modutils (Re: cipe 1.2.0 & kernel 2.2.x)

Olaf Titz (olaf@bigred.inka.de)
Thu, 25 Mar 1999 14:02:33 +0100


> Since SMP is enabled by default in the 2.2 kernels, you may forget to turn
> it off while doing kernel config (as I did). This causes huge problems
> since SMP isn't included by default in CIPE.

Since this error is so common (perhaps the most frequent problem with
CIPE) it would be nice to have a way for the module to test the kernel
for SMP config, so it fails with a clear error message on mismatch.
Better yet, this check should be done in the modutils.

I don't know if this is possible. I'm CC'ing linux-kernel on this,
perhaps someone there knows how to do this? Should apply to _all_
modules.

Of course, using MODVERSIONS should avoid the problem. I have heard
that MODVERSIONS was broken somewhere in the 2.1 cycle, no idea if
this is fixed now.

> BTW, if someone is interested.. 'strace ciped' which ultimately resulted in
> opendev alloc error gave me like 1000 file descriptor errors. I have no
> idea if that information is useful in tracing the real problem, but you

I assume this is just this code in ciped:
for (i=getdtablesize()-1; i>2; --i)
(void) close(i);
which makes sure all fds are closed (and deliberately ignores the
errors). Are your 1000 really 253 or do you use an -ac kernel with
higher fd limit? :-)

This "close everything but standard fds" is employed by a number of
programs, among them shells and perl, to avoid fd leakage. It is
harmless.

Olaf

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