Forking advice

Hi guys and girls,

I am working on a program that uses forking.

I understand that when u fork, the current process is cloned and the parent and child process start at the next line after the fork process.

So i want to make 2 child processes. I mean I want to spawn one child that will generate a random number and will return with that exit code and another child that does the same.

But i cant fork from inside the first fork rite cuz that would make the second child a child of the first child which is the child of the parent.

So i have to fork AFTER the first child exits rite?

so that the second is a child of the parent as well.

cant paste my code cuz its on a unix console but i will write it out.

Code:

// proper includes...

int main{
  int result1 =-1, int result2=-2;

  pid_t pid;

  // first child spawned
  pid = fork()

  if pid == 0
    result1 = player();
    exit(result1);

  pid = fork()

  if pid == 0
    result2 = player();
    exit(result2);

}

int player{
   srand(10);

   // returns 1 or 0
   int i= rand()%1
   return i;
   }

Am getting wierd numbers, i dont want a solution just guide me on how to properly use fork, exit, and wait

thank you very much

Another question:

look at this simple code

Code:

#include<stdio.h>
#include<sys/types.h>
#include<unistd.h>

int main(){
	int pid,status;
	switch (pid = fork()) {
		case 0:  /* child process */
			printf("Hello I am the child running :D, and my pid is: %d\n",getpid());
			exit(1);
			break;
		case -1: /* parent process -- fork() was unsuccessful, no child */
			printf("Fork failed!");
			break;
		default: /* parent process -- successful */
			printf("Hello I am the parent, the big boss and my pid is: %d\nI am waiting for my child to return...\n",getpid());
			pid_t rpid = wait(&status);		
			printf("We got a child returning with code: %i , and pid : %d !\n",status, rpid);
			break;
	}
}

i get output:

Code:

Hello I am the child running :D, and my pid is: 26860
Hello I am the parent, the big boss and my pid is: 26859
I am waiting for my child to return...
We got a child returning with code: 256 , and pid : 26860 !

Why is the value of status 256?
i sent an exit code of 1 ...

( cnat look up the api my man is busted on this system

Well when you paraphrase your code, there is no way to tell whether you've missed out some important step.
On the face of it, all 3 processes return the same status, given your use of rand() and srand()

Don't use exit, use return, then you can be sure of the return value. Here is an example

Code:

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) {
     pid_t pid[2];

     pid[0] = fork();
     if(pid[0] == 0) {
           srand(4);
           return rand();
     }
     else {
           pid[1] = fork();
           printf("%d returned %d.\n", wait(&status[0]), status[0]);
     }
     if(pid[1] == 0) {
           srand(5);
           return rand();
     }
     printf("%d returned %d.\n", wait(&status[1]), status[1]);
     return 0;
}

I believe that is right, slopped it together in a few seconds

> ( cnat look up the api my man is busted on this system
Fix it then!!!!

Then you would know about WEXITSTATUS(status) to get the child process exit status from the wait status.