Re: klibc and logging

[Russell King <rmk@arm.linux.org.uk>]

On Tue, Aug 13, 2002 at 12:12:10AM -0700, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> However, I'm wondering what to do about logging.

While writing my scripts for initramfs, the following thought occurred:

1. We only need the fd for initramfs.
2. We want to log the output from commands executed in initramfs.

Currently with an initrd, we set fd 0, 1, 2 to point to /dev/console.
Is there any reason we couldn't set fd 0 to /dev/console (maybe from
inside initramfs) but always setup fd 1 and 2 from the kernel to point
at a special "translate this into printk" fd ?

This has several advantages:

1. No need for another "special" device.
2. Once the fd is closed, its gone for good - no security concerns with
   apps in userland after boot dumping copious amounts of data into the
   kernel message buffer.
3. initramfs programs/scripts don't need to be aware of any special
   logging facilities

The disadvantages:

1. We need some way to open fd 1 and 2 in the first place; this is
   likely to be a special case, and initramfs is supposed to remove
   special cases from the kernel.

-- 
Russell King (rmk@arm.linux.org.uk)                The developer of ARM Linux
             http://www.arm.linux.org.uk/personal/aboutme.html