linux-kernel - Re: fanotify - overall design before I start sending patches

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Date:	Sat, 8 Aug 2009 12:36:26 +0200
From:	Pavel Machek <pavel@....cz>
To:	Eric Paris <eparis@...hat.com>
Cc:	Miklos Szeredi <miklos@...redi.hu>, a.p.zijlstra@...llo.nl,
	tvrtko.ursulin@...hos.com, douglas.leeder@...hos.com,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org,
	malware-list@...sg.printk.net, Valdis.Kletnieks@...edu,
	greg@...ah.com, jcm@...hat.com, tytso@....edu, arjan@...radead.org,
	david@...g.hm, jengelh@...ozas.de, aviro@...hat.com,
	mrkafk@...il.com, alexl@...hat.com, hch@...radead.org,
	alan@...rguk.ukuu.org.uk, mmorley@....in
Subject: Re: fanotify - overall design before I start sending patches

On Fri 2009-08-07 13:43:10, Eric Paris wrote:
> On Fri, 2009-08-07 at 18:36 +0200, Miklos Szeredi wrote:
> > On Thu, 06 Aug 2009, Eric Paris wrote:
> > > just work.  The whole reason for the timeout is because I don't trust
> > > userspace not to get it wrong and I'd rather not lose my box because of
> > > it.
> > 
> > IMO this has nothing to do with userspace(*) and everything to do with
> > complexity.  Virus scanning is complex and any such code, whether
> > runing in userspace or not, can easily screw up and freeze the system.
> 
> I agree, 'userspace' was not the best term.  Let me rephrase:
> 
> "The whole reason for the timeout is because I don't trust anything not
> to get it wrong and I'd rather not lose my box because of it."
> 
> > The way to solve that is not to implement hacks on the kernel
> > interface, but rather by separating the complex parts and implementing
> > a simple watchdog layer on top of that, that makes sure things don't
> > go wrong.
> 
> So you would argue that every fanotify listener implement their own
> watchdog layer that may or may not be correct rather than do a single
> watchdog layer for everyone?  And that's better?

Yes.

(You can do library, and maybe you can just make fanotify listener
simple enough. Or you can just scrap the open vetoing [mis]feature).
									Pavel


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