Re: Removing an executable while it runs

[Mike Fedyk <mfedyk@matchmail.com>]

On Wed, Dec 05, 2001 at 05:15:52PM +0000, Petr Vandrovec wrote:
> On  5 Dec 01 at 11:00, Cyrille Beraud wrote:
> 
> > I would like to remove an executable from the file-system while it is 
> > running and
> > get all the blocks back immediately, not after the end of the program.
> > Is this possible ?
> 
> No. Binary runs from these blocks. Maybe you can force it to run from
> swap by modifying these pages through ptrace interface, but it is
> not supported. Just kill the app if you need these blocks.
> 
> >  From what I understand, the inode is not released until the program 
> > ends. Do all the file-systems behave the same way ?
> 
> No. Some will refuse to unlink running app (or another opened file).
> Some will unlink it immediately, and app then dies when it needs
> page-in something. Some works as POSIX mandates.
> 

POSIX behaviour would be in ext[23], reiserfs, xfs, (and probably ffs,
ntfs).  Can someone verify which FSes have what behaviour?

I'd guess that vfat (fat16/28--err, 32), nfs, and hfs would delete
immediately.

mf