Re: git 0.99.7b doesn't build on Cygwin

[Davide Libenzi <davidel@xmailserver.org>]

On Fri, 23 Sep 2005, Linus Torvalds wrote:

> But looking at send_pack() or fetch_pack(), for example, they are both
> _very_ traditional fork()+exec() calls, with just a few close() calls in
> between.
>
> Looking a bit closer at the diff() usage, I actually think that we could
> move the fork() closer to the exec - we'd just have to move it _into_ all
> the different cases (ie you'd have two different fork() calls: one for
> the "builtin" case, one for the external pgm case, but then the child in
> both cases would be very simple).
>
> Oh. Actually, I wonder if we could mke them "vfork()" calls. Does anybody
> know if cygwin has an easier time with vfork() + eventual exec? That
> _should_ map better to a non-UNIX process model, so maybe we could do it
> that way?

If you have only to run diff/patch, just use the native Win32 CreateProcess().
You abstract that on a git_exec(), and you use fork/exec on Unix and 
CreateProcess() on Winblows. If fork() is slow on Cygwin, fork+exec is 
pathetic. They do all that work to give you a fork(), and you throw it 
away with an exec().


- Davide