Re: psdatabase file in /boot
Joel Ray Holveck writes:
>
> >>> psdatabase is responsible for the WCHAN column of the output of "ps
> >>> -l", so your system will boot. Without psdatabase, you will get
> >>> numbers in this column instead of routine names.
> >>What if I recompiled my kernel, changing some kernel config options
> >>in the process, but failed to run `psupdate'?
> >Then you'd get strange information in WCHAN, for a start. I don't
> >have the source for ps handy, but I expect that it hits a hash table
> >created from psdatabase, and you see GIGO. I doubt, knowing the
> >coding standards, that ps assumes it'll hit a hash entry, but it's
> >possible... I'll have to get the source and check it out.
>
> Okay, I've checked, and 'ps -l' does no bounds checking for WCHAN, it
> appears. Effectively, this means that if psdatabase is out of sync,
> 'ps -l' can cause demons to fly out of your nose. I've sent a patch
> off to the maintainer, Charles Blake <cblake@ucsd.edu> to fix the
> problem. Nevertheless, it seems that it should either give bad data
> in WCHAN or dump core, with no ill effects outside of that.
>
> --
Evidedly nod.
Thages.
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