[BusyBox] re-read inittab

Rob Landley rob at landley.net
Mon Sep 6 12:31:04 UTC 2004


On Monday 06 September 2004 07:19, Rob Landley wrote:
> reload_signal calls parse_inittab.  parse_inittab appends to
> init_action_list, it does NOT free any existing entries, or zero it out. 
> So the second call to parse_inittab will just add a lot of crap to the end
> of it without deleting what was already there.  Every call will make it
> longer...
>
> reload_signal then calls any RESPAWN entries, which are not the same as
> RESTART entries.

I forgot to mention that it's in signal context when it does this.  It not 
only forks and execs new processes from signal context, it messes with 
terminal parameters, declares a new process group...  (And of course it never 
checks if two processes both think they have control of the same tty, that I 
remember anyway, it's been a while...)

Don't HUP the current busybox init (which is what init -q does).  Just don't 
go there.  There are multiple layers of "not a good idea" involved in this 
recommendation.

Rob
-- 
www.linucon.org: Linux Expo and Science Fiction Convention
October 8-10, 2004 in Austin Texas.  (I'm the con chair.)




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