tar bugfix patch n.347 (recoded, version 4)

[Roberto A. Foglietta]

Vladimir N. Oleynik ha scritto:
> Roberto and Rob,

  Sorry for the double post but I tried to made some tests to get a 
glimpse light more on the issue fork/vfork and pipe/async child managment.


> My reall busybox router have script:
> 
> $ tar cf - /etc /bin/ /usr /home | ( cd /mnt/copy_here; tar xf - )
> 
> for save configuration.
> 
> Its make
> - double shell to memory
> - double tar to memory
> 
> We can`t change fork() to vfork() trivially, this applets use BSS
> variables (prezeroed) and for vfork() is not separetelly.
> 

trivially it does not work, fail correctly but hangs in case of success

[roberto at wsraf busybox-1.01_raf]$ ./busybox tar tvzf /tmp/test.tar.gz0
tar: unexpected end of file
tar: null size tar archive

[roberto at wsraf busybox-1.01_raf]$ ./busybox tar tvzf /tmp/test.tar.gz

roberto  22515  0.0  0.0   1792   424 ?        S    Dec21   0:00
tar xvjf /tmp/test.tar.bz2 busybox
roberto  22516  0.0  0.2   5308  1428 ?        S    Dec21   0:00
	\_ tar xvjf /tmp/test.tar.bz2 busybox

  a vfork busybox tar is running on my workstation since yesterday...
...and it is growing!!!
  ;-)


>>  http://www.erlenstar.demon.co.uk/unix/faq_2.html
>>
>>  which document are talking about zombies too and how to preventing 
>> they happen. Solaris docs was read just because I worked on solaris hw 
>> but actually I do not have any such hw.
> 
> 
> This zombie have very small life. ;-)
> After parent readed last pipe buffer, parrent exited also.
> "Tar" is not a daemon server, using async sigchild handler is nonsense.
> You can found true Unix documentation with typically example with 
> fork()+pipe().
> 

  I think you are right about zombie very small life.

  Applaying patch n.4 and restoring original open_transform.c works too:

[roberto at wsraf busybox-1.01_raf]$ ./busybox tar tvzf /tmp/test.tar.gz
-rw-r--r-- 0/0    133490 2005-11-18 10:20:23 ../volantino_LD05.pdf
[roberto at wsraf busybox-1.01_raf]$ ./busybox tar tvzf /tmp/test.tar.gz0
tar: unexpected end of file
tar: null size tar archive

  but with original open_transform.c every applets like rpm which call 
open_transform has to be instructed to find zero lenght file/data and 
exit with error in order to return a coherent exit status in case of 
child failure.
  Everyone whom (will) write an applet which use open_transform has to 
be acknowledged of this. Async child managment resolve this issue 
defintely. I did not manage to do the same with fork+pipe, not for all 
failure conditions, perhaps. Please if you know where I am wrong let me 
known.


  I have done some tests to check how much n.4 patch sucks...
  This is the file size of bb-1.01 original compiled with default config

[roberto at wsraf busybox-1.01]$ ls -al busybox
-rwxr-xr-x  1 roberto users 237032 dic 22 15:56 busybox*
[roberto at wsraf busybox-1.01]$ md5sum busybox
c47e7323c2a269856a6f5b46dbcf360f  busybox

  This is the file size of bb-1.01 patched compiled with default config

[roberto at wsraf busybox-1.01_raf]$ ls -al busybox
-rwxr-xr-x  1 roberto users 237032 dic 22 15:54 busybox*
[roberto at wsraf busybox-1.01_raf]$ md5sum busybox
7043c59660c1b9748278c57e27647137  busybox

  So at least under the point of view of storage patch n.4 do not add 
anything... Unbelivable... I do *NOTHING*
  ;-)

  emh.. why a such thing could happen? Two different branch of the same 
binary which has the *exactly* same file size and different behaviure?


  From the point of view of memory usage original busybox and patched 
one with n.4 appear the same, at least using this method:

	./busybox tar xz - >/dev/null &
	ps wl $!

  or adding a system("ps wl"); in the parent proccess:

[roberto at wsraf busybox-1.01_raf]$ ./busybox tar tvzf /tmp/test.tar.gz
F   UID   PID  PPID PRI  NI    VSZ   RSS WCHAN  STAT TTY        TIME COMMAND
0  1309  7150 28474  17   0   1796   444 wait   S+   pts/3      0:00 tar 
tvzf /tmp/test.tar.gz
1  1309  7151  7150  17   0   1796   520 pipe_w S+   pts/3      0:00 tar 
tvzf /tmp/test.tar.gz

[roberto at wsraf busybox-1.01]$ ./busybox tar tvzf /tmp/test.tar.gz
0  1309  7165 28474  16   0   1796   444 wait   S+   pts/3      0:00 tar 
tvzf /tmp/test.tar.gz
1  1309  7166  7165  16   0   1796   520 pipe_w S+   pts/3      0:00 tar 
tvzf /tmp/test.tar.gz

  may be better memory usage benchmark than ps could reveal differences.



  Cheers,
-- 
Roberto A. Foglietta
http://www.roberto.foglietta.name
SkypeNick: robang74
ICQ#: 108718257