Re: [PATCH v2] Document /proc/pid PID reuse behavior

Pavel Machek
2018-11-20T09:18:33Z

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On Tue 2018-11-20 10:05:21, Vlastimil Babka wrote:
> On 11/19/18 11:54 AM, Pavel Machek wrote:
> > On Mon 2018-11-05 13:22:05, Daniel Colascione wrote:
> >> State explicitly that holding a /proc/pid file descriptor open does
> >> not reserve the PID. Also note that in the event of PID reuse, these
> >> open file descriptors refer to the old, now-dead process, and not the
> >> new one that happens to be named the same numeric PID.
> >>
> >> Signed-off-by: Daniel Colascione <dancol@google.com>
> >> ---
> >> Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt | 7 +++++++
> >> 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+)
> >>
> >> Moved paragraphed to start of /proc/pid section; added signed-off-by.
> >>
> >> diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt b/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt
> >> index 12a5e6e693b6..0b14460f721d 100644
> >> --- a/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt
> >> +++ b/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt
> >> @@ -125,6 +125,13 @@ process running on the system, which is named after the process ID (PID).
> >> The link self points to the process reading the file system. Each process
> >> subdirectory has the entries listed in Table 1-1.
> >>
> >> +Note that an open a file descriptor to /proc/<pid> or to any of its
> >> +contained files or subdirectories does not prevent <pid> being reused
> >> +for some other process in the event that <pid> exits. Operations on
> >
> > "does not" -> "may not"?
> >
> > We want to leave this unspecified, so that we can change it in future.
>
> Why can't the documentation describe the current implementation, and
> change in the future if the implementation changes? I doubt somebody

Documentation should describe "contract" between kernel and userspace.

> would ever rely on the pid being reused while having the descriptor
> open. How would that make sense?

I agree this is corner space, but users might be surprised that
keeping FDs of /proc/pid/X would lead to PID space exhaustion, for
example.

Pavel
--
(english) http://www.livejournal.com/~pavelmachek
(cesky, pictures) http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~pavel/picture/horses/blog.html

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