From: Simon Perreault nomis80@lqt.ca

Sure, theoretically it would be possible, but how would you restart this one? [nomis80@poste10-153 ~]$ sudo lsof | grep libc | grep init init 1 root mem REG 253,0 1521500 999437 /lib/tls/libc-2.3.5.so

I need to verify the post-install script for the glibc RPM, but I believe it SIGHUPs the process -- and SIGHUP tells GLibC to reload itself for all new calls from any new process, while leaving the old code available for running processes.

Building a tree of service calls and dependencies is the way to figure out what is using what -- even if indirectly. lsof does a fantastic job of this with the right option combinations (I need to look at my command history).

Remember, UNIX experience is everything, and that means if I don't know, I get out a test system and throw something like a SIGHUP at it and see what happens. ;->

The lack of using UNIX-like signals in NT is what really makes me dislike NT. Sure, there are lots of UNIX libraries/services that don't always handle every signal -- and many just use SIGHUP as a hard restart. But many of the critical ones do. The majority of even Microsoft's own core libraries are completely ignorant of NT, as they were written for "Chicago."

Get to know your UNIX/Linux platform. It's the best way to document procedures that you may need to have in a situation. One I regularly document is how SIGHUP affects different libraries/services.

-- Bryan J. Smith mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org