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From: Jan Kratochvil <jan.kratochvil@redhat.com>
To: Chet Ramey <chet.ramey@case.edu>
Cc: bug-readline@gnu.org, gdb-patches@sourceware.org,
	saugustine@google.com,        chet@po.cwru.edu
Subject: Re: [Bug-readline] [readline patch, gdb-7.3?] Avoid free from a signal handler [Re: [PATCH] Make interrupting tab-completion safe.]
Date: Wed, 06 Jul 2011 17:42:00 -0000	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20110706164400.GA31447@host1.jankratochvil.net> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <110706155826.AA07325.SM@caleb.INS.CWRU.Edu>

On Wed, 06 Jul 2011 17:58:26 +0200, Chet Ramey wrote:
> As I said, I'm willing to remove these references and see what happens.  Since
> you have a way to readily reproduce the problem, I was hoping you'd do it
> and let me know what you found.

I do not think any testing matters here.  This is a difficult to reproduce
race + memory corruption.  While a crash proves it is wrong no crash does not
prove anything.

Even if no existing system ever crashes the code is still wrong because it
violates POSIX:
http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/xsh_chap02_04.html
	The following table defines a set of functions that shall be either
	reentrant or non-interruptible by signals and shall be async-signal-safe.

Static code analysis is the only valid verification.  Currently the signal
code calls free() which is not listed in the safe syscalls list above,
therefore the code is not correct.

I do not know if it is possible to code _rl_handle_signal in a way which uses
only the safe syscalls and only atomic operations on volatile data structures.
Anyway even if it would be possible I find such code very fragile and
I believe the signals should be always delayed through _rl_caught_signal.

Sure it then has to depend on the application which should properly return to
readline callers immediately if it sees any EINTR.


Thanks,
Jan


  reply	other threads:[~2011-07-06 17:32 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 26+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2011-06-11  0:19 [PATCH] Make interrupting tab-completion safe Sterling Augustine
2011-06-12 12:12 ` Jan Kratochvil
2011-06-13 17:45   ` Sterling Augustine
2011-06-26 22:22     ` [readline patch, gdb-7.3?] Avoid free from a signal handler [Re: [PATCH] Make interrupting tab-completion safe.] Jan Kratochvil
2011-06-27 16:03       ` Joel Brobecker
2011-06-29 21:49         ` Jan Kratochvil
2011-06-29 13:54       ` [Bug-readline] " Chet Ramey
2011-06-29 20:35         ` Jan Kratochvil
2011-06-30 14:38           ` Chet Ramey
2011-07-06 16:03             ` Jan Kratochvil
2011-07-06 16:07               ` Chet Ramey
2011-07-06 17:42                 ` Jan Kratochvil [this message]
2011-07-07 13:40                   ` Chet Ramey
2011-07-08 16:03                     ` Chet Ramey
2011-10-19 20:30                       ` Jan Kratochvil
2011-10-19 17:02                     ` Jan Kratochvil
2011-10-19 17:51                       ` Pedro Alves
2011-10-19 18:50                       ` Chet Ramey
2011-07-11 18:53     ` [PATCH] Make interrupting tab-completion safe Sterling Augustine
2011-07-11 18:54       ` Jan Kratochvil
     [not found]         ` <CAEG7qUxFvEoJ-E2YsoFPL-tKoK4kD3-pKn-h31uUeXQoDD2Gaw@mail.gmail.com>
2011-07-12 15:59           ` [dwarf2_mark_helper patch] " Jan Kratochvil
2011-07-12 17:48             ` Sterling Augustine
2011-07-12 18:56             ` Jan Kratochvil
2011-07-12 21:18             ` [commit] " Jan Kratochvil
2011-07-12 21:42               ` Tom Tromey
2011-07-12 22:51                 ` Jan Kratochvil

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