Allow core dumps to block devices by allowing the user to name a block device in core_pattern. This is extremely useful when running the kernel in a "captive" appliance. There is not necessarily a writable, mounted filesystem that can be used to catch a core dump, so instead we set aside a virtual disk for core dumps and allow the kernel to write a core to that. This patch was tested by running the modified kernel under qemu (using libguestfs) and forcing various core dumps to attached virtual disks. Signed-off-by: Richard W.M. Jones <rjones@xxxxxxxxxx> --- fs/exec.c | 7 ++++--- 1 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/fs/exec.c b/fs/exec.c index 52a447d..7aa4b19 100644 --- a/fs/exec.c +++ b/fs/exec.c @@ -2047,10 +2047,11 @@ void do_coredump(long signr, int exit_code, struct pt_regs *regs) if (d_unhashed(cprm.file->f_path.dentry)) goto close_fail; /* - * AK: actually i see no reason to not allow this for named - * pipes etc, but keep the previous behaviour for now. + * Previously coredumps were only allowed to regular files. + * Block devices are useful too for capturing errors in + * captive appliances. */ - if (!S_ISREG(inode->i_mode)) + if (!S_ISREG(inode->i_mode) && !S_ISBLK(inode->i_mode)) goto close_fail; /* * Dont allow local users get cute and trick others to coredump -- 1.7.4 -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-fsdevel" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
