Date: Mon, 27 May 2002 11:47:22 -0700 From: Jos Backus <jos@catnook.com> To: stable@FreeBSD.ORG, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: non-root /var/run files (was Re: Sendmail, smmsp, and pid file) Message-ID: <20020527184744.GD1724@lizzy.catnook.com> In-Reply-To: <200205271824.g4RIOutI008910@orthanc.ab.ca> References: <20020527081026.B29438@zardoc.esmtp.org> <200205271824.g4RIOutI008910@orthanc.ab.ca>
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As this thread once more suggests, the whole concept of pidfiles is broken.
The proper way is to use a service control manager which keeps track of
processes, allowing them to be stopped/restarted etc. through a single API. (I
am not going to mention AIX's System Resource Controller again because some
people on this list don't seem to like AIX.)
Last time the discussion about daemontools seemed to end in it being a good
idea but djb's license being unsuitable, iIrc. So on the 22nd I sent an
e-mail to -hackers saying that I have found a BSD-licensed service control
manager suitable for import into the base OS, in the hope of restarting this
discussion. init(8) doesn't cut it for various reasons: single config file,
runs as root, critical to system startup, etc.
But it appears I am in a minority because so far I have only received one
private response.
Mnsho, of course.
Jos
On Mon, May 27, 2002 at 12:24:56PM -0600, Lyndon Nerenberg wrote:
> [Redirecting to the hackers list -- please respect the reply-to header]
>
> >>>>> "Claus" == Claus Assmann <freebsd+stable@esmtp.org> writes:
>
> Claus> On Mon, May 27, 2002, Philip J. Koenig wrote:
> >> Any particular reason why the sendmail with 4.6-RC is writing sm-
> >> client.pid into /var/spool/clientmqueue instead of /var/run?
>
> Claus> Permissions.
>
> This points out a short-fall in the /var/run scheme: it can only be used
> by processes running with an euid of 0 at the time they create the file.
>
> If we have a /var/run/sendmail directory owned by the smmsp user then
> sendmail can create its pid files there. Likewise for bind. The purgedir
> function in /etc/rc (used to clean /var/run) will preserve the existing
> directory structure under /var/run, so the sub-directory tree will
> survive reboots.
--
Jos Backus _/ _/_/_/ Santa Clara, CA
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jos@catnook.com _/_/ _/_/_/ use Std::Disclaimer;
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