Trying to run a non-existing file in Linux results in a zombie process

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Assessment

Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Newbie friendliness
38/100
Issue type
Bug
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Stale
Tech stack
cpp
Domain
operating-systems

Research direction

Start by running the two linked Compiler Explorer examples on Linux with Boost 1.86 or 1.87, comparing execution of the existing and non-existing files. Trace the process-constructor path and exception handling to determine why the forked child is not reaped; done means the missing-file case no longer leaves a zombie while still throwing the expected exception.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

As can be seen in https://godbolt.org/z/4T7TMMTov, calling the process constructor on Linux (have not checked different launchers) asking it to execute a non-existing file results on a exception being thrown and the forked process never being reaped.

For comparison, https://godbolt.org/z/W94K31sGW uses an existing file and it works fine.

Those use Boost 1.86 since that's the latest available in Godbolt today, but I have reproduced the same issue on 1.87.

Dominant language
C++
Stars
145
Forks
151
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