Messages in this thread | | | Date | Sat, 19 Jun 1999 01:35:24 -0400 | From | Jordan Mendelson <> | Subject | Re: Binary Kernel Patching - Upgrading without a reboot |
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> On Fri, 18 Jun 1999, Jordan Mendelson wrote: > > > > I know a while back there was talk of a method of upgrading your > > kernel for things like security holes, new features, etc using a > > binary method similar to the way we use insmod to load kernel modules. > > > > Does anyone know what happened to all the plans that were made? It > > sure would be nice not to have to reboot to upgrade my kernels. > > > > You know, I don't know a whole lot about the internals of an operating > system... but I do believe that you have to be crazy to think that you can > change the *core* of an OS and not reboot it... Think about it. You can't > do that with a user-level program, the exact reason escapes my mind now, > but it has to do with how the memory is mapped during execution.
I was thinking more on the lines of small patches. For example, HP/UX has the ability to use it's kernel module system to make binary patches to the kernel itself while it is running. You could, for instance, patch a bug in the scheduler without requiring a reboot. Of course, this is partially possible today with linux if the peice you want to upgrade is compiled as a module already.
Jordan
-- Jordan Mendelson : http://jordy.wserv.com Web Services, Inc. : http://www.wserv.com
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