The merged exit closes stdout so the compiler reads EOF and learns the program
has finished. POSIX then hands descriptor 1 to the next thing that asks — a
socket, a module's object file — and the llc after that inherits it as its
stdout. /dev/null takes the slot back, and the EOF is unaffected because the
pipe's write end is genuinely gone.
Verified beyond the headless suite: sand.flan builds and runs merged under
Xvfb, one process with no children, and a game-draw typed in at the socket is
drawing frames a second later.
Joseph Ferano
1b39de32b0