Re: What Happens When /proc is not Mounted in FreeBSD5.4?

2007-02-01 Thread Kris Kennaway
On Thu, Feb 01, 2007 at 02:26:00PM -0600, Martin McCormick wrote:
> Kris Kennaway writes:
> > As you have found, proc is almost entirely unused in FreeBSD apart
> > from one or two debugging facilities, and in fact not recommended on
> > multi-user systems because the long history of security
> > vulnerabilities.
> 
>   Thanks to you and Fabian Keil for your succinct answers.
> I took it back off and commented out the line I added to
> /etc/fstab so it can be brought back temporarily when needed but
> isn't just sitting there waiting for lightning to strike.

You could also leave it in fstab with the noauto option so it can be
easily mounted with mount /proc if needed.

Kris


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Re: What Happens When /proc is not Mounted in FreeBSD5.4?

2007-02-01 Thread Martin McCormick
Kris Kennaway writes:
> As you have found, proc is almost entirely unused in FreeBSD apart
> from one or two debugging facilities, and in fact not recommended on
> multi-user systems because the long history of security
> vulnerabilities.

Thanks to you and Fabian Keil for your succinct answers.
I took it back off and commented out the line I added to
/etc/fstab so it can be brought back temporarily when needed but
isn't just sitting there waiting for lightning to strike.

Martin McCormick
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Re: What Happens When /proc is not Mounted in FreeBSD5.4?

2007-02-01 Thread Kris Kennaway
On Thu, Feb 01, 2007 at 11:17:50AM -0600, Martin McCormick wrote:
>   I made a startling discovery when using strace to
> trouble-shoot a different problem on a freeBSD5.4 system that has
> been running since last October.  Both it and another new 5.4
> system had a /proc mount point but no process files.  The mount
> point had the May 5 date from 2005 as do most files from that
> distribution.
> 
>   I mounted /proc the way it is done in fstab for 4.x systems
> 
> proc  /proc   procfs  rw  0   0
> 
> and there were all the process directories.  The only reason I
> had done this was because strace won't work without /proc.
> Nothing else had seemed wrong and there hadn't been any
> compelling reason to look at /proc until now.
> 
>   Would an unmounted /proc make the system run slower since
> proc files allow for examination of the operation of the running
> processes?  So basically, I have fixed the problem if it really
> was one in the first place.

As you have found, proc is almost entirely unused in FreeBSD apart
from one or two debugging facilities, and in fact not recommended on
multi-user systems because the long history of security
vulnerabilities.

Kris


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Re: What Happens When /proc is not Mounted in FreeBSD5.4?

2007-02-01 Thread Fabian Keil
Martin McCormick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

>   I made a startling discovery when using strace to
> trouble-shoot a different problem on a freeBSD5.4 system that has
> been running since last October.  Both it and another new 5.4
> system had a /proc mount point but no process files.

If I remember correctly procfs is off by default
for security reasons.

>   Would an unmounted /proc make the system run slower since
> proc files allow for examination of the operation of the running
> processes?

procfs is for user land applications, the kernel obviously
has other means to examine running processes.

I doubt that mounting procfs (without using it) has any measurable
effect on the system's performance, but if it does, I would assume
that it decreases performance rather than increasing it.

Fabian


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What Happens When /proc is not Mounted in FreeBSD5.4?

2007-02-01 Thread Martin McCormick
I made a startling discovery when using strace to
trouble-shoot a different problem on a freeBSD5.4 system that has
been running since last October.  Both it and another new 5.4
system had a /proc mount point but no process files.  The mount
point had the May 5 date from 2005 as do most files from that
distribution.

I mounted /proc the way it is done in fstab for 4.x systems

proc/proc   procfs  rw  0   0

and there were all the process directories.  The only reason I
had done this was because strace won't work without /proc.
Nothing else had seemed wrong and there hadn't been any
compelling reason to look at /proc until now.

Would an unmounted /proc make the system run slower since
proc files allow for examination of the operation of the running
processes?  So basically, I have fixed the problem if it really
was one in the first place.

Martin McCormick WB5AGZ  Stillwater, OK 
Systems Engineer
OSU Information Technology Department Network Operations Group
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