diff mbox series

[PATHC,v3] package/dcron: create required directories at startup

Message ID 20191117030942.3009-1-unixmania@gmail.com
State Not Applicable
Headers show
Series [PATHC,v3] package/dcron: create required directories at startup | expand

Commit Message

Carlos Santos Nov. 17, 2019, 3:09 a.m. UTC
From: Carlos Santos <unixmania@gmail.com>

crond uses the /var/spool/cron/{crontabs,cronstamps} directories to
store the per-user crontabs and timestamps for jobs, respectively.

On systems with busybox or sysv init, /var/spool is by default a link to
/tmp (see package/skeleton-init-sysv/skeleton/). So if those directories
are created at installation time they will actually be under /tmp/spool
and will vanish at run time when a tmpfs is mounted at /tmp. In this
case crond issues error messages that can't be seen.

The error is hidden because we use start-stop-daemon to run crond in
foreground mode to create a pid file and move crond to background. In
this mode crond does not use syslog and all error messages are lost
because start-stop-daemon redirects stderr to /dev/null.

Fix these problem by means of the following changes:

- Pull a patch already submitted upstream[1] to create a pidfile, so we
  can start crond in daemon mode.
- Do not create the crontabs and cronstamps directories in the package
  installation.
- Rewrite S90dcron (following the current template) changing the startup
  method and ensuring that the required directories exist.
- Modify dcron.service to disable the pidfile (not required by systemd)
  and to ensure that the required directories exist.
- Allow the user to set alternate crontabs/cronstamps paths by means of
  the /etc/default/crond file.

1. https://github.com/dubiousjim/dcron/pull/23

Fixes: https://bugs.busybox.net/show_bug.cgi?id=12011

Signed-off-by: Carlos Santos <unixmania@gmail.com>
---
CC: Dominique Tronche <dominique.tronche@atos.net>
CC: Alvaro G . M <alvaro.gamez@hazent.com>
CC: Yann E . MORIN <yann.morin.1998@free.fr>
---
Changes v1->v2:
- Remove "partially" from the commit message, since the fix is now
  complete
Changes v2->v3:
- Drop the menu configurations for crontabs/cronstamps paths. Use a
  /etc/default/crond file, instead).
- Create the directory at startup, not in the installation.
- Use a patch to fix the pidfile issue instead of a hack with pidof.
- Refactor S90dcron according to the current template.
---
 ...a-pid-file-if-running-in-daemon-mode.patch | 229 ++++++++++++++++++
 package/dcron/S90dcron                        |  68 ++++--
 package/dcron/dcron.mk                        |   2 +-
 package/dcron/dcron.service                   |   5 +-
 4 files changed, 285 insertions(+), 19 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 package/dcron/0002-Create-a-pid-file-if-running-in-daemon-mode.patch

Comments

Thomas Petazzoni Aug. 29, 2020, 9:42 p.m. UTC | #1
Hello,

I know Carlos is no longer actively working on Buildroot, but we still
have this patch pending in patchwork, and we need to do something about
it. I have some comments/questions below.

On Sun, 17 Nov 2019 00:09:42 -0300
unixmania@gmail.com wrote:

> From: Carlos Santos <unixmania@gmail.com>
> 
> crond uses the /var/spool/cron/{crontabs,cronstamps} directories to
> store the per-user crontabs and timestamps for jobs, respectively.
> 
> On systems with busybox or sysv init, /var/spool is by default a link to
> /tmp (see package/skeleton-init-sysv/skeleton/). So if those directories
> are created at installation time they will actually be under /tmp/spool
> and will vanish at run time when a tmpfs is mounted at /tmp. In this
> case crond issues error messages that can't be seen.

From a quick grep, it seems like dcron.mk is the only package creating
folders in /var/spool at build time, but of course, it's always
possible for other packages to do that within their own build system.
That would leave stale files in /tmp, which are present in the image
(taking up space), but in fact useless as we mount a tmpfs on top of
/tmp.

This issue is taken care of by
https://patchwork.ozlabs.org/project/buildroot/patch/20200605224858.12870-2-nolange79@gmail.com/,
which is still pending. To me, it seems like a good idea.

However, I don't know if this has already been discussed, but looking
at, I find our symlinks to ../tmp potentially dangerous:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 thomas thomas    6 26 mars  17:10 cache -> ../tmp
drwxr-xr-x 2 thomas thomas 4096 26 mars  17:10 lib
lrwxrwxrwx 1 thomas thomas    6 26 mars  17:10 lock -> ../tmp
lrwxrwxrwx 1 thomas thomas    6 26 mars  17:10 log -> ../tmp
lrwxrwxrwx 1 thomas thomas    6 26 mars  17:10 run -> ../run
lrwxrwxrwx 1 thomas thomas    6 26 mars  17:10 spool -> ../tmp
lrwxrwxrwx 1 thomas thomas    6 26 mars  17:10 tmp -> ../tmp

It means that at runtime, if you're access /var/cache/foobar and
/var/log/foobar, it's the same thing. Isn't that potentially a problem ?

> The error is hidden because we use start-stop-daemon to run crond in
> foreground mode to create a pid file and move crond to background. In
> this mode crond does not use syslog and all error messages are lost
> because start-stop-daemon redirects stderr to /dev/null.

To me, this is a problem that is not directly related to the /var/spool
directories issue. We have plenty of other packages for which we use
start-stop-daemon -m with the daemon started in foreground that maybe
doesn't use syslog.

So at the very least, this should be part of a separate commit, since
it's a separate problem. And I'm not sure we want the lengthy patch
that still hasn't been accepted upstream (I pinged today on the pull
request, just in case).

> Fix these problem by means of the following changes:
> 
> - Pull a patch already submitted upstream[1] to create a pidfile, so we
>   can start crond in daemon mode.
> - Do not create the crontabs and cronstamps directories in the package
>   installation.
> - Rewrite S90dcron (following the current template) changing the startup
>   method and ensuring that the required directories exist.

This is also mixing the rewrite of the init script to follow the
template and the adaptation to create the missing directories.

Yann, Peter, Arnout, what do you think ?

Best regards,

Thomas
Arnout Vandecappelle Aug. 30, 2020, 10:05 a.m. UTC | #2
On 29/08/2020 23:42, Thomas Petazzoni wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I know Carlos is no longer actively working on Buildroot, but we still
> have this patch pending in patchwork, and we need to do something about
> it. I have some comments/questions below.
> 
> On Sun, 17 Nov 2019 00:09:42 -0300
> unixmania@gmail.com wrote:
> 
>> From: Carlos Santos <unixmania@gmail.com>
>>
>> crond uses the /var/spool/cron/{crontabs,cronstamps} directories to
>> store the per-user crontabs and timestamps for jobs, respectively.
>>
>> On systems with busybox or sysv init, /var/spool is by default a link to
>> /tmp (see package/skeleton-init-sysv/skeleton/). So if those directories
>> are created at installation time they will actually be under /tmp/spool
>> and will vanish at run time when a tmpfs is mounted at /tmp. In this
>> case crond issues error messages that can't be seen.
> 
> From a quick grep, it seems like dcron.mk is the only package creating
> folders in /var/spool at build time, but of course, it's always
> possible for other packages to do that within their own build system.
> That would leave stale files in /tmp, which are present in the image
> (taking up space), but in fact useless as we mount a tmpfs on top of
> /tmp.

 It may make sense to have a build-time check that /tmp is empty, so we can
figure out how to solve issues like this.

> This issue is taken care of by
> https://patchwork.ozlabs.org/project/buildroot/patch/20200605224858.12870-2-nolange79@gmail.com/,
> which is still pending. To me, it seems like a good idea.
> 
> However, I don't know if this has already been discussed, but looking
> at, I find our symlinks to ../tmp potentially dangerous:
> 
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 thomas thomas    6 26 mars  17:10 cache -> ../tmp
> drwxr-xr-x 2 thomas thomas 4096 26 mars  17:10 lib
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 thomas thomas    6 26 mars  17:10 lock -> ../tmp
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 thomas thomas    6 26 mars  17:10 log -> ../tmp
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 thomas thomas    6 26 mars  17:10 run -> ../run
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 thomas thomas    6 26 mars  17:10 spool -> ../tmp
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 thomas thomas    6 26 mars  17:10 tmp -> ../tmp
> 
> It means that at runtime, if you're access /var/cache/foobar and
> /var/log/foobar, it's the same thing. Isn't that potentially a problem ?

 I think that usually the file names will be different anyway.

 That said, it would probably be much better if we did the following:

- create directories for all these in /tmp;
- let packages create files in those directories;
- in finalize, enumerate everything that has been created and put it in a file;
- create either an init script or a tmpfiles fragment to re-create that stuff at
boot.

 Any non-empty file that is created in /tmp should probably be a hard error.

 I think we have a few init scripts at the moment that have workarounds which
could be removed if the above approach is taken (e.g. dropbear, though the
warning that is issued could be useful).

 Regards,
 Arnout

>> The error is hidden because we use start-stop-daemon to run crond in
>> foreground mode to create a pid file and move crond to background. In
>> this mode crond does not use syslog and all error messages are lost
>> because start-stop-daemon redirects stderr to /dev/null.
> 
> To me, this is a problem that is not directly related to the /var/spool
> directories issue. We have plenty of other packages for which we use
> start-stop-daemon -m with the daemon started in foreground that maybe
> doesn't use syslog.
> 
> So at the very least, this should be part of a separate commit, since
> it's a separate problem. And I'm not sure we want the lengthy patch
> that still hasn't been accepted upstream (I pinged today on the pull
> request, just in case).
> 
>> Fix these problem by means of the following changes:
>>
>> - Pull a patch already submitted upstream[1] to create a pidfile, so we
>>   can start crond in daemon mode.
>> - Do not create the crontabs and cronstamps directories in the package
>>   installation.
>> - Rewrite S90dcron (following the current template) changing the startup
>>   method and ensuring that the required directories exist.
> 
> This is also mixing the rewrite of the init script to follow the
> template and the adaptation to create the missing directories.
> 
> Yann, Peter, Arnout, what do you think ?
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Thomas
>
diff mbox series

Patch

diff --git a/package/dcron/0002-Create-a-pid-file-if-running-in-daemon-mode.patch b/package/dcron/0002-Create-a-pid-file-if-running-in-daemon-mode.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f6db7f2aa9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/package/dcron/0002-Create-a-pid-file-if-running-in-daemon-mode.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,229 @@ 
+From f760a5ba9335b9a65376cf8337b31e2c20d7a21f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
+From: Carlos Santos <unixmania@gmail.com>
+Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2019 22:40:46 -0300
+Subject: [PATCH] Create a pid file if running in daemon mode
+
+- defs.h: #define PIDFILE (default /var/run/crond.pid)
+- subs.c: make fdprintf return a status, as required by the next change
+- main.c: create the pid file, exiting on failures; add options to
+  disable and set a different
+- crond.8: document the feature
+
+Signed-off-by: Carlos Santos <unixmania@gmail.com>
+---
+ crond.8 | 12 ++++++++++-
+ defs.h  |  3 +++
+ main.c  | 62 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------
+ subs.c  |  9 ++++++---
+ 4 files changed, 75 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)
+
+diff --git a/crond.8 b/crond.8
+index 1582235..a7e9d7c 100644
+--- a/crond.8
++++ b/crond.8
+@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
+ crond - dillon's lightweight cron daemon
+ .SH SYNOPSIS
+ .PP
+-\f[B]crond [-s dir] [-c dir] [-t dir] [-m user\@host] [-M mailhandler] [-S|-L file] [-l loglevel] [-b|-f|-d]\f[]
++\f[B]crond [-s dir] [-c dir] [-t dir] [-m user\@host] [-M mailhandler] [-S|-L file] [-P|-p file] [-l loglevel] [-b|-f|-d]\f[]
+ .SH OPTIONS
+ .PP
+ \f[B]crond\f[] is a background daemon that parses individual
+@@ -69,6 +69,16 @@ log to specified file instead of syslog.
+ .RS
+ .RE
+ .TP
++.B -P
++do not create a process-id file.
++.RS
++.RE
++.TP
++.B -L file
++Write process-id to specified file instead of /var/run/crond.pid.
++.RS
++.RE
++.TP
+ .B -l loglevel
+ log events at the specified, or more important, loglevels.
+ The default is `notice'.
+diff --git a/defs.h b/defs.h
+index cf77b5f..8ff557f 100644
+--- a/defs.h
++++ b/defs.h
+@@ -51,6 +51,9 @@
+ #ifndef SCRONTABS
+ #define SCRONTABS	"/etc/cron.d"
+ #endif
++#ifndef PIDFILE
++#define PIDFILE		"/var/run/crond.pid"
++#endif
+ #ifndef CRONTABS
+ #define CRONTABS	"/var/spool/cron/crontabs"
+ #endif
+diff --git a/main.c b/main.c
+index 2606db8..0b84b46 100644
+--- a/main.c
++++ b/main.c
+@@ -32,11 +32,13 @@ short DebugOpt = 0;
+ short LogLevel = LOG_LEVEL;
+ short ForegroundOpt = 0;
+ short SyslogOpt = 1;
++short PidFileOpt = 1;
+ const char  *CDir = CRONTABS;
+ const char  *SCDir = SCRONTABS;
+ const char *TSDir = CRONSTAMPS;
+ const char *LogFile = NULL; 	/* opened with mode 0600 */
+ const char *LogHeader = LOGHEADER;
++const char *PidFile = PIDFILE;
+ const char *SendMail = NULL;
+ const char *Mailto = NULL;
+ char *TempDir;
+@@ -72,7 +74,7 @@ main(int ac, char **av)
+ 
+ 	opterr = 0;
+ 
+-	while ((i = getopt(ac,av,"dl:L:fbSc:s:m:M:t:")) != -1) {
++	while ((i = getopt(ac,av,"dl:L:fbSc:s:m:M:t:Pp:")) != -1) {
+ 		switch (i) {
+ 			case 'l':
+ 				{
+@@ -161,12 +163,19 @@ main(int ac, char **av)
+ 			case 'm':
+ 				if (*optarg != 0) Mailto = optarg;
+ 				break;
++			case 'P':
++				PidFileOpt = 0;
++				break;
++			case 'p':
++				PidFileOpt = 1;
++				PidFile = optarg;
++				break;
+ 			default:
+ 				/*
+ 				 * check for parse error
+ 				 */
+ 				printf("dillon's cron daemon " VERSION "\n");
+-				printf("crond [-s dir] [-c dir] [-t dir] [-m user@host] [-M mailer] [-S|-L [file]] [-l level] [-b|-f|-d]\n");
++				printf("crond [-s dir] [-c dir] [-t dir] [-m user@host] [-M mailer] [-S|-L [file]] [-P|-p [file]] [-l level] [-b|-f|-d]\n");
+ 				printf("-s            directory of system crontabs (defaults to %s)\n", SCRONTABS);
+ 				printf("-c            directory of per-user crontabs (defaults to %s)\n", CRONTABS);
+ 				printf("-t            directory of timestamps (defaults to %s)\n", CRONSTAMPS);
+@@ -174,6 +183,8 @@ main(int ac, char **av)
+ 				printf("-M mailer     (defaults to %s)\n", SENDMAIL);
+ 				printf("-S            log to syslog using identity '%s' (default)\n", LOG_IDENT);
+ 				printf("-L file       log to specified file instead of syslog\n");
++				printf("-P            do not create process-id file\n");
++				printf("-p file       write pid to specified file instead of %s\n", PIDFILE);
+ 				printf("-l loglevel   log events <= this level (defaults to %s (level %d))\n", LevelAry[LOG_LEVEL], LOG_LEVEL);
+ 				printf("-b            run in background (default)\n");
+ 				printf("-f            run in foreground\n");
+@@ -219,16 +230,48 @@ main(int ac, char **av)
+ 
+ 		int fd;
+ 		int pid;
++		int pipe_fd[2];
++		int status;
++
++		if (pipe(pipe_fd) < 0) {
++			/* pipe failed */
++			perror("pipe");
++			exit(1);
++		}
+ 
+ 		if ((pid = fork()) < 0) {
+ 			/* fork failed */
+ 			perror("fork");
+ 			exit(1);
+ 		} else if (pid > 0) {
+-			/* parent */
+-			exit(0);
++			/* parent, reads from pipe */
++			close(pipe_fd[1]);
++			if (read(pipe_fd[0], &status, sizeof(status)) > 0) {
++				exit(status);
++			}
++			/* error: got zero bytes, so child just closed the write end */
++			exit(1);
+ 		}
++
+ 		/* child continues */
++		close(pipe_fd[0]);
++		status = 0;
++
++		/* write pid file or exit */
++
++		if (PidFileOpt) {
++			if ((fd = open(PidFile, O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0644)) < 0) {
++				status = errno;
++				fprintf(stderr, "failed to open PID file '%s', reason: %s\n", PidFile, strerror(status));
++				goto daemon_error;
++			}
++			if (fdprintf(fd, "%d\n", getpid()) < 0) {
++				status = errno;
++				fprintf(stderr, "failed to write PID file '%s', reason: %s\n", PidFile, strerror(status));
++				goto daemon_error;
++			}
++			close(fd);
++		}
+ 
+ 		/* become session leader, detach from terminal */
+ 
+@@ -260,11 +303,16 @@ main(int ac, char **av)
+ 				fclose(stderr);
+ 				dup2(fd, 2);
+ 			} else {
+-				int n = errno;
+-				fdprintf(2, "failed to open logfile '%s', reason: %s\n", LogFile, strerror(n));
+-				exit(n);
++				status = errno;
++				fdprintf(2, "failed to open logfile '%s', reason: %s\n", LogFile, strerror(status));
++				goto daemon_error;
+ 			}
+ 		}
++daemon_error:
++		write(pipe_fd[1], &status, sizeof(status));
++		if (status != 0) {
++			exit(status);
++		}
+ 	} else {
+ 		/* daemon in foreground */
+ 
+diff --git a/subs.c b/subs.c
+index b6217e8..0dfca4b 100644
+--- a/subs.c
++++ b/subs.c
+@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
+ 
+ Prototype void printlogf(int level, const char *ctl, ...);
+ Prototype void fdprintlogf(int level, int fd, const char *ctl, ...);
+-Prototype void fdprintf(int fd, const char *ctl, ...);
++Prototype int fdprintf(int fd, const char *ctl, ...);
+ Prototype void initsignals(void);
+ Prototype char Hostname[SMALL_BUFFER];
+ 
+@@ -40,16 +40,19 @@ fdprintlogf(int level, int fd, const char *ctl, ...)
+ 	va_end(va);
+ }
+ 
+-void
++int
+ fdprintf(int fd, const char *ctl, ...)
+ {
+ 	va_list va;
+ 	char buf[LOG_BUFFER];
++	int n;
+ 
+ 	va_start(va, ctl);
+ 	vsnprintf(buf, sizeof(buf), ctl, va);
+-	write(fd, buf, strlen(buf));
++	n = write(fd, buf, strlen(buf));
+ 	va_end(va);
++
++	return n;
+ }
+ 
+ void
+-- 
+2.18.1
+
diff --git a/package/dcron/S90dcron b/package/dcron/S90dcron
index de21d2ca13..bf72ba34fa 100644
--- a/package/dcron/S90dcron
+++ b/package/dcron/S90dcron
@@ -1,22 +1,56 @@ 
 #!/bin/sh
 
+DAEMON="crond"
+EXEC="/usr/sbin/$DAEMON"
+PIDFILE="/var/run/$DAEMON.pid"
+
+CROND_ARGS=""
+CRONTABS_DIR="/var/spool/cron/crontabs"
+CRONSTAMPS_DIR="/var/spool/cron/cronstamps"
+
+# shellcheck source=/dev/null
+[ -r "/etc/default/$DAEMON" ] && . "/etc/default/$DAEMON"
+
+start() {
+	printf 'Starting %s: ' "$DAEMON"
+	# shellcheck disable=SC2086 # we need the word splitting
+	mkdir -p "$CRONTABS_DIR" "$CRONSTAMPS_DIR" \
+		&& start-stop-daemon -S -q -p "$PIDFILE" -x "$EXEC" \
+			-- $CROND_ARGS -c "$CRONTABS_DIR" -t "$CRONSTAMPS_DIR"
+	status=$?
+	if [ "$status" -eq 0 ]; then
+		echo "OK"
+	else
+		echo "FAIL"
+	fi
+	return "$status"
+}
+
+stop() {
+	printf 'Stopping %s: ' "$DAEMON"
+	start-stop-daemon -K -q -p "$PIDFILE" -x "$EXEC"
+	status=$?
+	if [ "$status" -eq 0 ]; then
+		# Give acpid time to send dying gasp to syslog
+		echo "OK"
+	else
+		echo "FAIL"
+	fi
+	return "$status"
+}
+
+restart() {
+	stop
+	sleep 1
+	start
+}
+
 case "$1" in
-	start)
-		printf "Starting cron ... "
-		start-stop-daemon -S -q -m -b -p /var/run/dcron.pid --exec /usr/sbin/crond -- -f
-		echo "done."
-		;;
-	stop)
-		printf "Stopping cron ..."
-		start-stop-daemon -K -q -p /var/run/dcron.pid
-		echo "done."
-		;;
-	restart)
-		$0 stop
-		sleep 1
-		$0 start
-		;;
+	start|stop|restart)
+		"$1";;
+	reload)
+		restart;;
 	*)
-		echo "usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}"
-		;;
+		echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|reload}"
+		exit 1
 esac
diff --git a/package/dcron/dcron.mk b/package/dcron/dcron.mk
index 2ee0709af5..a89abe27be 100644
--- a/package/dcron/dcron.mk
+++ b/package/dcron/dcron.mk
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@  define DCRON_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS
 	$(INSTALL) -D -m0644 $(@D)/extra/root.crontab $(TARGET_DIR)/etc/cron.d/system
 	# Busybox provides run-parts, so there is no need to use nor install provided run-cron
 	$(SED) 's#/usr/sbin/run-cron#/bin/run-parts#g' $(TARGET_DIR)/etc/cron.d/system
-	$(INSTALL) -d -m0755 $(TARGET_DIR)/var/spool/cron/crontabs \
+	$(INSTALL) -d -m0755 \
 		$(TARGET_DIR)/etc/cron.daily $(TARGET_DIR)/etc/cron.hourly \
 		$(TARGET_DIR)/etc/cron.monthly $(TARGET_DIR)/etc/cron.weekly
 endef
diff --git a/package/dcron/dcron.service b/package/dcron/dcron.service
index 924ed72205..b5f40c99e3 100644
--- a/package/dcron/dcron.service
+++ b/package/dcron/dcron.service
@@ -3,7 +3,10 @@  Description=Task scheduler daemon
 After=syslog.target
 
 [Service]
-ExecStart=/usr/sbin/crond -S
+Environment=CRONTABS_DIR='/var/spool/cron/crontabs' CRONSTAMPS_DIR='/var/spool/cron/cronstamps'
+EnvironmentFile=-/etc/default/crond
+ExecStartPre= mkdir -p ${CRONTABS_DIR} ${CRONSTAMPS_DIR}
+ExecStart=/usr/sbin/crond $CROND_ARGS -P -c ${CRONTABS_DIR} -t ${CRONSTAMPS_DIR}
 Type=forking
 
 [Install]