Using fork in Windows with Ruby

Question

When I call Kernel.fork() on Windows, I get this error:

!! Unexpected error while processing request: fork() function is unimplemented on this machine

Is there an alternative way to fork while on Windows?

Answer 1

Try spawn() - it's implemented for windows.

Answer 2

While the Windows OS does not support fork, the win32-process gem appears to support a substitute. Apparently there are some differences from the unix version though, see this question: fork with Ruby 1.8 and Windows