Re: [PATCH v3] transport-helper, connect: use clean_on_exit to reap children on abnormal exit

From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: Mar 12, 2026, 20:40 UTC
Message-ID: <20260312204023.GB2552877@coredump.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <20260312195813.4006430-1-cshung@gmail.com>

On Thu, Mar 12, 2026 at 07:55:59PM +0000, Andrew Au wrote:

Show 5 quoted lines

> Set clean_on_exit and wait_after_clean on child_process structs in both
> transport-helper.c and connect.c so that the existing run-command
> cleanup infrastructure handles reaping on any exit path. This avoids
> rolling custom atexit handlers that call finish_command(), which could
> deadlock if the child is blocked waiting for the parent to close a pipe.

Ah, right, I forgot about wait_after_clean when I suggested clean_on_exit. Yes, you definitely want both here.

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> The clean_on_exit mechanism sends SIGTERM first, then waits, ensuring
> the child terminates promptly. It also handles signal-based exits, not
> just atexit.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Andrew Au <cshung@gmail.com>
> 
> Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

I don't know if we have established a pattern in the project for AI-assisted work (and whether it is worth marking at all, and if so, if co-author is the right way to do so). But if we are going to, usually the trailers would all be together, with no blank line in between.

>  connect.c          | 4 ++++
>  transport-helper.c | 2 ++
>  2 files changed, 6 insertions(+)

The changes here are all a trivial implementation of the idea. So if the idea is good (and I think it is), then the patch looks correct to me.

-Peff