a block and when you get it then
you redo the fork... with the allocated block at hand so it can't fail).
-- 
Peter da Silva.   `-_-'
+1 713 274 5180.   'U`
<peter at ficc.ferranti.com>