Summary

Add two methods to the std::os::unix::process::CommandExt trait to provide more control over how processes are spawned on Unix, specifically:

fn exec(&mut self) -> io::Error;
fn before_exec<F>(&mut self, f: F) -> &mut Self
    where F: FnOnce() -> io::Result<()> + Send + Sync + 'static;

Motivation

Although the standard library’s implementation of spawning processes on Unix is relatively complex, it unfortunately doesn’t provide the same flexibility as calling fork and exec manually. For example, these sorts of use cases are not possible with the Command API:

  • The exec function cannot be called without fork. It’s often useful on Unix in doing this to avoid spawning processes or improve debuggability if the pre-exec code was some form of shim.
  • Execute other flavorful functions between the fork/exec if necessary. For example some proposed extensions to the standard library are dealing with the controlling tty or dealing with session leaders. In theory any sort of arbitrary code can be run between these two syscalls, and it may not always be the case the standard library can provide a suitable abstraction.

Note that neither of these pieces of functionality are possible on Windows as there is no equivalent of the fork or exec syscalls in the standard APIs, so these are specifically proposed as methods on the Unix extension trait.

Detailed design

The following two methods will be added to the std::os::unix::process::CommandExt trait:

/// Performs all the required setup by this `Command`, followed by calling the
/// `execvp` syscall.
///
/// On success this function will not return, and otherwise it will return an
/// error indicating why the exec (or another part of the setup of the
/// `Command`) failed.
///
/// Note that the process may be in a "broken state" if this function returns in
/// error. For example the working directory, environment variables, signal
/// handling settings, various user/group information, or aspects of stdio
/// file descriptors may have changed. If a "transactional spawn" is required to
/// gracefully handle errors it is recommended to use the cross-platform `spawn`
/// instead.
fn exec(&mut self) -> io::Error;

/// Schedules a closure to be run just before the `exec` function is invoked.
///
/// This closure will be run in the context of the child process after the
/// `fork` and other aspects such as the stdio file descriptors and working
/// directory have successfully been changed. Note that this is often a very
/// constrained environment where normal operations like `malloc` or acquiring a
/// mutex are not guaranteed to work (due to other threads perhaps still running
/// when the `fork` was run).
///
/// The closure is allowed to return an I/O error whose OS error code will be
/// communicated back to the parent and returned as an error from when the spawn
/// was requested.
///
/// Multiple closures can be registered and they will be called in order of
/// their registration. If a closure returns `Err` then no further closures will
/// be called and the spawn operation will immediately return with a failure.
fn before_exec<F>(&mut self, f: F) -> &mut Self
    where F: FnOnce() -> io::Result<()> + Send + Sync + 'static;

The exec function is relatively straightforward as basically the entire spawn operation minus the fork. The stdio handles will be inherited by default if not otherwise configured. Note that a configuration of piped will likely just end up with a broken half of a pipe on one of the file descriptors.

The before_exec function has extra-restrictive bounds to preserve the same qualities that the Command type has (notably Send, Sync, and 'static). This also happens after all other configuration has happened to ensure that libraries can take advantage of the other operations on Command without having to reimplement them manually in some circumstances.

Drawbacks

This change is possible to be a breaking change to Command as it will no longer implement all marker traits by default (due to it containing closure trait objects). While the common marker traits are handled here, it’s possible that there are some traits in the wild in use which this could break.

Much of the functionality which may initially get funneled through before_exec may actually be best implemented as functions in the standard library itself. It’s likely that many operations are well known across unixes and aren’t niche enough to stay outside the standard library.

Alternatives

Instead of souping up Command the type could instead provide accessors to all of the configuration that it contains. This would enable this sort of functionality to be built on crates.io first instead of requiring it to be built into the standard library to start out with. Note that this may want to end up in the standard library regardless, however.

Unresolved questions

  • Is it appropriate to run callbacks just before the exec? Should they instead be run before any standard configuration like stdio has run?
  • Is it possible to provide “transactional semantics” to the exec function such that it is safe to recover from? Perhaps it’s worthwhile to provide partial transactional semantics in the form of “this can be recovered from so long as all stdio is inherited”.