linux-kernel - Per-instance devpts

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Message-ID: <48935205.3090807@zytor.com>
Date:	Fri, 01 Aug 2008 11:12:21 -0700
From:	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>
To:	"Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederm@...ssion.com>
CC:	sukadev@...ibm.com, Andrew Morton <akpm@...l.org>,
	serue@...ibm.com, matthltc@...ibm.com,
	Pavel Emelyanov <xemul@...nvz.org>,
	Containers <containers@...ts.osdl.org>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Alan Cox <alan@...rguk.ukuu.org.uk>,
	Greg KH <greg@...ah.com>
Subject: Per-instance devpts

Since the issue of PTY namespaces came up (and was rejected) back in 
April, I have thought a little bit about changing ptys to be tied 
directly into a devpts instance.  devpts would then be a "normal" 
filesystem, which can be mounted multiple times (or not at all).  pty's 
would then become private to a devpts instance.

This is what it would appear would have to change, and I'd like to get 
people's feeing for the user-space impact:

1. /dev/ptmx would have to change to a symlink, ptmx -> pts/ptmx.
2. Permissions on /dev/ptmx would not be persistent, and would have to
    be set via devpts mount options (unless they're 0666 root.tty, which
    would presumably be the default.)
3. The /proc/sys/kernel/pty limit would be global; a per-filesystem
    limit could be added on top or instead (presumably via a filesystem
    mount options.)

I worry #1 would have substantial user-space impact, but I don't see a 
way around it, since there would be no obvious way to associate 
/dev/ptmx with a filesystem.

	-hpa
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