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It points out that "1304 Ubuntu packages (7.2% of the total) calling fork, compared to only 41 uses of the more modern posix_spawn()".

In section 7 it suggests "We should therefore strongly discourage the use of fork in new code, and seek to remove it from existing apps."

Is anyone here going to help work on changing those 1304 packages?

I have already over-volunteered for thankless FOSS tasks like this, so I know it won't be me.



There are things that don't fit the posix_spawn limitations, especially with fd or capability manipulation.


Yes, certainly. The paper covers many of those limitations.

The goal is not "remove", but "seek to remove". The relevant definition of "seek" here is "to make an attempt" says https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/seek .

How many of those 1304 Ubuntu packages require fork()? Are there benefits to replacing (say) 1283 of them with posix_spawn()?


Yes, there are benefits to using posix_spawn: It's faster. See Figure 1.


How many of those packages would be improved with a faster spawn mechanism? Who is going to investigate each one? How will they convince upstream to change well-tested code?




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