The Unix Heritage Society mailing list
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: jnc@mercury.lcs.mit.edu (Noel Chiappa)
Subject: [TUHS] v5 and v6 kernel is mode 777
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2015 15:19:45 -0500 (EST)	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20150222201945.874CC18C0E9@mercury.lcs.mit.edu> (raw)

    > From: Dave Horsfall <dave at horsfall.org>

    >> Once UNIX has booted, it has no use for 'unix' (or whatever file it
    >> booted from)

    > Didn't "ps" try and read its symbol table?

Sorry, meant 'UNIX the monolithic kernel'; yes, ps and siblings (e.g. iostat)
need to get the running system's symbol table.


    > I had fun days when I booted, say, "/unix.new", and "ps" wouldn't
    > sodding work...

Know that feeling! I added the following to one of the kernel data files:

    char *endsys &end;

and then in programs which grab the system's symbol table, I have an nlist()
entry:

  "_endsys",

with the follwing code:

  /* Check that the namelist applies to the current system.
   */

  checknms(symfile)
  char	*symfile;

  {	char	*chkloc, *chkval;

	if (nl[0].type == 0)
		cerror("No namelist\n");

	chkloc = nl[ENDSYS].value;
	chkval = rdloc(chkloc);

	if (chkval != nl[END].value) {
		cerror("Symbol table in %s doesn't match running system\n",
		       symfile);
		}
  }

on the theory that pretty much any change at all is going to result in a
change in the system's size (and thus the address of 'end').

Although in a split I/D system, this may not be true (you could change the
code, and have the data+BSS remain the same size); I should probably check
the location of 'etext' as well...

Anyway, a rebuilt system may result in the address of 'endsys' changing, and
thus the rdloc() won't return the contents of the running system's 'endsys',
but the chances of an essentially-random fetch being the same as the value of
'end' in /unix are pretty slim, I would say...

	Noel



             reply	other threads:[~2015-02-22 20:19 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 9+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2015-02-22 20:19 Noel Chiappa [this message]
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2015-02-22 19:50 Noel Chiappa
2015-02-22 20:01 ` Dave Horsfall
2015-02-23  5:31   ` Ed Carp
2015-02-23 18:42     ` scj
2015-02-22 19:36 Mark Longridge
2015-02-22 19:49 ` Ronald Natalie
2015-02-22 20:30   ` Mark Longridge
2015-02-22 19:56 ` Dave Horsfall

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=20150222201945.874CC18C0E9@mercury.lcs.mit.edu \
    --to=jnc@mercury.lcs.mit.edu \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for NNTP newsgroup(s).