bcd5fc12ec
Copyright (C) 2003 Yang Xiaopeng <yxp at hanwang.com.cn> Copyright (C) 2007 Natanael Copa <natanael.copa@gmail.com> Copyright (C) 2007 Tito Ragusa <farmatito@tiscali.it>
80 lines
3.4 KiB
Plaintext
80 lines
3.4 KiB
Plaintext
NOEXEC and NOFORK applets.
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Unix shells traditionally execute some commands internally in the attempt
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to dramatically speed up execution. It will be slow as hell if for every
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"echo blah" shell will fork and exec /bin/echo. To this end, shells
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have to _reimplement_ these commands internally.
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Busybox is unique in this regard because it already is a collection
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of reimplemented Unix commands, and we can do the same trick
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for speeding up busybox shells, and more. NOEXEC and NOFORK applets
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are exactly those applets which are eligible for these tricks.
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Applet will be subject to NOFORK/NOEXEC tricks if it is marked as such
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in applets.h. FEATURE_PREFER_APPLETS is a config option which
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globally enables usage of NOFORK/NOEXEC tricks.
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If it is enabled, FEATURE_SH_STANDALONE can be enabled too,
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and then shells will use NOFORK/NOEXEC tricks for ordinary commands.
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NB: shell builtins use these tricks regardless of FEATURE_SH_STANDALONE
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or FEATURE_PREFER_APPLETS.
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In C, if you want to call a program and wait for it, use
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spawn_and_wait(argv), BB_EXECVP(prog,argv) or BB_EXECLP(prog,argv0,...).
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They check whether program name is an applet name and optionally
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do NOFORK/NOEXEC thing depending on configuration.
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NOEXEC
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NOEXEC applet should work correctly if another applet forks and then
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executes exit(<applet>_main(argc,argv)) in the child. The rules
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roughly are:
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* do not expect shared global variables/buffers to be in their
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"initialized" state. Examples: xfunc_error_retval can be != 1,
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bb_common_bufsiz1 can be scribbled over, ...
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* do not expect that stdio wasn't used before. Calling set[v]buf()
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can be disastrous.
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* ...
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NOEXEC applets save only one half of fork+exec overhead.
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NOEXEC trick is disabled for NOMMU build.
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NOFORK
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NOFORK applet should work correctly if another applet simply runs
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<applet>_main(argc,argv) and then continues with its business (xargs,
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find, shells can do it). This poses much more serious limitations
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on what applet can/cannot do:
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* all NOEXEC limitations apply.
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* do not ever exit() or exec().
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- xfuncs are okay. They are using special trick to return
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to the caller applet instead of dying when they detect "x" condition.
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- you may "exit" to caller applet by calling xfunc_die(). Return value
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is taken from xfunc_error_retval.
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- fflush_stdout_and_exit(n) is ok to use.
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* do not use shared global data, or save/restore shared global data
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prior to returning. (e.g. bb_common_bufsiz1 is off-limits).
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- getopt32() is ok to use. You do not need to save/restore option_mask32,
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it is already done by core code.
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* if you allocate memory, you can use xmalloc() only on the very first
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allocation. All other allocations should use malloc[_or_warn]().
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After first allocation, you cannot use any xfuncs.
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Otherwise, failing xfunc will return to caller applet
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without freeing malloced data!
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* All allocated data, opened files, signal handlers, termios settings,
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O_NONBLOCK flags etc should be freed/closed/restored prior to return.
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* ...
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NOFORK applets give the most of speed advantage, but are trickiest
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to implement. In order to minimize amount of bugs and maintenance,
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prime candidates for NOFORK-ification are those applets which
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are small and easy to audit, and those which are more likely to be
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frequently executed from shell/find/xargs, particularly in shell
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script loops. Applets which mess with signal handlers, termios etc
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are probably not worth the effort.
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Any NOFORK applet is also a NOEXEC applet.
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