Re: syslog() blocks on glibc 2.1.3 with kernel 2.2.x

From: Jesse Pollard (pollard@cats-chateau.net)
Date: Sun Oct 29 2000 - 11:35:27 EST

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

Any opinions expressed are solely my own.
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