Messages in this thread | | | Date | Mon, 29 Dec 2003 17:25:01 +0000 (GMT) | From | Paul Jakma <> | Subject | Re: chmod of active swap file blocks |
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On Mon, 29 Dec 2003, Andrew Morton wrote:
> The kernel holds the swapfile's i_sem while it is in use. This is > to prevent the filesystem destruction which would result if some > silly person were to truncate a swapfile while it was in active > use.
Ah, ok. /sort/ of makes sense..
> It is not a particularly important safety feature ("don't do that") > and it can be taken out if it is causing serious side-effects.
though i'd err more on the side of "dont do that" :)
> Is chmod of an in-use swapfile an important thing to be able to do?
Had a box under memory pressure and had to add a swapfile to relieve said pressure. Noticed afterwards that it had been created under umask 0022 - not good, and the chmod to remove read rights for all blocked. Thankfully, it was my desktop, not a multiple user server :)
I dont know, I think I'd prefer ability to change attributes of the swap file while its still swapped - there are many other, and far more catastrophic, ways for root to kill the box, does it make sense to guard against this one if it interferes with normal operations?
regards, -- Paul Jakma paul@clubi.ie paul@jakma.org Key ID: 64A2FF6A warning: do not ever send email to spam@dishone.st Fortune: "...and scantily clad females, of course. Who cares if it's below zero outside" (By Linus Torvalds) - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
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