linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 1/2] init/console: Use ttynull as a fallback when there is no console

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Message-ID: <X6wTEpJwC+ZoLSAy@kroah.com>
Date:   Wed, 11 Nov 2020 17:36:34 +0100
From:   Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>
To:     Petr Mladek <pmladek@...e.com>
Cc:     Sergey Senozhatsky <sergey.senozhatsky@...il.com>,
        Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>,
        John Ogness <john.ogness@...utronix.de>,
        Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Guenter Roeck <linux@...ck-us.net>,
        Shreyas Joshi <shreyas.joshi@...mp.com>,
        shreyasjoshi15@...il.com,
        Sergey Senozhatsky <sergey.senozhatsky.work@...il.com>,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/2] init/console: Use ttynull as a fallback when there
 is no console

On Wed, Nov 11, 2020 at 02:54:49PM +0100, Petr Mladek wrote:
> stdin, stdout, and stderr standard I/O stream are created for the init
> process. They are not available when there is no console registered
> for /dev/console. It might lead to a crash when the init process
> tries to use them, see the commit 48021f98130880dd742 ("printk: handle
> blank console arguments passed in.").
> 
> Normally, ttySX and ttyX consoles are used as a fallback when no consoles
> are defined via the command line, device tree, or SPCR. But there
> will be no console registered when an invalid console name is configured
> or when the configured consoles do not exist on the system.
> 
> Users even try to avoid the console intentionally, for example,
> by using console="" or console=null. It is used on production
> systems where the serial port or terminal are not visible to
> users. Pushing messages to these consoles would just unnecessary
> slowdown the system.
> 
> Make sure that stdin, stdout, stderr, and /dev/console are always
> available by a fallback to the existing ttynull driver. It has
> been implemented for exactly this purpose but it was used only
> when explicitly configured.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Petr Mladek <pmladek@...e.com>

Tricky, and nice to use the existing driver for this, I like it:

Reviewed-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>