threadprocs

Experimental thread-like processes, multiple executables in one address space

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2Mentions

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51GitHub stars

REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

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What it is

Experimental thread-like processes, multiple executables in one address space

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use has been verified yet.

What people are saying

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This week on Hacker News

Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 1:49:46 PM UTC.

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Mentions over time

HN mentions by hour2 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2026-03-23 16:08:01 UTC to 2026-03-23 17:43:06 UTC.

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

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Period	Start (UTC)	End (exclusive, UTC)	Mentions	Submissions	Comments
Mar 23, 16:00	2026-03-23 16:00:00 UTC	2026-03-23 17:00:00 UTC	1	1	0
Mar 23, 17:00	2026-03-23 17:00:00 UTC	2026-03-23 18:00:00 UTC	1	0	1

What Hacker News says

2 sources

otterley·Mar 23, 2026

The code uses Linux's clone3() syscall under the hood: see https://github.com/jer-irl/threadprocs/blob/main/docs/02-imp... The interesting thing is that it's loading existing binaries and executing them in a different way than usual. I think it's pretty clever (even if unsafe, as you mentioned). This is a splendid example of a "hack" and I wish HN had more of these!

In Show HN: Threadprocs – executables sharing one address space (0-copy pointers)

jer-irl·Mar 23, 2026Submission

Show HN: Threadprocs – executables sharing one address space (0-copy pointers)

This project launches multiple independent programs into a single shared virtual address space, while still behaving like separate processes (independent binaries, globals, and lifetimes). When threadprocs share their address space, pointers are valid across them with no code changes for well-behaved Linux binaries. Unlike threads, each threadproc is a standalone and semi-isolated process. Unlike dlopen-based plugin systems, threadprocs run traditional executables with a `main()` function. Unlike POSIX processes, pointers remain valid across threadprocs because they share the same address space. This means that idiomatic pointer-based data structures like `std::string` or `std::unordered_map` can be passed between threadprocs and accessed directly (with the usual data race considerations). This accomplishes a programming model somewher

Read the rest

e between pthreads and multi-process shared memory IPC. The implementation relies on directing ASLR and virtual address layout at load time and implementing a user-space analogue of `exec()`, as well as careful manipulation of threadproc file descriptors, signals, etc. It is implemented entirely in unprivileged user space code: <https://github.com/jer-irl/threadprocs/blob/main/docs/02-imp...>. There is a simple demo demonstrating “cross-threadproc” memory dereferencing at <https://github.com/jer-irl/threadprocs/tree/main?tab=readme-...>, including a high-level diagram. This is relevant to systems of multiple processes with shared memory (often ring buffers or flat tables). These designs often require serialization or copying, and tend away from idiomatic C++ or Rust data structures. Pointer-based data structures cannot be passed directly. There are significant limitations and edge cases, and it’s not clear this is a practical model, but the project explores a way to relax traditional process memory boundaries while still structuring a system as independently launched components.

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