From: sandmann AT clio DOT rice DOT edu (Charles Sandmann)
Message-Id: <9709091620.AA16578@clio.rice.edu>
Subject: Re: Open handles in nested programs
To: eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il (Eli Zaretskii)
Date: Tue, 9 Sep 1997 11:20:43 -0600 (CDT)
Cc: dj AT delorie DOT com, djgpp-workers AT delorie DOT com
In-Reply-To: <Pine.SUN.3.91.970909171824.7828A-100000@is> from "Eli Zaretskii" at Sep 9, 97 05:30:30 pm
Content-Type: text
Precedence: bulk

> One way to correct this is to add a call to the DOS function that 
> enlarges the handle table to the stub, before it tries to open the .exe.  

Yuk.  Complicating the stub, or the memory layout, is the last thing we
need.  There are alternate stubs for compression/pmode/etc which need to
be fixed.  Instead fix the problem where it originates ...

> Another alternative would be to let libc allocate handles without the 
> inherit bit, or to have it only set the inherit bit for the first 16 or 
> so handles.  I doubt that any program relies on inheriting a large number 
> of handles from its parent, so this should not break anything, although 
> such a risk exists.

This is the better solution.  Make no inherit the default.  If anyone can
find an app which needs the old behavior, a switch someplace to restore the 
old behavior could be added.