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  1. OpenVZ
  2. OVZ-4943

vzctl enter <VEID> hangs with bash 4.2

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    Details

    • Type: Bug
    • Status: Closed
    • Priority: Major
    • Resolution: Fixed
    • Fix Version/s: OpenVZ-legacy
    • Component/s: Containers::Userspace
    • Security Level: Public
    • Environment:
      Operating System: RHEL/CentOS 5
      Platform: x86 (i386)

      Description

      Hi!

      Problem:

      When running "vzctl enter <VEID>" the command will hang with latest
      version of bash i.e 4.2.7 ( happens with all 4.2.x versions )

      I first thought this was bash bug and filed a report to the maintainer
      of bash (Chet Ramey) but got back the response below which indicates this
      might be a bug in vzctl instead,

      Let me know if you need any more information.

      There is also a thread discussing this issue at:

      https://groups.google.com/group/gnu.bash.bug
      https://groups.google.com/group/gnu.bash.bug/browse_thread/thread/0be5df8f41c8b88c#

      //Michael


      > Hi Chet!
      >
      > I run 3 different strace sessions (see attached file)
      >
      > 1. A working session (bash 3.2.25)
      >
      > # strace -ff -o /tmp/bash_strace/bash_working/bash_working.log vzctl enter 152
      >
      > 2. A failing session (bash 4.2.7):
      >
      > # strace -ff -o /tmp/bash_strace/bash_not_working/bash_not_working.log
      > vzctl enter 152
      >
      > for the failing session pstree shows:
      >
      > bash(23067)---strace(23230)---vzctl(23231)---vzctl(23232)---bash(23233)

      I suspect this is a bug in vzctl that was masked by bash-4.1 and previous
      versions.

      The only change of any significance here is that bash-4.1 closed file
      descriptors 3-20 at startup. That's a bug; you can't close fds out
      from under libraries like that. This caused mysterious crashes on Mac
      OS X, for example when running bash as a login shell under iTerm.
      Bash-4.2 sets the fds to close-on-exec instead.

      The problem is that vzctl plays fast and loose with file descriptors.
      It leaves read and write ends of pipes open in the child process it
      forks to exec bash when it uses the other ends internally to communicate
      with that child through the pty it opens as the controlling terminal.
      The big difference between the non-working and working versions is that
      bash-4.2 inherits file descriptors 3, 7, 9, and 10 and leaves them open,
      where bash-4.1 closed them.

      This results in the the process group that bash-4.2 is using being
      orphaned, which makes read() return EOF and the kernel send SIGHUP and
      SIGCONT to bash. This is consistent with the strace output.

      You can test this by changing shell.c to call close(i) instead of
      SET_CLOSE_ON_EXEC(i) around like 541. That's just to prove vzctl has
      a bug, however -- I'm not going to revert that change.

      Keep in mind that I haven't looked at the vzctl source code, and so don't
      have any patches for it. Somehow, though, the file descriptors that
      get closed in process 23231 after forking 23232 (in the bash-not-working
      set of traces, fds 3,7,9,10) need to get closed in 23233 after 23232 forks
      it and before it execs bash.

      Let me know how it goes. If you can make the right changes to vzctl and
      that fixes the problem, so much the better.

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            Assignee:
            kir Kir Kolyshkin
            Reporter:
            michaelk@linuxmail.org michaelk
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              Created:
              Updated:
              Resolved: