Bugtraq mailing list archives
Re: Changes to the filesystem while find is running - comments?
From: psz () maths usyd edu au (Paul Szabo)
Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 07:39:56 +1100 (EST)
James, You asked on bugtraq:
GNU find does a sanity check before and after calling chdir(). It stats the directory it's about to move into, and stats "." after chdir() succeeds. It then compares the device numbers and inode numbers returned by he two stat() calls. This is done in a function called wd_sanity_check(). If these are different, find prints an error and exits fatally (in versions up to and including GNU findutils 4.2.5. ... [ Shenanigans with automounter upset wd_sanity_check() ] As of findutils 4.2.6/4.2.7, find will read /etc/mtab ... [ Shenanigans in Solaris automounter upset mtab check ] ... Hence my question is :- Is it worthwhile at all to perform this "sanity check" or is it of insufficient benefit? I'd be grateful for your thoughts.
What I would like to see implemented (in some messy pseudo-code, starting in parent directory): PARENT=stat("."); SUBDIR=stat("subdir"); chdir("subdir"); DOT=stat("."); if (SUBDIR != DOT) { Print warning message } else { Go on with find (recurse) } chdir(".."); DOT=stat("."); if (PARENT != DOT) { Print message Exit with fatal error } Do not descend into "dodgy" directories, but back out of them; exit fatally if you cannot get back to solid ground. Is this doable? Cheers, Paul Szabo - psz () maths usyd edu au http://www.maths.usyd.edu.au:8000/u/psz/ School of Mathematics and Statistics University of Sydney 2006 Australia
Current thread:
- Re: Changes to the filesystem while find is running - comments?, (continued)
- Re: Changes to the filesystem while find is running - comments? Dmitry V. Levin (Nov 22)
- Re: Changes to the filesystem while find is running - comments? James Youngman (Nov 23)
- Re: Changes to the filesystem while find is running - comments? Martin Buchholz (Nov 23)
- Re: Changes to the filesystem while find is running - comments? James Youngman (Nov 23)
- Re: Changes to the filesystem while find is running - comments? Martin Buchholz (Nov 23)
- Re: Changes to the filesystem while find is running - comments? devnull (Nov 24)
- Re: Changes to the filesystem while find is running - comments? Casper . Dik (Nov 24)
- Re: Changes to the filesystem while find is running - comments? Martin Buchholz (Nov 24)
- Re: Changes to the filesystem while find is running - comments? Casper . Dik (Nov 24)
- Re: Changes to the filesystem while find is running - comments? James Youngman (Nov 25)
- Re: Changes to the filesystem while find is running - comments? James Youngman (Nov 23)
- Re: Changes to the filesystem while find is running - comments? Martin Buchholz (Nov 23)
- Re: Changes to the filesystem while find is running - comments? James Youngman (Nov 23)