To: new-httpd@hyperreal.com
Cc: ben@algroup.co.uk
Subject: Re: WWW Form Bug Report: "signal handlers use non-rentrant functions"
         on OTHER:NetBSD
References: <199612040215.UAA05309@sierra.zyzzyva.com>
From: Paul Richards <p.richards@elsevier.co.uk>
Date: 04 Dec 1996 13:42:50 +0000
In-Reply-To: Randy Terbush's message of Tue, 03 Dec 1996 20:15:26 -0600
Message-ID: <57n2vuctnp.fsf@tees.elsevier.co.uk>
Lines: 33
Sender: new-httpd-owner@apache.org
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Reply-To: new-httpd@hyperreal.com

Randy Terbush <randy@zyzzyva.com> writes:

> > All right! This is probably the cause of all the mysterious spins we've been
> > seeing. I think I'd prefer a proper fix, though. Could log_error be made safe
> > instead?
> > 
> > Cheers,
> > 
> > Ben.
> 
> I took a stab at this. The question is how many other places need this
> sort of change? sprintf is considered safe on Solaris.
> 

Geeze, I raised this some 6 months ago when I pointed out that Apache
tries to dump core into a specific directory but either people didn't
understand the problem or they were just ignoring me :-).

The signal handling is all to hell, we trap SIGSEGV, call log_error,
do a chdir and then call sigabrt!

Guys, that's total nonsense, you get a SIGSEGV and there's no way to
know why, there's no guarantee anything will work from that point on.

I don't see any reason to trap SIGSEGV at all (nor the other fatal
signals). If the only purpose is to have a nice message in the logs
then it's not worth the problems it may cause.

-- 
  Paul Richards. Originative Solutions Ltd.  (Netcraft Ltd. contractor)
  Elsevier Science TIS online journal project.
  Email: p.richards@elsevier.co.uk
  Phone: 0370 462071 (Mobile), +44 (0)1865 843155