We have a weird and problematic intersection of features that when
they all come together result in ambiguous siginfo values, that
we can not support properly.
- Supporting fcntl(F_SETSIG,...) with arbitrary valid signals.
- Using positive values for POLL_IN, POLL_OUT, POLL_MSG, ..., etc
that imply they are signal specific si_codes and using the
aforementioned arbitrary signal to deliver them.
- Supporting injection of arbitrary siginfo values for debugging and
checkpoint/restore.
The result is that just looking at siginfo si_codes of 1 to 6 are
ambigious. It could either be a signal specific si_code or it could
be a generic si_code.
For most of the kernel this is a non-issue but for sending signals
with siginfo it is impossible to play back the kernel signals and
get the same result.
Strictly speaking when the si_code was changed from SI_SIGIO to
POLL_IN and friends between 2.2 and 2.4 this functionality was not
ambiguous, as only real time signals were supported. Before 2.4 was
released the kernel began supporting siginfo with non realtime signals
so they could give details of why the signal was sent.
The result is that if F_SETSIG is set to one of the signals with signal
specific si_codes then user space can not know why the signal was sent.
I grepped through a bunch of userspace programs using debian code
search to get a feel for how often people choose a signal that results
in an ambiguous si_code. I only found one program doing so and it was
using SIGCHLD to test the F_SETSIG functionality, and did not appear
to be a real world usage.
Therefore the ambiguity does not appears to be a real world problem in
practice. Remove the ambiguity while introducing the smallest chance
of breakage by changing the si_code to SI_SIGIO when signals with
signal specific si_codes are targeted.
Fixes: v2.3.40 -- Added support for queueing non-rt signals
Fixes: v2.3.21 -- Changed the si_code from SI_SIGIO
Signed-off-by: "Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederm@xmission.com>
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