The original exect(2) from BSD4.2 was enabling bit for tracing
(single-step mode) and calling execve(2). The purpose of it was to generate
a signal for a tracer once the application will change its image to a new
program.
This approach no longer works as:
- exect(2) traces (single-steps) libc and it requires hundreds or
thousands steps before entering a new image
- it's vax and x86 specific code
- this functionality has been moved to the kernel - once a process is
traced it will generate SIGTRAP with si_code TRAP_EXEC and route it to
its debugger
- the side effects and unportability make this interface unusable
- there are no known users of this interface
- it apparently never worked better since day0 of NetBSD ("day0 bug")
Users are requested to move to other execve(2) variants. Calling current
execve(2) as it is the most similar behavior to this one from BSD4.2.
Discussed several times on mailing lists and in PR/51700.
Add warning to exect(3) telling about marking this function obsolete.
This function is prepared to be removed in next libc major bump.
Sponsored by <The NetBSD Foundation>