Messages in this thread |  | | From | Jesse Pollard <> | Subject | Re: syslog() blocks on glibc 2.1.3 with kernel 2.2.x | Date | Sun, 29 Oct 2000 10:35:27 -0600 |
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On Sun, 29 Oct 2000, Stephen Harris wrote: >Horst von Brand wrote: > >> > > If you send SIGSTOP to syslogd on a Red Hat 6.2 system (glibc 2.1.3, >> > > kernel 2.2.x), within a few minutes you will find your entire machine >> > > grinds to a halt. For example, nobody can log in. >> >> Great! Yet another way in which root can get the rope to shoot herself in >> the foot. Anything _really_ new? > >OK, let's go a step further - what if syslog dies or breaks in some way >shape or form so that the syslog() function blocks...? > >My worry is the one that was originally raised but ignored: syslog() should >not BLOCK regardless of whether it's local or remote. syslog is not a >reliable mechanism and many programs have been written assuming they can >fire off syslog() calls without worry.
It was NOT ignored. If syslogd dies, then the system SHOULD stop, after a few seconds (depending on the log rate...).
I do believe that restarting syslog should be possible... Perhaps syslog should be started by inetd at the very beginning. Then it could be restarted after an exit/abort.
This can STILL fail if the syslog.conf is completely invalid - but then the system SHOULD be stopped pending the investigation of why the file has been corrupted, or syslogd falls back on a default configuration (record everything in the syslog file). -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jesse I Pollard, II Email: pollard@cats-chateau.net
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