linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 4/5] don't panic if /sbin/init exits or killed

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Message-ID: <20080329105112.GC359@tv-sign.ru>
Date:	Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:51:12 +0300
From:	Oleg Nesterov <oleg@...sign.ru>
To:	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>
Cc:	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Davide Libenzi <davidel@...ilserver.org>,
	"Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederm@...ssion.com>,
	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...e.hu>,
	Laurent Riffard <laurent.riffard@...e.fr>,
	Pavel Emelyanov <xemul@...nvz.org>,
	Roland McGrath <roland@...hat.com>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Stephen Smalley <sds@...ho.nsa.gov>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 4/5] don't panic if /sbin/init exits or killed

On 03/28, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
>
> Oleg Nesterov wrote:
> >If the buggy init exits, the kernel panics. I see no point for this. It is 
> >very
> >possible that the system is still usable enough, at least to read the logs 
> >and
> >prepare the bug report.
> >
> >Change exit_child_reaper() to do BUG() instead of panic().
> >
> >Signed-off-by: Oleg Nesterov <oleg@...sign.ru>
> 
> This would be highly undesirable in a production system, since it would 
> leave the machine an unusable zombie.  In a production system, the panic 
> can be made to reboot the system, bringing it back online.

I can't agree. Following this logic, we should always use panic() instead
of BUG().

I think the system should try to use any chance to survive, and we have
panic_on_oops.


That said, Stephen has a good reason to nack this patch. But still I hope
it is possible to find a simple solution. Not that I think this is really
important, but this panic() is silly, imho.

Oleg.

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