[Bug 235657] /usr/libexec/atrun race causes missed jobs
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Mon Feb 11 05:46:15 UTC 2019
https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=235657
Bug ID: 235657
Summary: /usr/libexec/atrun race causes missed jobs
Product: Base System
Version: 12.0-STABLE
Hardware: Any
OS: Any
Status: New
Severity: Affects Some People
Priority: ---
Component: bin
Assignee: bugs at FreeBSD.org
Reporter: karl at denninger.net
Created attachment 201915
--> https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/attachment.cgi?id=201915&action=edit
Diff against /usr/src/libexec/atrun directory
I have no idea why this hasn't bit people before, or isn't biting people
now.... but it is biting me.
/usr/libexec/atrun is the "batch" job executor out of the cron and by default
runs every 5 minutes.
The code has an unlink call in it that attempts to remove old jobs from the
queue but unfortunately the queue code can select a job to run, call fork() to
start it, post-fork() the child can give up the CPU before it opens the file
containing the job and thus the queue code (which is in the parent) can execute
the unlink before the child process gets the file open. If this happens you
get a "file not found" error in the cron log and the job doesn't run.
The attached patch fixes the potential race by moving the unlink into the
child; it may not be the most-elegant, but it works. Unfortunately due to the
code's structure (it performs multiple tests on the file to be run for security
reasons) there are multiple error exits and, in the event of any of those, you
must unlink the file as well or it will try to run repeatedly -- yet you can't
unlink it immediately after it is opened because some of the tests require it
still be on the filesystem.
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