I've read some of the warnings against using the sysctl() call in C, and it seems if I cannot use sysctl() safely, the only other way I can find to make the needed change would be to use soemething like:
system("echo fs.inotify.max_user_watches=NEW_MAX_DIRECTORIES >> /etc/sysctl.conf");
system("sysctl -p");
(of course, this assumes ensuring the binary is running as root. However, I would rather NOT have to shell out using system calls.
Can someone point me in the correct and safe of using sysctl()?
here is a snippet of the code I am using.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <getopt.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <errno.h>
int main ()
{
int ret;
const char *LOGNAME="iNotifyMonitor";
logger(INFO, "================================================");
ret = startDaemon();
daemonRunning = ret;
if (ret == 0)
{
daemonRunning = 1;
FIRST_RUN = 0;
}
if(ret)
{
syslog(LOG_USER | LOG_ERR, "Error starting iNotifyMonitor");
logger(ERR, "Unable to start iNotifyMonitor");
closelog();
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
signal(SIGINT, signalHandler);
signal(SIGHUP, signalHandler);
char *log_file_name = malloc(sizeof(char *) * sizeof(char *));
sprintf(log_file_name, "%s%s", INM_LOG_DIR, INM_LOG_FILE);
/* Try to open log file to this daemon */
if (INM_OPEN_LOG && INM_LOG_FILE)
{
log_stream = fopen(concatString(INM_LOG_DIR, INM_LOG_FILE), "a+");
if (log_stream == NULL)
{
char *errMsg;
sprintf(errMsg, "Cannot open log file %s, error: %s", concatString(INM_LOG_DIR, INM_LOG_FILE), strerror(errno));
log_stream = stdout;
}
}
else
{
log_stream = stdout;
}
while (daemonRunning == 1)
{
if (ret < 0)
{
logger(LOG_ERR, "Can not write to log stream: %s, error: %s", (log_stream == stdout) ? "stdout" : log_file_name, strerror(errno));
break;
}
ret = fflush(log_stream);
if (ret != 0)
{
logger(LOG_ERR, "Can not fflush() log stream: %s, error: %s",
(log_stream == stdout) ? "stdout" : log_file_name, strerror(errno));
break;
}
int curcount =countDirectory("/home/darrinw/Development/CrossRoads/");
directoryCount = curcount;
if(directoryCounrt > INM_MAX_DIRECTORIES)
{
int newVal = roundUp(directoryCount, 32768);
// call to sysctl() to modify fs.inotify.max_users_watches=newVal
}
sleep(INM_SCAN_INTERVAL);
}
My understanding is that the modern recommended approach to access sysctl variables is via the pseudo-files in /proc/sys. So just open /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches and write there.
int fd = open("/proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches", O_WRONLY);
dprintf(fd, "%d", NEW_MAX_DIRECTORIES);
close(fd);
Error checking left as an exercise.
Modifying /etc/sysctl.conf would make the setting persist across reboots (assuming your distribution uses the file this way, I am not sure if all of them do). That's kind of rude to do automatically; probably better to use the documentation to advise the system administrator to do it themselves if it's needed.
Related
The following code is supposed to read the file "rules.txt" and write it to a device line by line.
The flow should be:
Read line from rules.txt
Echo it to device
The following code always end in segfault because of readline and I have no idea why:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <signal.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <ctype.h>
#include <termios.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/mman.h>
#define BUFFER_LENGTH 256
int main()
{
char *line;
size_t len = BUFFER_LENGTH;
int fd = open("./rules.txt", O_RDONLY);
if(fd == -1)
{ perror("open failed"); return 0; }
FILE* fout = fopen("/sys/class/Rule_Table_Class/Rule_Table_Class_Rule_Table_Device/sysfs_att", "w+");
if(fout == NULL)
{ close(fd); perror("fopen failed, log.txt is busy!"); return 0; }
while (1)
{
line = (char*) malloc(len*sizeof(char));
if(line==NULL){
perror("malloc failed!"); return 0;
}
int bytesRead = getline(&line, &len, fd);
if (bytesRead == -1)
{
perror("Failed to read the message from the device.");
return errno;
}
sprintf(line,"%s","lala");
printf("line = %s", line);
}
fclose(fout);
close(fd);
return 0;
}
EDIT:
I corrected the code and still get a segfault. Here is the corrected code:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <signal.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <ctype.h>
#include <termios.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/mman.h>
#define BUFFER_LENGTH 256
int main()
{
FILE * fp;
char * line = NULL;
size_t len = 0;
ssize_t read;
fp = fopen("./rules.txt", "r");
if(fp == NULL)
{ perror("open failed"); return 0; }
FILE* fout = fopen("/sys/class/Rule_Table_Class/Rule_Table_Class_Rule_Table_Device/sysfs_att", "w+");
if(fout == NULL)
{ perror("fopen failed!"); return 0; }
while (1)
{
ssize_t bytesRead = getline(&line, &len, fp);
if (bytesRead == -1)
{
return 0;
}
printf("line = %s", line);
fprintf(line,"%s",fout);
}
fclose(fout);
fclose(fp);
return 0;
}
First of all, the proper core getline() loop is
/* FILE *in = fopen(..., "r"); */
char *line = NULL;
size_t size = 0;
while (1) {
ssize_t len = getline(&line, &size, in);
if (len < 0)
break;
/* You have 'len' chars at 'line', with line[len] == '\0'. */
}
so, it is not getline() that causes the segfault, it is your fprintf(line, "%s", fout); that should be either fprintf(fout, "%s", line); or just fputs(line, fout);, or fwrite(line, 1, bytesRead, fout); since the line can contain embedded NUL bytes that fprintf() and fputs() consider an end of string mark.
If we modify the code so that the source and target file names are taken as command-line arguments (with - denoting standard input or standard output), this is what I'd personally like to see:
/* SPDX-License-Identifier: CC0-1.0 */
/* This tells the GNU C library to expose POSIX features, including getline(). */
#define _POSIX_C_SOURCE 200809L
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <errno.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
if (argc != 3 || !strcmp(argv[1], "-h") || !strcmp(argv[1], "--help")) {
const char *self = (argc > 0 && argv && argv[0] && argv[0][0]) ? argv[0] : "(this)";
fprintf(stderr, "\n");
fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s [ -h | --help ]\n", self);
fprintf(stderr, " %s SOURCE TARGET\n", self);
fprintf(stderr, "\n");
fprintf(stderr, "This copies all content from SOURCE to TARGET, line by line.\n");
fprintf(stderr, "Use '-' for standard input source or standard output target.\n");
fprintf(stderr, "\n");
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
const char *srcpath = argv[1];
const char *dstpath = argv[2];
/* If the path is "-", set it to NULL. */
if (srcpath && !strcmp(srcpath, "-"))
srcpath = NULL;
if (dstpath && !strcmp(dstpath, "-"))
dstpath = NULL;
FILE *src, *dst;
/* Open source for reading. If srcpath is NULL, use stdin. */
if (srcpath) {
src = fopen(srcpath, "r");
if (!src) {
fprintf(stderr, "%s: %s.\n", srcpath, strerror(errno));
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
} else {
src = stdin;
}
/* Open target for writing. If dstpath is NULL, use stdout. */
if (dstpath) {
dst = fopen(dstpath, "w");
if (!dst) {
fprintf(stderr, "%s: %s.\n", dstpath, strerror(errno));
fclose(src);
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
} else {
dst = stdout;
}
char *line = NULL;
size_t size = 0;
unsigned long linenum = 0;
while (1) {
ssize_t len = getline(&line, &size, src);
if (len < 0)
break;
linenum++;
if (fwrite(line, 1, len, dst) != (size_t)len) {
fprintf(stderr, "%s: Write error on line %lu.\n", dstpath ? dstpath : "(standard output)", linenum);
fclose(dst);
fclose(src);
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
}
/* Technically, we don't need to release dynamically allocated (non-shared) memory,
because we're just about to exit, and the OS will automagically do that for us.
We can do this at any point we want during the loop, too. */
free(line);
line = NULL;
size = 0;
/* We do not know why getline() returned -1. Check if an error occurred, and whether we're at end of input. */
if (ferror(src) || !feof(src)) {
fprintf(stderr, "%s: Read error on line %lu.\n", srcpath ? srcpath : "(standard input)", linenum);
fclose(dst);
fclose(src);
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
/* Check if any write errors have occurred. */
if (ferror(dst)) {
fprintf(stderr, "%s: Write error on line %lu.\n", dstpath ? dstpath : "(standard output)", linenum);
fclose(dst);
fclose(src);
}
/* Read errors should not occur at close time, but it costs very little for us to test anyway. */
if (fclose(src)) {
fprintf(stderr, "%s: Read error on line %lu.\n", srcpath ? srcpath : "(standard input)", linenum);
fclose(dst);
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
/* Write errors can occur at close time, if the output has been buffered, or the target is on
a remote filesystem. Again, it costs us very little to check. */
if (fclose(dst)) {
fprintf(stderr, "%s: Write error on line %lu.\n", dstpath ? dstpath : "(standard output)", linenum);
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
/* No errors; target is an identical copy of the source file. */
fprintf(stderr, "%lu lines copied successfully.\n", linenum);
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
The SPDX-License-Identifier is a common way to indicate the license of the code. I use CC0-1.0, which basically means "use as you wish, just don't blame the author for any issues: no guarantees, no warranties."
The #define _POSIX_C_SOURCE 200809L tells the GNU C library that we want it to expose POSIX.1-2008 features, which include getline(). If you look at man 3 getline, you'll see in the Synopsis section that glibc 2.10 and later require _POSIX_C_SOURCE to be defined to at least 200809L.
Most of the code is to print the usage, and getting the source and target file names from the command line, and handling - as a special name, "standard stream", so that it can be used even in pipes by specifying - as the input and/or output file name.
The getline() loop uses fwrite() to write the line to the target file. This way, if the input contains embedded NUL bytes (\0), the target will still be identical to the source file.
After the loop, we discard the line buffer, although since the program is just about to exit, we could omit that (since the OS will release all dynamically allocated (non-shared) memory when we exit anyway).
I like code that checks with ferror(src) || !feof(src) if an error occurred in src or src did not reach end of input; and that checks the return value of fclose(), in case a delayed (write) error is reported. Granted, fclose() should never fail for a read-only file, and fclose() should only fail for files we've written to in specific circumstances, but it costs very little to check, and this way the user running the program will be told if the program detected loss of data.
I believe it is morally reprehensible to ignore checking for such errors (especially "because they occur so rarely"), since such tests are the only way the human user can know whether the operation was successful, or if some odd problem occurred. It is up to the human to investigate any problems, and up to our programs to report detectable issues.
The getline function takes a FILE * as a parameter, not an int. Replace the following line:
int fd = open("./rules.txt", O_RDONLY);
By;
FILE *fin = fopen("./rules.txt", "r");
Fix the error checking in the following lines accordingly, like you did with fout.
Then replace the line:
int bytesRead = getline(&line, &len, fd);
Instead it should now use fin:
ssize_t bytesRead = getline(&line, &len, fin);
Note that getline returns ssize_t, not int.
You are also never writing to fout, but I guess you're still working on this code.
Make sure to enable compiler warnings, because your compiler would surely have warned you for using an int parameter where a FILE * was expected.
I am working on Debian GNU/Hurd with Mach. I have been asked to write a program that, given a PID and an address, executes vm_read over the address and prints the result.
This is the code I have written:
#include <mach_error.h>
#include <mach/mig_errors.h>
#include <mach/thread_status.h>
#include <mach/processor_info.h>
#include <mach/i386/vm_param.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <hurd.h>
#include <string.h>
int main(int argc, char * argv[]) {
if(argc != 3) {
printf ("Wrong arguments: ./vm_read PID address\n");
exit(1);
}
int res;
mach_port_t target_task = pid2task(atoi(argv[1]));
vm_address_t addr = atoi(argv[2]);
vm_offset_t *data;
mach_msg_type_number_t data_count;
res = vm_read (target_task, addr, sizeof(int), &data, &data_count);
if (res != KERN_SUCCESS) {
printf ("Error reading virtual mem (0x%x), %s \n", res,
mach_error_string(res));
exit(1);
}
printf("done\n");
for (int i=0; i<data_count; ++i){
printf("byte %d : %x\n",i,((char*)data)[i]);
}
}
It works correctly, but now I'm asked if it is possible to write a version for Unix/Linux and another for Windows that do the same thing.
I've been searching and it looks like it shouldn't be any problem because both use virtual memory in their procceses, but I'm not sure if there could be complications with permissions or anything else.
For Windows, if you need to read memory from a process, you'll need to request the PROCESS_VM_READ when you get your handle to the process (ReadProcessMemory is the appropriate call). In order to get that Handle, it's usually easier to start the process yourself with OpenProcess.
There's no standard way to access the memory of another process on UNIX, but on Linux, you can do it by reading the special file /proc/pid/mem:
char memfile[32];
snprintf(memfile, sizeof(memfile), "/proc/%s/mem", argv[1]);
int mfd = open(memfile, O_RDONLY);
if (mfd < 0) {
perror("Can't open pid/mem file");
exit(1); }
if (lseek(mfd, (off_t)strtoull(argv[2], 0, 0), SEEK_SET) {
perror("Can't seek to address");
exit(1); }
if (read(mfd, &data, sizeof(data)) <= 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "No data at address %s\n", argv[2]);
exit(1); }
I am actually trying to write a small program to catch global keyboard inputs from specific USB keyboards under linux.
I am testing with this piece of code :
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <linux/input.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdio.h>
static const char *const evval[3] = {
"RELEASED",
"PRESSED ",
"REPEATED"
};
int main(void)
{
const char *dev = "/dev/input/event2";
struct input_event ev;
ssize_t n;
int fd;
char name[256]= "Unknown";
// int codes[2];
// codes[0] = 58; /* M keycap */
// codes[1] = 49; /* assign to N */
fd = open(dev, O_RDONLY);
if (fd == -1) {
fprintf(stderr, "Cannot open %s: %s.\n", dev, strerror(errno));
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
if(ioctl(fd, EVIOCGNAME(sizeof(name)), name) > 0)
{
printf("The device on %s says its name is '%s'\n", dev, name);
}
/*
int err = ioctl(fd, EVIOCSKEYCODE, codes);
if (err) {
perror("evdev ioctl");
}*/
while (1) {
n = read(fd, &ev, sizeof ev);
if (n == (ssize_t)-1) {
if (errno == EINTR)
continue;
else
break;
} else
if (n != sizeof ev) {
errno = EIO;
break;
}
if (ev.type == EV_KEY && ev.value >= 0 && ev.value <= 2)
printf("%s 0x%04x (%d)\n", evval[ev.value], (int)ev.code, (int)ev.code);
}
fflush(stdout);
fprintf(stderr, "%s.\n", strerror(errno));
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
Ths point is that I don't know how to change some input key by other. I tried by calling write() on currently red event by changing the event code, sent key was still previous one, and I tried to used ioctl with EVIOCSKEYCODE, but the call failed with an "invalid argument" error (and I'm not sure to call it correctly).
How can I change outputed key correctly ?
Use the EVIOCGRAB ioctl to grab the input device, so that by reading the events you consume them. Normally (not-grabbed) the events are not consumed when you read them. The ioctl takes an additional parameter, (int)1 for grabbing, (int)0 for releasing.
To re-inject any events, just write them to the uinput device. See eg. a mouse example here. (The event structures are the same type, you only need to write a struct uinput_user_dev structure to the uinput device first, to describe your new input device (which provides the mapped events).)
In other words, you don't remap: you consume and forward.
I want to be able to check to see if a file could be opened on Linux (for read or for read and write). However I don't have control of the code which will be opening the file, so I can't do what I would normally do which is to open it and then handle the error.
I appreciate that there will always be race conditions on any check due to permissions changing after the call has returned but before the open call, but I'm trying to avoid some undesirable error logging from a library which I have no control over.
I'm aware of stat, but I'd prefer not to need to try to replicate the logic of checking user IDs and group IDs.
You can use:
access("filename", R_OK);
or
euidaccess("filename", R_OK);
To check if your UID or EUID have read access to a respective file. (UID and EUID will be different if your are running setuid)
Use euidaccess or access, although you almost certainly always want to use the former.
(edit: the reason for adding this was that with this approach you can ensure you can avoid the race conditions. That said, it is quite a tricky approach, so maybe just coping with potential race conditions is a better practical approach).
If your goal is to shield the code that you do not own from unhandled errors, using LD_PRELOAD to intercept the open call itself might be of use. An example of it with malloc is here: Overriding 'malloc' using the LD_PRELOAD mechanism
here my quick improvisation on how you could do it - basically an interceptor that will launch an interactive shell to you to correct the error.
WARNING: lots of open calls actually do fail for legit reasons, e.g. when the program is going over different directories in the path trying to find the file, so treat this code as an educational example only to be used with this example code - if you are any close to real world use, your code definitely will need to be smarter. With all this said, let's get to the meat.
First, the "offensive" program that you do not have the control over:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
int res = 0;
printf("About to try to open the file...\n");
res = open("/tmp/unreadable", O_RDONLY);
printf("The result after opening: %d\n", res);
if (res < 0) {
perror("Could not open, and here is what the errno says");
} else {
char buf[1024];
int fd = res;
res = read(fd, buf, sizeof(buf));
printf("Read %d bytes, here are the first few:\n", res);
buf[30] = 0;
printf("%s\n", buf);
close(fd);
}
}
Then the interceptor:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <stdarg.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#define __USE_GNU
#include <dlfcn.h>
static int (*real_open)(const char *pathname, int flags, ...)=NULL;
static void __open_trace_init(void)
{
real_open = dlsym(RTLD_NEXT, "open");
if (NULL == real_open) {
fprintf(stderr, "Error in `dlsym`: %s\n", dlerror());
return;
}
}
int open(const char *pathname, int flags, ...)
{
if(real_open==NULL)
__open_trace_init();
va_list va;
int res = 0;
do {
if (flags & O_CREAT) {
int mode = 0;
va_start(va, flags);
mode = va_arg(va, int);
va_end(va);
fprintf(stderr, "open(%s, %x, %x) = ", pathname, flags, mode);
res = real_open(pathname, flags, mode);
fprintf(stderr, "%d\n", res);
} else {
fprintf(stderr, "open(%s, %x) = ", pathname, flags);
res = real_open(pathname, flags);
fprintf(stderr, "%d\n", res);
}
if (res < 0) {
printf("The open has returned an error. Please correct and we retry.\n");
system("/bin/sh");
}
} while (res < 0);
return res;
}
And here is how it looks like when running:
ayourtch#ayourtch-lnx:~$ echo This is unreadable >/tmp/unreadable
ayourtch#ayourtch-lnx:~$ chmod 0 /tmp/unreadable
ayourtch#ayourtch-lnx:~/misc/stackoverflow$ LD_PRELOAD=./intercept ./a.out
About to try to open the file...
open(/tmp/unreadable, 0) = -1
The open has returned an error. Please correct and we retry.
open(/dev/tty, 802) = 3
open(/dev/tty, 802) = 3
open(/home/ayourtch/.bash_history, 0) = 3
open(/home/ayourtch/.bash_history, 0) = 3
open(/lib/terminfo/x/xterm, 0) = 3
open(/etc/inputrc, 0) = 3
sh-4.1$ ls -al /tmp/unreadable
---------- 1 ayourtch ayourtch 19 2011-10-18 13:03 /tmp/unreadable
sh-4.1$ chmod 444 /tmp/unreadable
sh-4.1$ exit
open(/home/ayourtch/.bash_history, 401) = 3
open(/home/ayourtch/.bash_history, 0) = 3
open(/home/ayourtch/.bash_history, 201) = 3
open(/tmp/unreadable, 0) = 3
The result after opening: 3
Read 19 bytes, here are the first few:
This is unreadable
�0
ayourtch#ayourtch-lnx:~/misc/stackoverflow$
By the way this example also exposes an obvious bug in the first "test" code - I should have checked that the number of the chars read was at least 30 and put the null char accordingly.
Anyway, that code is supposed to be buggy and outside of the control, so it is kind of good to have a bug in it - else you would not need to use this kind of hack :-)
I'd like to receive (and later process) write(1) and wall(1) messages using a (Unix 98-style) pseudo tty on Linux.
I already have the following minimal implementation:
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <signal.h>
#include <utempter.h>
#define BUF_LENGTH 1024
int
main (void)
{
FILE *lf;
int masterfd, slavefd;
char *slave_name = NULL;
char buf[BUF_LENGTH];
size_t nbytes = sizeof(buf);
ssize_t bytes_read;
int exit_code = EXIT_SUCESS;
if ((masterfd = posix_openpt (O_RDWR | O_NOCTTY)) == -1
|| grantpt (masterfd) == -1
|| unlockpt (masterfd) == -1
|| (slave_name = ptsname (masterfd)) == NULL)
exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
if (!(lf = fopen("term.log","w")))
exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
addToUtmp (slave_name, NULL, masterfd);
for (;;)
{
bytes_read = read(masterfd, buf, nbytes);
if (bytes_read <= 0)
break
fwrite (buf, 1, bytes_read, lf);
}
if (bytes_read < 0)
{
fprintf (stderr, "error reading from master pty: %s\n", strerror (errno));
exit_code = EXIT_FAILURE;
}
fclose (lf);
if (slavefd >= 0)
close (slavefd);
if (masterfd >= 0)
{
removeLineFromUtmp (slave_name, masterfd);
close (masterfd);
}
exit (exit_code);
}
The problem is now that it only works for reading the first message, then read gives me a EIO error. Why is that?
It looks like this happens simply when the last slave file descriptor is closed. Considering write(1) and wall(1) will have the only file descriptor to the slave, you get EIO as soon as those finish writing.
The easiest way to keep this from happening is by keeping a file descriptor around. Right after your ptsname call, do an open(slave_name, O_RDRW).
(Curiously, you already have a slavefd variable, and the code to clean it up. Are you testing us? :p)