vfork - suspends the calling process or the calling thread?

Hi,

The man page for vfork sayas : "vfork - create a child process and block parent".
Down below in the description "vfork() differs from fork(2) in that the calling thread is suspended"

In most documentation it says "suspend the process"

So, which is true ? Does the answer depend on Linux version ?

Thanks
zmau

For this case, the words "suspend" and "block" mean the exact same thing. Which is to say that when using vfork() the parent process is suspended, or blocked, awaiting a termination signal from the newly created child process.

Rather than worry about Linux version you can pay attention to the part in the manual page where it describes what the command conforms to:

CONFORMING TO 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001. POSIX.1-2008 removes the specification of vfork()...

Originally Posted by rtmistler For this case, the words "suspend" and "block" mean the exact same thing. Which is to say that when using vfork() the parent process is suspended, or blocked, awaiting a termination signal from the newly created child process.

Thanks
Maybe I did not present the question correctly.
I was not asking about the words "suspend" VS. "block"
I was asking about "process" VS. "Thread". The question is "Who gets blocked/suspended ? The process OR the thread ?".

zmau

Originally Posted by zmau Thanks Maybe I did not present the question correctly. I was not asking about the words "suspend" VS. "block" I was asking about "process" VS. "Thread". The question is "Who gets blocked/suspended ? The process OR the thread ?". zmau

The parent who invoked vfork(), that could be either a thread or a process. And thread is just a "light" process by the way.