[BusyBox 0004054]: busybox 1.9.1 killall command doesn't work

bugs at busybox.net bugs at busybox.net
Fri Jul 18 07:10:05 UTC 2008


A NOTE has been added to this issue. 
====================================================================== 
http://busybox.net/bugs/view.php?id=4054 
====================================================================== 
Reported By:                bwondu
Assigned To:                BusyBox
====================================================================== 
Project:                    BusyBox
Issue ID:                   4054
Category:                   Other
Reproducibility:            always
Severity:                   minor
Priority:                   normal
Status:                     assigned
====================================================================== 
Date Submitted:             07-10-2008 15:41 PDT
Last Modified:              07-18-2008 00:10 PDT
====================================================================== 
Summary:                    busybox 1.9.1 killall command doesn't work
Description: 
executing killall <processname> retrun killall: <processname>: no process
killed

I tried to do the same thing as in busybox 1.1.0 which is in
libbb/procps.c (read_to_buf() function) replace any character < ' ' in the
string read from /proc/%d/cmdline.  In libbb/find_pid_by_name.c
(find_pid_by_name() function), I removed the call to bb_basename and did a
strstr instead of strcmp and it worked.  But since there are other
dependencies to these functions, I want to make sure that this doesn't
break anything.  If you have a better fix for it please let me know as
killall in Busybox 1.1.0 works perfectly fine. Thanks
====================================================================== 

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 vda - 07-10-08 16:41  
---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Before trying to fix it, we need to understand how exactly it fails.

Does it happen with 1.11.0? For me it works:

# strace -o log killall top

# tail log
read(5, "32314 (mc) S 32312 32314 32312 3"..., 1023) = 244
close(5)                                = 0
open("/proc/32314/cmdline", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = 5
read(5, "/usr/bin/mc\0-d\0", 1023)      = 15
close(5)                                = 0
getdents64(3, /* 0 entries */, 1024)    = 0
close(3)                                = 0
kill(707, SIGTERM)                      = 0
kill(14022, SIGTERM)                    = 0
_exit(0)                                = ?

Can you provide your example? Attach full strace log to this bug. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 bwondu - 07-10-08 21:00  
---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
open("/proc/25936/cmdline", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = 4
read(4, "./busybox\0killall\0top\0", 1023) = 22
close(4)                                = 0
getdents64(3, /* 0 entries */, 1024)    = 0
close(3)                                = 0
brk(0x8aad000)                          = 0x8aad000
ioctl(2147483647, SNDCTL_TMR_TIMEBASE or TCGETS, 0xbfe39758) = -1 EBADF
(Bad file descriptor)
brk(0x8aae000)                          = 0x8aae000
write(2, "killall: top: no process killed\n", 32) = 32
_exit(1)                                = ? 

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 vda - 07-11-08 03:08  
---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
This is not a full strace log. Instead of pasting "tail log" result, push
[Upload File] button on this web page and upload _entire_ strace log file.
Please also specify the name of process you are trying to kill - "killall
<WHICH_PROGRAM?>". 

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 bwondu - 07-11-08 03:37  
---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
I have uploaded a full tracelog.  Please refer to stracelog.  I tried to
kill nonsenseprocess.sh 

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 vda - 07-11-08 03:59  
---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Here is it:

open("/proc/32635/stat", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = 4
read(4, "32635 (nonsenseprocess) S 32604 "..., 1023) = 200
close(4)                                = 0

The _ONLY_ way to match scripts by name in Linux is to look at so called
comm field in /proc/$PID/stat.

Because /proc/$PID/cmdline will have "/bin/sh",NUL,"<scriptname>",NUL,...
and /proc/$PID/exe symlink will point to /bin/sh, and neither of these are
indicative that this process is named <scriptname>, right?

So we are left with /proc/$PID/stat's comm field - the
"...(<scriptname>)..." thing. But it is limited to 15 chars. If killall
sees comm field which is exactly 15 chars long, it does not use it because
it is truncated - in your example, it can be a truncated version of
"nonsenseprocess.sh" or truncated version of
"nonsenseprocess_which_you_dont_want_to_kill_at_all_costs"!

Killall should be able to kill scripts with names less than 15 chars. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 bwondu - 07-13-08 18:17  
---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Since we know how many bytes were read from the /proc/%d/cmd file, we can
change the null characters to non-null values (spaces).  If you use that
file, there is no need to worry about truncation.

My 2 cents. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 vda - 07-13-08 21:15  
---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
You misunderstood me. /proc/$PID/cmdline looks like this (after replacing
NULs with spaces):

"/bin/sh nonsenseprocess.sh [param]..."

How can possibly "killall nonsenseprocess.sh" figure out that a process
with such cmdline is supposed to be killed? It's not much different from,
say,

"/bin/vi nonsenseprocess.sh [param]..."

and *this* process is definitely should not be killed by "killall
nonsenseprocess.sh", right?

Is killall supposed to treat "/bin/sh" specially in cmdline? I don't think
so. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 bwondu - 07-14-08 07:45  
---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
I understand that the arguments given on the command line ([param]) put a
wrench in things. I suggested it as a starting point. But maybe a
combination of the /proc/$PID/cmdline file and /proc/$PID/stat file would
work better.

if( strstr(stringFromcmdline, procToKill) != NULL && strstr(procToKill,
scriptnameFromStat) != NULL) or something like that 

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 vda - 07-14-08 10:43  
---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Optional parameters is not a problem. The problem is that script name is
not in argv[0], it's in argv[1], and it is dangerous for killall to assume
that if argv[1] == program_to_kill, it should kill this process.

> if( strstr(stringFromcmdline, procToKill) != NULL && strstr(procToKill,
scriptnameFromStat) != NULL)

Hmm. Maybe. I'd like to be extra paranoid in such cases, though... maybe
this?

if (strcmp(cmdline[0], procToKill)==0)
        kill(pid);
else
if (strcmp(cmdline[1], procToKill)==0
 && strncmp(comm, procToKill, 15)==0
 && well_known_interpreter(cmdline[0])
) {
        kill(pid);
}

How would you define well_known_interpreter() function? 

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 vda - 07-16-08 16:19  
---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Please try attached 8.patch 

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 bwondu - 07-17-08 10:08  
---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
The patch failed. I tried it on a pristine extract from a
busybox-1.9.1.tar.bz2 package I downloaded on Feb 12.

patch -p0 < 8.patch
patching file busybox.8/include/libbb.h
Hunk http://busybox.net/bugs/view.php?id=1 succeeded at 978 (offset -188 lines).
Hunk http://busybox.net/bugs/view.php?id=2 succeeded at 1213 with fuzz 2 (offset
-1 lines).
patching file busybox.8/libbb/find_pid_by_name.c
Hunk http://busybox.net/bugs/view.php?id=2 FAILED at 77.
1 out of 2 hunks FAILED -- saving rejects to file
busybox.8/libbb/find_pid_by_name.c.rej
patching file busybox.8/libbb/procps.c
Reversed (or previously applied) patch detected!  Assume -R? [n] 

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 vda - 07-17-08 11:00  
---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Latest release is 1.11.1, I worked on it. Sorry. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 bernhardf - 07-18-08 00:10  
---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
I suggest you try to apply it to current svn. 

Issue History 
Date Modified   Username       Field                    Change               
====================================================================== 
07-10-08 15:41  bwondu         New Issue                                    
07-10-08 15:41  bwondu         Status                   new => assigned     
07-10-08 15:41  bwondu         Assigned To               => BusyBox         
07-10-08 16:41  vda            Note Added: 0009134                          
07-10-08 21:00  bwondu         Note Added: 0009144                          
07-10-08 21:01  bwondu         File Added: log                              
07-11-08 02:39  bwondu         File Added: stracelog                        
07-11-08 03:08  vda            Note Added: 0009154                          
07-11-08 03:37  bwondu         Note Added: 0009164                          
07-11-08 03:59  vda            Note Added: 0009174                          
07-13-08 18:17  bwondu         Note Added: 0009234                          
07-13-08 21:15  vda            Note Added: 0009244                          
07-14-08 07:45  bwondu         Note Added: 0009254                          
07-14-08 10:43  vda            Note Added: 0009264                          
07-16-08 16:18  vda            File Added: 8.patch                          
07-16-08 16:19  vda            Note Added: 0009484                          
07-17-08 10:08  bwondu         Note Added: 0009634                          
07-17-08 11:00  vda            Note Added: 0009644                          
07-18-08 00:10  bernhardf      Note Added: 0009734                          
======================================================================




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