System borked: loader stack overflow.

[Luigi Rizzo]

On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 02:19:23PM -0500, Andrew Lankford wrote:
> Andrew Thompson wrote:
...
> >Having the following in /boot/loader.conf triggers it for me,
> >
> > loader_conf_files="/boot/device.hints /boot/loader.conf"
> >
> >You may say thats its an invalid config line but the loader shouldnt
> >blow up from it. Can this be fixed up somehow?

no, this cannot be "fixed" because it is the user misprogramming
the system, such as providing the wrong path to the kernel
or writing a loop in /etc/rc.conf or a billion other ways.

Setting loader_conf_files="x y z" is basically equivalent to
writing "call a; call b; call c;" in a programming language,
with the only difference that the action is done at the end of
the current file.

> Indeed, it would be nice if um someone (anyone, mind you) with commit 
> priviledges might put some descriptive comments around the 
> "default-only" settings in /boot/default/loader.conf...:)

it is not "default only", either - it is just one of the many files
loaded by /boot/loader, you just need to avoid infinite loops.
I can write some extra notes in the manpage, and perhaps
suggest a rename of the /boot/defaults/ file so one does
not end up with two copies by mistake.

	cheers
	luigi