[Python-Dev] PEP 433: Add cloexec argument to functions creating file descriptors

Sun Jan 13 12:33:30 CET 2013

On Sun, Jan 13, 2013 at 9:15 PM, Antoine Pitrou <solipsis at pitrou.net> wrote:
>> It also means we're free to implement a mechanism that tries to close
>> all sensitive file descriptors in _PyOS_AfterFork.
>> Ouch! This actually shows that "noinherit" is a very bad name. The PEP
> is about closing fds after exec(), *not* after fork(). So "cloexec" is
> really the right, precise, non-ambiguous name here.

No, 'cloexec' is a terrible name, because, aside from the cryptic
opacity of it, it's also wrong on Windows, which doesn't have the
fork() vs exec() distinction.
Cheers,
Nick.
-- 
Nick Coghlan | ncoghlan at gmail.com | Brisbane, Australia