From: Brian Candler <B.Candler@...>
Date: 2004-09-09T22:17:35+09:00
Subject: Threads, serial ports and Linux don't mix

I raised an issue on ruby-talk which relates to the core engine, but nobody
commented on it there:

http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/111331
http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/111330

In summary: trying to write data to a serial port hangs if you do it within
a 'Thread.new' block, but works otherwise. It happens under Linux (RH9.0,
kernel 2.4.20-8), but not FreeBSD 5.2.1-RELEASE. There is sample code to
reproduce the problem at the above links.

This applies to both Ruby-1.8.1 and Ruby-1.8.2-preview2. Does anyone have an
explanation of the problem, and/or whether a workaround is possible?

Thanks,

Brian Candler.