From: Martin aus Chemnitz <MartinAusChemnitz@...>
Date: 2005-05-24T14:40:17+09:00
Subject: Killing a Process started with Kernel.system

Hi!

I know, this question was asked a dozen times, but I can't believe that 
Ruby does not offer a suitable solution. I therefore write this posting 
more in the spirit of an urgent feature request.

Under Windows, I want to start an external program and kill it on 
exitting my Ruby script.

begin
   $t = Thread.new { system("everlasting") }
   ...
ensure
   $t.kill
end

does not stop the everlasting program, it stops $t, not its child 
processes. Such a command is urgently needed!

Yukihiro Matsumoto writes in 
<1052988371.738185.28868.nullmailer@picachu.netlab.jp>:
> If you want to kill child processes when the thread is down,
> 
>   th = Thread.new{
>      Thread.current[:children] = []
>      begin
>        ... add child processes to Thread.current[:children]
>      ensure
>        Process.kill("TERM", *Thread.current[:children])
>      end
>   } 
but I think I can't get the PID of a system call either.

I would be glad if such a feature could be implemented. (Or, of course, 
if anyone can tell me suitable solution.)

Martin