C++ – CreateProcess such that child process is killed when parent is killed

ckernel32processwin32-processwinapi

Is there a way to call CreateProcess such that killing the parent process automatically kills the child process?

Edit
The solution is to create a job object, place both parent and child in the job object. Whent he parent is killed the child is killed. I got the code from here:
Kill child process when parent process is killed
Take note of @wilx's comment about inherited handles.

Best Answer

Using jobs as Neil says is IMHO the best way. You can make the child processes get killed when the job owning process dies by setting JOB_OBJECT_LIMIT_KILL_ON_JOB_CLOSE on the job object using SetInformationJobObject(). The job object handle will be closed when your parent process exits/dies. For this to work it is essential that the job handle is not inherited by the child processes. If you want to track also the grand-child processes then you will have to create your child processes suspended, add them to your job object and only then let them run.

Related Solutions

Java – How to cause a child process to exit when the parent does

While you cannot protect against a hard abort (e.g. SIGKILL on Unix), you can protect against other signals that cause your parent process to shut down (e.g. SIGINT) and clean up your child process. You can accomplish this through use of shutdown hooks: see Runtime#addShutdownHook, as well as a related SO question here.

Your code might look something like this:

String[] command;
final Process childProcess = new ProcessBuilder(command).start();

Thread closeChildThread = new Thread() {
    public void run() {
        childProcess.destroy();
    }
};

Runtime.getRuntime().addShutdownHook(closeChildThread);

Linux – How to make child process die after parent exits

Child can ask kernel to deliver SIGHUP (or other signal) when parent dies by specifying option PR_SET_PDEATHSIG in prctl() syscall like this:

prctl(PR_SET_PDEATHSIG, SIGHUP);

See man 2 prctl for details.

Edit: This is Linux-only

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Java – How to cause a child process to exit when the parent does

Linux – How to make child process die after parent exits

Related Topic