Linux-kernel mailing list archive 1997-47,: Re: ar exception in getname?

# Re: ar exception in getname?

Linus Torvalds (torvalds@transmeta.com)
28 Nov 1997 22:02:46 GMT

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In article <347F3E86.A52E8EBA@star.net>, Bill Hawes <whawes@star.net> wrote:
>For quite a while I've noticed sporadic exceptions from the ar utility
>when compiling a kernel. Currently have a completely reproducible
>example when compiling a kernel under NFS.

It's not NFS-related, it happens on a local disk too. It's "ar" giving a
NULL pointer as a name.

>The address listed for the exception is in getname, which puzzles me as
>getname seems to go to some length to ensure valid addresses.

Well, getname() still only makes sure that it's a user-space address, it
doesn't verify that it is a _valid_ user space address. The exception
mechanism does that part.

>Is this a known problem, or has anyone looked into the cause? It doesn't
>seem to do any harm, but it seems that either ar or the kernel might
>need a small patch-up.

It definitely looks like "ar" - it's been doing this for quite a while.

Linus

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