On Thu, 3 Sep 2015 18:24:51 +0100
Edward Bartolo <edbarx@???> wrote:

> I found that the created zombies are owned by root and the frontend
> does not run with root privileges. I think, this may be the reason.
>
> The reason why zombies are created is that we are effectively
> replacing backend by what execl calls. We may be able to solve the
> issue by allowing the backend to continue running when execl is used
> and at the end call wait() if that is possible.

Holy cow! Why does anything require execl()? As this whole escapade
goes to show, execl() has complication that is not without cost. I'm
also not sure why C is needed.

I'm thinking your back end could probably be a simple shellscript that
interacts with wpa_supplicant and its config file. I'll admit the
documentation for wpa_supplicant is ambiguous, contradictory and
pathologically incomplete, but I'm pretty sure nothing about this
problem domain requires execl(). Just have the back end running, and
have the front end communicate with it in a simple and well documented
manner of your design.

SteveT

Steve Litt
August 2015 featured book: Troubleshooting: Just the Facts
http://www.troubleshooters.com/tjust