[Linux-ia64] Issue with using execlp() from a 32 bit binary on IA64

[Linux-ia64] Issue with using execlp() from a 32 bit binary on IA64

[Venkatesh Ramamurthy]

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Hi,
The RAID group has a problem with using execlp function from a 32bit binary.
The problem goes like this , a test program "TestCtrl"(A) and "TestServ"(B)
are the two binaries. Initially both 'A' and 'B' are 32 bit binaries. 'A'
loads 'B' using execlp. 'A' loads during system startup. The system boots to
text mode. When i do a 'startx', the X-window system hangs up. The last
thing i see is 'RAGE 128 .....' and hangs.


When i recompile A to a native 64 bit app everything is fine (B is still 32
bit app). X - Window runs fine.

So my assumption was when a 32 bit binary spawns another 32bit app(i have
*not* tested a 32 bit app loading a 64 bit app) there is a problem, I have
not gone thru the kernel sources to find the source of the error. As i am
not actively involved with Linux64 development i do not have time to study
the problem more, but i thought it might be useful for the maintainers to
rectify it.

I am sending the sources and some readme documents from one of our engineers
in India who orginated this issue. He is seeing it in a  slightly different
manner.He states that even when 'A' is natively compiled he sees the
problem. We have not seen this in atlanta.

Hope this helps ....
Thanks
Venkatesh

PS: I receive only the digest so please CC communication and also include
peterj in the loop.
 <<testmon.tar.gz>> 

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Re: [Linux-ia64] Issue with using execlp() from a 32 bit binary on IA64

[Brian Sumner]

Venkatesh Ramamurthy wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> The RAID group has a problem with using execlp function from a 32bit binary.

A quick glance at the source indicates a bug in glibc 2.2.3 execl
and execlp if you pass more than 1024 arguments.  Strangely, the
execle function is OK.  (Compare the last argument to the memcpy
calls in posix/execl.c and posix/execle.c)

Brian Sumner

Re: [Linux-ia64] Issue with using execlp() from a 32 bit binary on IA64

[Andreas Schwab]

Brian Sumner <bls@sgi.com> writes:

|> Venkatesh Ramamurthy wrote:
|> > 
|> > Hi,
|> > The RAID group has a problem with using execlp function from a 32bit binary.
|> 
|> A quick glance at the source indicates a bug in glibc 2.2.3 execl
|> and execlp if you pass more than 1024 arguments.  Strangely, the
|> execle function is OK.

execle has already been fixed more than one year ago, but nobody looked at
execl and execlp so far :-/.  I have now checked in a fix.

Thanks, Andreas.

-- 
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Andreas.Schwab@suse.de				completely different."
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