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

[Antoine Pitrou]

On Sun, 13 Jan 2013 21:33:30 +1000
Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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.

Just because Windows doesn't have the fork() vs exec() distinction
doesn't mean "cloexec" is a bad description of the flag: it describes
exactly what happens (the fd gets closed when executing an external
program).

As for the opacity, feel free to propose something better
("close_on_spawn", whatever). But I'm definitely and strongly -1
on "noinherit".

Regards

Antoine.