% man baby 
 
 
baby(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    baby(1) 
 
 
 
NAME 
     baby - create new process from two parents 
 
SYNOPSIS 
     baby -sex m | f [ -name name ] 
 
DESCRIPTION 
     Baby is initiated when  one  parent  process  polls  another 
     server  process  through a socket connection in the BSD ver- 
     sion or through pipes in the System V implementation.   Baby 
     runs  at low priority for approximately forty weeks and then 
     terminates with a heavy system load.  Most  systems  require 
     constant  monitoring  when  baby reaches its final stages of 
     execution. 
 
     Older implentations of baby did not require both  initiating 
     processes to be present at the time of completion.  In those 
     versions the initiating process which was  not  present  was 
     awakened  and  notified  of the results upon completion.  It 
     has since been determined that the presence of  both  parent 
     processes result in a generally lower system load at comple- 
     tion, and thus current versions of baby expect  both  parent 
     processes to be active during the final stages. 
 
     Successful completion of baby results in  the  creation  and 
     naming  of  a  new process.  Parent processes then broadcast 
     messages to all other processes, local and remote, informing 
     them of their new status. 
 
OPTIONS 
     -sex define the gender of the created process 
 
     -name 
          assign the name name to the new process 
 
EXAMPLES 
     baby -sex f -name Jacqueline 
 
          Completed successfully on July  9,  1992 at 9:11pm. 
          Jacqueline's vital  statistics:  8  pounds 3 oz, 20 
          inches, long dark hair.  The parent process, Kim 
          Dunbar, is  reportedly doing fine. 
 
SEE ALSO 
     cigar(6), dump(5), cry(3). 
 
BUGS 
     Despite its complexity, baby only knows one signal, SIGCHLD, 
     (or SIGCLD in the System V implementation), which it uses to 
     contact the parent processes.  One or both parent  processes 
     must then inspect the baby process to determine the cause of 
     the signal. 
 
 
 
Sun Release 4.1     Last change: July 6, 1991                   1 
 
 
 
 
baby(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    baby(1) 
 
 
 
     The sleep command may not work as expected on either  parent 
     process  for  some  time  afterward, as each new instance of 
     baby sends intermittent  signals  to  the  parent  processes 
     which must be handled by the parents immediately. 
 
     A baby process will frequently dump core,  requiring  either 
     or both parent processes to clean up after it. 
 
     Despite the reams of available documentation on invoking and 
     maintaining baby, most parent processes are overwhelmed. 
 
AUTHORS 
     From a man page by Joe Beck, .