使用popen遭遇ENOMEM (Cannot allocate memory)的问题

遇到一个popen遭遇ENOMEM (Cannot allocate memory)的问题，记录一下


我需要在程序里获取标准输出的内容，于是在一个模块里使用了popen这个函数，本来一直运行着都没，但是最近这个模块老是出问题，最后定位到是popen调用出错。返回的errno是ENOMEM (Cannot allocate memory)，查看popen的文档并没有ENOMEM 相关的说明，到网上搜索，有人说popen无非是pipe+fork+execel的一个函数，可以跟一下看看是哪个函数的问题。
使用
strace -o app.starce ./app
跟进去看程序的调用信息，找到了对应的出错点
pipe2([17, 18], O_CLOEXEC)              = 0
clone(child_stack=0, flags=CLONE_CHILD_CLEARTID|CLONE_CHILD_SETTID|SIGCHLD, child_tidptr=0x7f084002aab0) = -1 ENOMEM (Cannot allocate memory)
close(18)                               = 0
close(17)  
可见，实际是clone函数出错了，man clone,确实有
ENOMEM Cannot  allocate  sufficient memory to allocate a task structure for the child, or to copy those parts of the caller's context that need to be copied.
写一个使用了fork的小程序，使用strace查看，
13097 getrlimit(RLIMIT_STACK, {rlim_cur=512*1024, rlim_max=512*1024}) = 0
13097 clone(child_stack=0, flags=CLONE_CHILD_CLEARTID|CLONE_CHILD_SETTID|SIGCHLD, child_tidptr=0x7feed3ccf9f0) = 13098
13097 fstat(1, {st_mode=S_IFCHR|0620, st_rdev=makedev(136, 10), ...}) = 0
13097 mmap(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0 <unfinished ...>
的确，fork函数调用了clone的。
我们都知道，linux使用fork创建子进程会copy父进程的堆，栈，静态存储区，文件描述符等等，那么就有可能父进程内存使用过多，导致子进程无法再从剩余的内存上分配内存。

同样使用system也有
rt_sigprocmask(SIG_BLOCK, [CHLD], [], 8) = 0
clone(child_stack=0, flags=CLONE_PARENT_SETTID|SIGCHLD, parent_tidptr=0x7fffed9206f8) = 32710

wait4(32710, [{WIFEXITED(s) && WEXITSTATUS(s) == 0}], 0, NULL) = 32710

那么使用vfork呢
vfork()                           = 13123
fstat(1, {st_mode=S_IFCHR|0620, st_rdev=makedev(136, 10), ...}) = 0
fstat(1,  <unfinished ...>
mmap(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0 <unfinished ...>
可将，用vfork就并没有调用clone

于是自己写了一个函数来代替popen

//#ifdef  OPEN_MAX
//static long openmax = OPEN_MAX;
//#else
static long openmax = 0;
//#endif
 
/*
 * If OPEN_MAX is indeterminate, we're not
 * guaranteed that this is adequate.
 */
#define OPEN_MAX_GUESS 1024
 
long open_max(void)
{
    if (openmax == 0) {      /* first time through */
        errno = 0;
        if ((openmax = sysconf(_SC_OPEN_MAX)) < 0) {
           if (errno == 0)
               openmax = OPEN_MAX_GUESS;    /* it's indeterminate */
           else
               printf("sysconf error for _SC_OPEN_MAX");
        }
    }
 
    return(openmax);
}

static pid_t    *childpid = NULL;  /* ptr to array allocated at run-time */
static int      maxfd;  /* from our open_max(), {Prog openmax} */

FILE *vpopen(const char* cmdstring, const char *type)
{
	int pfd[2];
	FILE *fp;
	pid_t	pid;

	if((type[0]!='r' && type[0]!='w')||type[1]!=0)
	{
		errno = EINVAL;
		return(NULL);
	}

    if (childpid == NULL) {     /* first time through */  
                /* allocate zeroed out array for child pids */  
        maxfd = open_max();  
        if ( (childpid = (pid_t *)calloc(maxfd, sizeof(pid_t))) == NULL)  
            return(NULL);  
    }

	if(pipe(pfd)!=0)
	{
		return NULL;
	}
	
	if((pid = vfork())<0)
	{
		return(NULL);   /* errno set by fork() */  
	}
	else if (pid == 0) {	/* child */
		if (*type == 'r')
		{
			close(pfd[0]);  
            if (pfd[1] != STDOUT_FILENO) {  
                dup2(pfd[1], STDOUT_FILENO);  
                close(pfd[1]);  
            } 			
		}
		else
		{
            close(pfd[1]);  
            if (pfd[0] != STDIN_FILENO) {  
                dup2(pfd[0], STDIN_FILENO);  
                close(pfd[0]);  
            }  			
		}

		/* close all descriptors in childpid[] */  
		for (int i = 0; i < maxfd; i++)  
		if (childpid[ i ] > 0)	
			close(i);  

        execl("/bin/sh", "sh", "-c", cmdstring, (char *) 0);  
        _exit(127);		
	}

    if (*type == 'r') {  
        close(pfd[1]);  
        if ( (fp = fdopen(pfd[0], type)) == NULL)  
            return(NULL);  
    } else {  
        close(pfd[0]);  
        if ( (fp = fdopen(pfd[1], type)) == NULL)  
            return(NULL);  
    }

    childpid[fileno(fp)] = pid; /* remember child pid for this fd */  
    return(fp);  	
}


int vpclose(FILE *fp)
{
    int     fd, stat;  
    pid_t   pid;  
  
    if (childpid == NULL)  
        return(-1);     /* popen() has never been called */  
  
    fd = fileno(fp);  
    if ( (pid = childpid[fd]) == 0)  
        return(-1);     /* fp wasn't opened by popen() */  
  
    childpid[fd] = 0;  
    if (fclose(fp) == EOF)  
        return(-1);  
  
    while (waitpid(pid, &stat, 0) < 0)  
        if (errno != EINTR)  
            return(-1); /* error other than EINTR from waitpid() */  
  
    return(stat);   /* return child's termination status */  

}

//我一度怀疑是程序使用的内存多，导致fork时无法给子进程分配内存
//但是文档上都说，fork时并非马上分配，只有实际使用到时才真正分配。

//如果这样的话，那出现ENOMEM 的错误是为什么呢？不解