[RFC/PATCH glibc 0/2] setting working dir in posix_spawn()

[Eric Blake]

On 9/9/18 3:34 PM, Florian Weimer wrote:
> On 09/08/2018 12:54 AM, Eric Blake wrote:
>> Also, I've realized that we do NOT need 
>> posix_spawn_file_actions_addopenat(). The main benefit of openat() is 
>> that you can redirect relative file names according to an fd of your 
>> choice, without affecting global state. But during posix_spawn(), 
>> there are no other threads competing for global state (if you are 
>> doing a library implementation where the chdir() is done between 
>> fork() and exec()), so:
>>
>> openat(mydir, "file", mode);
>>
>> can be decomposed to:
>>
>> posix_spawn_file_actions_addopen(&act, 5, ".", O_RDONLY|O_DIRECTORY, 0);
>> posix_spawn_file_actions_addfchdir(&act, mydir);
>> posix_spawn_file_actions_addopen(&act, 4, "file", mode, 0);
>> posix_spawn_file_actions_addfchdir(&act, 5);
>> posix_spawn_file_actions_addclose(&act, 5);
> 
> Is it possible to choose an appropriate value for the directory 
> descriptor automatically?

Not that I know of. But it's tougher than it looks - my initial thought 
was "what about a magic negative number" that says to auto-allocate at 
the next free fd (the way AT_FDCWD is a magic number) - but since the 
allocation of fds is done at a later point (the posix_spawn() call) than 
the addition to file_actions (the posix_spawn_file_actions_addopen()), 
there is no way to predict WHAT that fd will actually resolve to, and 
thus no way to reuse that fd in posix_spawn_file_actions_addfchdir(), 
posix_spawn_file_actions_adddup2(), or 
posix_spawn_file_actions_addclose() as needed.  In other words, by the 
time you're using posix_spawn(), you're already stuck with having to 
micro-manage your fds - and if you want to avoid closing something 
important by accident, you practically have to do:

scratch_fd = open("/dev/null", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC);
posix_spawn_file_actions_addopen(&act, scratch_fd, ...);
posix_spawn(, &act, );
close(scratch_fd);

> 
> What about support for AT_EMPTY_PATH, for upgrading an O_PATH 
> descriptor?  I think this operation still needs openat.

O_PATH and AT_EMPTY_PATH are Linux/glibc extensions not in POSIX. So 
yes, they are worth thinking about in terms of what glibc should 
provide, but I'm not sure if they are sufficient on their own to require 
POSIX to worry about posix_spawn_file_actions_addopenat(), but rather 
might argue that glibc should add posix_spawn_file_actions_addopenat_np().

Or looking at it another way - I'm trying to stick to the initial 
philosophy documented in the posix_spawn() RATIONALE section (page 1457 
in the 2017 edition):

> The requirements for posix_spawn( ) and posix_spawnp( ) are:
> • They must be implementable without an MMU or unusual hardware.
> • They must be compatible with existing POSIX standards.
> Additional goals are:
> • They should be efficiently implementable.
> • They should be able to replace at least 50% of typical executions of fork( ).
> • A system with posix_spawn( ) and posix_spawnp( ) and without fork( ) should be useful, at least for realtime applications.
> • A system with fork( ) and the exec family should be able to implement posix_spawn( ) and posix_spawnp( ) as library routines.

Adding just posix_spawn_file_actions_addfchdir() is lighter-weight than 
adding posix_spawn_file_actions_addopenat(), 
posix_spawn_file_actions_fchdirat(), and others.  If you really have to 
deal with things like O_PATH or AT_EMPTY_PATH, then pre-open the fd in 
the parent and use posix_spawn_file_actions_adddup2(), rather than 
making file_actions more complicated.  And we're not trying to replace 
100% of fork/exec, but merely try to add a common-enough chdir paradigm 
to make it easier to replace the common 50%.

Also, note that http://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=411 is also 
somewhat relevant, which states:

> At line 46976 [XSH posix_spawn_file_actions_adddup2], add a sentence:
> 
> If fildes and newfildes are equal, then the action shall ensure that
> the FD_CLOEXEC flag of fildes is cleared (even though dup2( ) would
> leave it unchanged).
> 
> After line 46999 [XSH posix_spawn_file_actions_adddup2], add the
> following:
 >
> Although dup2( ) is required to do nothing when fildes and newfildes
> are equal and fildes is an open descriptor, the use of
> posix_spawn_file_actions_adddup2( ) is required to clear the
> FD_CLOEXEC flag of fildes. This is because there is no counterpart of
> posix_spawn_file_actions_fcntl( ) that could be used for clearing the
> flag; it would also be possible to achieve this effect by using two
> calls to posix_spawn_file_actions_adddup2( ) and a temporary fildes
> value known to not conflict with any other file descriptors, coupled
> with a posix_spawn_file_actions_close( ) to avoid leaking the
> temporary, but this approach is complex, and risks EMFILE or ENFILE
> failure that can be avoided with the in-place removal of FD_CLOEXEC.
> 
> There is no need for posix_spawn_file_actions_adddup3( ), since it
> makes no sense to create a file descriptor with FD_CLOEXEC set before
> spawning the child process, where that file descriptor would
> immediately be closed again.

-- 
Eric Blake, Principal Software Engineer
Red Hat, Inc.           +1-919-301-3266
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