Re: kill -9 <pid of X>

Jon Hamilton (hamilton@pobox.com)
Thu, 13 Aug 1998 07:47:58 -0500

In message <Pine.HPP.3.91.980812193611.21672B-100000@gaia.ecs.csus.edu>, "Jon M
. Taylor" wrote:
} On Wed, 12 Aug 1998, Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH wrote:
}
} > In message <Pine.HPP.3.91.980812140323.6780F-100000@gaia.ecs.csus.edu>, "Jo
} n
} > M.
} > Taylor" writes:
} > +-----
} > | On Wed, 12 Aug 1998, Kragen wrote:
} > | > Remember, we're talking about defending against signals from a hostile
} > | > root who wants to crash the video card.
} > | No we are not. Where did hostility come into this? There are
} > | many legitimate reasons why I might want to kill -9 the X server.
} > +--->8
} >
} > Excuse me? You want to use the explicit kill-without-cleanup, then you
} > complain that it didn't clean up after you and we need to hack the kernel t
} o
} > make up for it? What's wrong with a normal kill?
}
} If X is hosed, a normal kill might not work. Or the kernel might
} need to kill the X server process for OOM reasons or something else. I'd
} still like to make the process go away without trouble in those
} circumstances. If I have to kill -9 a normal process, it doesn't have to
} free its own memory, does it? No, the kernel can do that for me. The
} kernel cannot do that with the X server's video card manipulations.
}
} > If your worry is traceback (which -9 won't help you with either) then edit
} > XF86Config and turn on core dumps, then kill it with -4 or something. It'l
} l
} > fork, the child will dump core, then it cleans up.
}
} Whee. Now I can trace through a 1MB+ core file, most of which is
} not the code I am interested in. I still think debugging a kernel module
} is easier.

Easier isn't always better. You argued in an earlier post several points
about X code being ugly, using Imakefiles, having poor internal interfaces,
etc. None of those are particularly compelling reasons to put things
in the kernel; rather, they're all arguments for cleaning up the X code.

-- 
   Jon Hamilton  
   hamilton@pobox.com




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