Re: Realloc is blocking execution

[Felipe Sateler <fsateler@gmail.com>]

On Wed, 2009-10-14 at 01:40 +0200, Mats Erik Andersson wrote:
> Dear Mentors,
> 
> in my efforts to reintroduce the package windowlab-1.37,
> I am facing the unexpected fact that realloc() is
> repeatedly blocking execution, when I compile the
> package on a Debian Lenny system. This blocking
> does not happen in Debian Etch, nor in OpenBSD,
> nor FreeBSD. 
> 
> After getting the upstream author to accept my
> patches for the old package windowlab-1.34, it
> is only this issue with realloc() that prevents
> me from submitting the package to mentors.debian.net.
> 
> Is this unavoidable fact that realloc() blocks execution
> a known issue with gcc-4.3.2 or glibc-2.7?
> Personally, I was under the impression that
> malloc/realloc never should block execution,
> but would instead return NULL. That Etch and
> Lenny behave oppositely disturbs me very much.

I've always assumed that malloc (and thus realloc) can sleep. Why is it
so important to not sleep?


-- 
Saludos,
Felipe Sateler