It would be preferable to do a mount --bind --make-private in oneatomic action

From: Anders Blomdell
Date: Wed Nov 23 2011 - 09:30:34 EST


The rationale is the race problems I recently found with pam_namspace (see https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=755216). The following small script and it's output shows what pam_namespace essentially does does, and the problems that might occur; assume that /work is automounted, then the following really confuses things:

(
echo '# Empty work'
findmnt | cut -c1-30 | grep work
echo '# First primary mount on work'
ls -ld /work/Fedora-16/.
findmnt | cut -c1-30 | grep work
unshare --mount -- /bin/sh -c "(
mount --bind /work /work ;
mount --make-private /work ;
mount --bind /tmp /work ;
echo '# Detached mount of work' ;
findmnt | cut -c1-30 | grep work ;
sleep 5 ;
echo '# Before detached unmount of private work' ;
findmnt | cut -c1-30 | grep work;
umount /work ;
echo '# Before detached unmount of bound work' ;
findmnt | cut -c1-30 | grep work;
echo '# Weird detached automount behaviour' ;
ls -ld /work/Fedora-15/. ;
umount /work ;
echo '# Detached unmount') &"
sleep 1
echo '# Second primary mount on work'
ls -ld /work/Fedora-15/.
findmnt | cut -c1-30 | grep work
echo '# First primary mount on work no longer accessible'
ls -ld /work/Fedora-16/.
sleep 10
echo '# And the final remaining cruft'
findmnt | cut -c1-30 | grep work
)

Which gives the following output (no wonder I had problems understanding what went wrong with my machines :-():

# Empty work
ââ/work
# First primary mount on work
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Nov 23 09:37 /work/Fedora-16/.
ââ/work
â ââ/work/Fedora-16
# Detached mount of work
ââ/work
â ââ/work/Fedora-16
â ââ/work
â ââ/work
# Second primary mount on work
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Nov 23 09:36 /work/Fedora-15/.
ââ/work
â ââ/work/Fedora-16
â ââ/work
â â ââ/work/Fedora-15
â ââ/work/Fedora-15
# First primary mount on work no longer accessible
ls: cannot access /work/Fedora-16/.: Too many levels of symbolic links
# Before detached unmount of private work
ââ/work
â ââ/work/Fedora-16
â ââ/work
â â ââ/work
â ââ/work/Fedora-15
# Before detached unmount of bound work
ââ/work
â ââ/work/Fedora-16
â ââ/work
â ââ/work/Fedora-15
# Weird detached automount behaviour
ls: cannot access /work/Fedora-15/.: Too many levels of symbolic links
# Detached unmount
# And the final remaining cruft
ââ/work
â ââ/work/Fedora-16
â ââ/work
â â ââ/work/Fedora-15
â ââ/work/Fedora-15

--
Anders Blomdell Email: anders.blomdell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Department of Automatic Control
Lund University Phone: +46 46 222 4625
P.O. Box 118 Fax: +46 46 138118
SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden

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