+
+@item What should happen if an @code{exec} fails midway through loading?
+
+@code{exec} should return -1 if the child process fails to load for
+any reason. This includes the case where the load fails part of the
+way through the process (e.g.@: where it runs out of memory in the
+@code{multi-oom} test). Therefore, the parent process cannot return
+from the @code{exec} system call until it is established whether the
+load was successful or not. The child must communicate this
+information to its parent using appropriate synchronization, such as a
+semaphore (@pxref{Semaphores}), to ensure that the information is
+communicated without race conditions.