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SubjectRe: Some questions about linux kernel.
On Wed, 15 Mar 2000, Alex Belits wrote:

> On Wed, 15 Mar 2000, James Sutherland wrote:
>
> > > > we can SIGTERM the process first. In the case of the Oracle server, it
> > > > should be able to use this to sync the database, close connections and
> > > > exit gracefully.
> > >
> > > All that without being able to allocate more memory?
> >
> > It's just closing files and sockets, flushing buffers etc. It should be
> > able to manage that without needing to increase memory usage at all.
>
> I am not sure about that -- Oracle has rather complex ideas about
> transactions, data consistency and transaction logs. Other
> "mission-critical" applications may be even more finicky about the state
> of the system when their shutdown procedures are running.

They should, however, be able to do something 'intelligent' when told "Oh
s**t - the box is dying. Parachutes, people!" Even if it is just a matter
of flushing buffers to disk, this would be an improvement on uncontrolled
death (as would happen with a power failure, for example) - which is a
circumstance they must be able to handle safely.

> > > > Later, I would like to add priorities (e.g. try to kill x, y and z first,
> > > > then kill all the non-root processes (or the non-dbuser processes, or
> > > > whatever), then kill the rest.)
> > > >
> > > > No strategy will ever be perfect, but this system is pretty good, IMO.
> > >
> > > Why not just make some means to set strategy from userspace? Say, init
> > > runs xdm through a wrapper that gives it an ability to set the
> > > survivability policy for its children, and xdm runs local X server with
> > > high "proprity to survive". When user logs in, Xsession runs with this
> > > ability lost, so mortal user won't be able to mess with this policy unless
> > > he runs some restrictive setuid wrapper for his programs (not unlike
> > > sudo), so some "important" programs can run as user yet will not be killed
> > > too soon. inetd runs with high "priority to survive" yet the policy is
> > > set so its children won't inherit it unless they are run through a
> > > wrapper. And to make things even more flexible, sysadmin or some
> > > "smart" daemon then can use something similar to renice(8) that will be
> > > able to change this policy for already running processes.
> >
> > That's what I suggested originally.
>
> And what is wrog with that? As I understand it, it shouldn't be hard to
> implement in kernel, and arguments about particular policies can be left
> to userspace developers.

Nothing. In fact, it looks like this is what will happen. Rik's patch will
remain as a "last-gasp" defence against otherwise terminal OOM problems,
with a less drastic "housekeeping" daemon to guard against routine
problems (exploding Netscapes etc.). Now we just need a mug^H^H^Hvolunteer
to write that :-)


James.


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