[Devel] Re: Namespaces exhausted CLONE_XXX bits problem

[Pavel Emelyanov]

Cedric Le Goater wrote:
> Hello Pavel !
> 
> Pavel Emelyanov wrote:
>> Hi, guys!
>>
>> I started looking at PTYs/TTYs/Console to make the appropriate
>> namespace and suddenly remembered that we have already
>> exhausted all the CLONE_ bits in 32-bit mask.
> 
> yes nearly. 1 left with the mq_namespace i'm going to send.

Yup. That's why I think that we should first solve this
issue and then send more namespaces.

>> So, I recalled the discussions we had and saw the following 
>> proposals of how to track this problem (with their disadvantages):
>>
>> 1. make the clone2 system call with 64-bit mask
>>    - this is a new system call
> 
> sys_clone2 is used on ia64 ... so we would need another name.
>  
> clone_ns() would be nice but it's too specific to namespaces unless 
> we agree that we need a new syscall specific to namespaces. 
> 
> clone_new or clone_large ? 

clone3 :) Just kidding. _If_ implement new system calls then I'd
better like cloe_ns and unshare_nr pair.

>> 2. re-use CLONE_STOPPED
>>    - this will give us only one bit
> 
> not enough.

Yup :)

>> 3. merge existing bits into one
>>    - we lose the ability to create them separately
> 
> it would be useful to have such a flag though, something like CLONE_ALLN,
> because it's the one everyone is going to use.
> 
> what i've been looking at in December is 1. and 3. : a new general purpose 
> clone syscall with extend flags. The all-in-on flag is not an issue but it
> would be nice to keep the last clone flag for this purpose. 
> 
> Now, if we use 64bits, we have a few issue/cleanups to solve. First, in 
> kernel land, the clone_flags are passed down to the security modules
>  
> 	security_task_create()
> 
> so we'll have to change to kernel api. I don't remember anything else 
> blocking.
> 
> In user land, we need to choose a prototype supporting also 32bits arches. 
> so it could be :
> 
> 	long sys_clone_new(struct clone_new_args)
> 
> or
> 
> 	long sys_clone_new(... unsigned long flags_high, unsigned long flag_low ...)
> 
> Second option might be an issue because clone already has 6 arguments.
> right ?

Yes.

> 
>> 4. implement a sys_unshare_ns system call with 64bit/arbitrary mask
>>    - this is anew system call
> 
> I think that a new clone deserves a new unshare.
>  
>>    - this will bring some dissymmetry between namespaces
> 
> what do you mean ?

I mean, that soe namespaces will be unshare-only, but some 
clone-and-unshare. 

>> 5. use sys_indirect
>>    - this one is not in even -mm tree yet and it's questionable
>>      whether it will be at all
> 
> I don't know much about that one.
> 
> C.

So you seem to prefer a "new system call" approach, right?

>> I have one more suggestion:
>>
>> 6. re-use bits, that don't make sense in sys_unshare (e.g.
>>    CLONE_STOPPED, CLONE_PARENT_SETTID, CLONE_VFORK etc)
>>    This will give us ~16 new bits, but this will look not very nice.
>>
>> What do you think about all of this?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Pavel
>> _______________________________________________
>> Containers mailing list
>> Containers at lists.linux-foundation.org
>> https://lists.linux-foundation.org/mailman/listinfo/containers
>>
> 
> 

_______________________________________________
Containers mailing list
Containers at lists.linux-foundation.org
https://lists.linux-foundation.org/mailman/listinfo/containers