[ILUG] Threads, fork etc

[allsop]

Hello all
I'm working on developing a network server program at the moment, and I'd
like to make it as stable and reliable as problem. So far, I've been
messing around with threads, forks etc. Basically what I want to do is
span a new thread to handle each new client connection. I'm using threads
to handle this part. The problem is that I further want each thread to
execute another seperate program, which the spawned thread can then
control using signals or some other IPC. So far I'm planning on doing this
using a fork from within the thread. The problem is that I'm a bit fuzzy
on the overheads etc associated with threads, forks etc.  So basically,
what are the problems with architecture outlined above, and is there a
better way of doing it?
Thanks all
Patrick