Re: [patch 1/2] Validate itimer timeval from userspace

From: Andrew Morton
Date: Sat Mar 18 2006 - 16:34:25 EST


"Jesper Juhl" <jesper.juhl@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > It would be strange to set an alarm for 0xffffffff seconds in the future
> > but yeah, unless we can point at a reason why nobody could have ever been
> > doing that, we should turn this into permanent, documented behaviour of
> > Linux 2.6 and earlier, I'm afraid.
> >
>
> How about 0xffffffff seconds into the future being the same as 136
> years (unless I botched the math)... That means that if any Linux
> application ever did that it's still waiting for the alarm and will be
> for at least another century...
> I'd say that makes it pretty certain that noone are doing or have been
> doing that without spotting the problem somehow - apps with such a bug
> are unlikely to be in production and actually working correctly.

We just don't know. People do all sorts of things.

How about this?

$ cat /etc/my-expensive-app.conf
#
# Interval polling timer. Set this to -1 to disable
#
interval_polling_timer=-1

We just don't know.
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