linux-kernel - Re: what is the rationale for "TAINT

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Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0710120832350.22555@localhost.localdomain>
Date:	Fri, 12 Oct 2007 08:37:04 -0400 (EDT)
From:	"Robert P. J. Day" <rpjday@...dspring.com>
To:	Björn Steinbrink <B.Steinbrink@....de>
cc:	Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: what is the rationale for "TAINT_USER"?

On Fri, 12 Oct 2007, Björn Steinbrink wrote:

> On 2007.10.12 08:04:20 -0400, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> >
> >   i can see what the theoretical purpose for it is here:
> >
> > http://kerneltrap.org/node/6656
> >
> > but it's not clear how it can possibly be set from userland given
> > that:
> >
> > $ grep -r TAINT_USER *
> > include/linux/kernel.h:#define TAINT_USER                       (1<<6)
> > kernel/panic.c:                 tainted & TAINT_USER ? 'U' : ' ',
> > $
> >
> >   am i missing something screamingly obvious?
>
> Grepping for "tainted" leads me to:
>
> echo 32 > /proc/sys/kernel/tainted

???.  i have no idea what you were grepping through to find that
phrase, but TAINT_USER would seem to be equivalent to echo 64, not
echo 32, anyway, no?

in any event, as i posted in a followup, i'm assuming that that
particular bit is meant to be set explicitly from user space using
something like:

  # echo 64 > /proc/sys/kernel/tainted

rday
-- 
========================================================================
Robert P. J. Day
Linux Consulting, Training and Annoying Kernel Pedantry
Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA

http://crashcourse.ca
========================================================================