Re: [Libguestfs] Using guestfs.kill_subprocess()

Hey Rich, In the past I know you have mentioned that using guestfs.kill_subprocess() isn't strictly necessary after you are finished using libguestfs. I believe you said that in the python bindings, that step would happen automatically when the object goes out of scope and the __del__ method is called. However, since it never seemed to harm anything and I wanted to be extra safe, I always called guestfs.kill_subprocess() in Oz, without apparent harm.

However, Richard Su has been investigating an issue where guestfs.kill_subprocess() actually does cause harm. I believe the situation is that running Oz (and hence libguestfs) simultaneously from two threads in the same process causes the entire process to hang. If we remove the guestfs.kill_subprocess(), the problem goes away. rwsu, can you please fill in a bit more detail here, as I'm not intimately familiar with the issue? Things like host OS, libguestfs version, etc etc would be helpful. Also confirmation that the problem is indeed in the multi-threaded environment of the image factory like I think it is. rjones, do you have any ideas here? I'm going to merge rwsu's patch to remove the call to kill_subprocess(), but I thought it would be worth a little more digging into why it was happening.