setproctitle() no longer used?

The Hermit Hacker writes:

Well, that would explain that, now, wouldn't it? did we remove this
somewhere along the way? *raised eyebrow*

There was no setproctitle in 6.5.* either.

I'm guessing that the argv[0] = "the string you want" method no longer
works in FreeBSD 4.0??? In any case, as per previous discussion, I did
write up a more portable and robust setproctitle-like implementation for
our use (which actually uses setproctitle if available), so if this is the
problem it's at least being worked on.

pgsql% find . -name "*.[ch]" -exec grep setproctitle {} \; -print
pgsql% pwd
/pgsql/src/pgsql/src
pgsql%

--
Peter Eisentraut Sernanders v�g 10:115
peter_e@gmx.net 75262 Uppsala
http://yi.org/peter-e/ Sweden

[Charset ISO-8859-1 unsupported, filtering to ASCII...]

The Hermit Hacker writes:

Well, that would explain that, now, wouldn't it? did we remove this
somewhere along the way? *raised eyebrow*

There was no setproctitle in 6.5.* either.

I'm guessing that the argv[0] = "the string you want" method no longer
works in FreeBSD 4.0??? In any case, as per previous discussion, I did

I am quite surprised. I though all BSD's allows this. It is done using
kvm. I am not sure the ps thing works in the backend process is swapped
out.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://www.op.net/~candle
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 853-3000
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  830 Blythe Avenue
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026

On Wed, 10 May 2000, Peter Eisentraut wrote:

The Hermit Hacker writes:

Well, that would explain that, now, wouldn't it? did we remove this
somewhere along the way? *raised eyebrow*

There was no setproctitle in 6.5.* either.

I'm guessing that the argv[0] = "the string you want" method no longer
works in FreeBSD 4.0??? In any case, as per previous discussion, I did
write up a more portable and robust setproctitle-like implementation for
our use (which actually uses setproctitle if available), so if this is the
problem it's at least being worked on.

D'oh, okay...I ended up going through the v6.5.* source code too, and
couldn't find it there. I forget how Bruce had implemented it using
argv[0], and yes, it is definitely broken on FreeBSD 4.0 ...

I'll look at doing the change here locally, since I know
setproctitle() does work, as I find it invaluable to know what is running,
and where ...

D'oh, okay...I ended up going through the v6.5.* source code too, and
couldn't find it there. I forget how Bruce had implemented it using
argv[0], and yes, it is definitely broken on FreeBSD 4.0 ...

I'll look at doing the change here locally, since I know
setproctitle() does work, as I find it invaluable to know what is running,
and where ...

Can you find out if it is broken, or they have stopped supporting it in
FreeBSD.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://www.op.net/~candle
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 853-3000
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  830 Blythe Avenue
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026

On Wed, 10 May 2000, Bruce Momjian wrote:

D'oh, okay...I ended up going through the v6.5.* source code too, and
couldn't find it there. I forget how Bruce had implemented it using
argv[0], and yes, it is definitely broken on FreeBSD 4.0 ...

I'll look at doing the change here locally, since I know
setproctitle() does work, as I find it invaluable to know what is running,
and where ...

Can you find out if it is broken, or they have stopped supporting it in
FreeBSD.

In 4.0-Rel they're not saying it's gone or going away, just that you
need to link with -lutil if you use it. They also state that there's
no standard but that they believe they're using the predominant
convention.

Vince.
--
==========================================================================
Vince Vielhaber -- KA8CSH email: vev@michvhf.com http://www.pop4.net
128K ISDN from $22.00/mo - 56K Dialup from $16.00/mo at Pop4 Networking
Online Campground Directory http://www.camping-usa.com
Online Giftshop Superstore http://www.cloudninegifts.com
==========================================================================

On Wed, 10 May 2000, Bruce Momjian wrote:

D'oh, okay...I ended up going through the v6.5.* source code too, and
couldn't find it there. I forget how Bruce had implemented it using
argv[0], and yes, it is definitely broken on FreeBSD 4.0 ...

I'll look at doing the change here locally, since I know
setproctitle() does work, as I find it invaluable to know what is running,
and where ...

Can you find out if it is broken, or they have stopped supporting it in
FreeBSD.

In 4.0-Rel they're not saying it's gone or going away, just that you
need to link with -lutil if you use it. They also state that there's
no standard but that they believe they're using the predominant
convention.

So if you use -lutil, the argv[0] trick works, and if you don't, it
doesn't? If so, we can get that into the FreeBSD template.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://www.op.net/~candle
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 853-3000
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  830 Blythe Avenue
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026

On Wed, 10 May 2000, Bruce Momjian wrote:

On Wed, 10 May 2000, Bruce Momjian wrote:

D'oh, okay...I ended up going through the v6.5.* source code too, and
couldn't find it there. I forget how Bruce had implemented it using
argv[0], and yes, it is definitely broken on FreeBSD 4.0 ...

I'll look at doing the change here locally, since I know
setproctitle() does work, as I find it invaluable to know what is running,
and where ...

Can you find out if it is broken, or they have stopped supporting it in
FreeBSD.

In 4.0-Rel they're not saying it's gone or going away, just that you
need to link with -lutil if you use it. They also state that there's
no standard but that they believe they're using the predominant
convention.

So if you use -lutil, the argv[0] trick works, and if you don't, it
doesn't? If so, we can get that into the FreeBSD template.

'splain the "argv[0] trick" briefly.

Vince.
--
==========================================================================
Vince Vielhaber -- KA8CSH email: vev@michvhf.com http://www.pop4.net
128K ISDN from $22.00/mo - 56K Dialup from $16.00/mo at Pop4 Networking
Online Campground Directory http://www.camping-usa.com
Online Giftshop Superstore http://www.cloudninegifts.com
==========================================================================

So if you use -lutil, the argv[0] trick works, and if you don't, it
doesn't? If so, we can get that into the FreeBSD template.

'splain the "argv[0] trick" briefly.

It is a nifty BSD one. If you assign argv[0] in the program to a
string, it shows in ps.

argv[0] = "new ps string";

The Linux method is:

strcpy(argv[0], "new ps string");

In the second case, you are actually writing into the environment area
use to store args. Not real great, but it works on Linux.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://www.op.net/~candle
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 853-3000
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  830 Blythe Avenue
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026

On Wed, 10 May 2000, Bruce Momjian wrote:

So if you use -lutil, the argv[0] trick works, and if you don't, it
doesn't? If so, we can get that into the FreeBSD template.

'splain the "argv[0] trick" briefly.

It is a nifty BSD one. If you assign argv[0] in the program to a
string, it shows in ps.

argv[0] = "new ps string";

The Linux method is:

strcpy(argv[0], "new ps string");

In the second case, you are actually writing into the environment area
use to store args. Not real great, but it works on Linux.

This does not:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <libutil.h>

int main(int numargs, char *argv[])
{
int ii;

argv[0] = "Postgres Power!";

for(ii=0;ii<100;ii++) sleep(1);

return 0;
}

$ cc test.c -lutil -o test
$ ./test

making it strcpy(argv[0],"Postgres Power!"); didn't either.

But:

making it: setproctitle("Postgres Power!"); gives this:

34273 p3 S 0:00.00 test: Postgres Power! (test)

Vince.
--
==========================================================================
Vince Vielhaber -- KA8CSH email: vev@michvhf.com http://www.pop4.net
128K ISDN from $22.00/mo - 56K Dialup from $16.00/mo at Pop4 Networking
Online Campground Directory http://www.camping-usa.com
Online Giftshop Superstore http://www.cloudninegifts.com
==========================================================================

On Wed, 10 May 2000, Bruce Momjian wrote:

So if you use -lutil, the argv[0] trick works, and if you don't, it
doesn't? If so, we can get that into the FreeBSD template.

'splain the "argv[0] trick" briefly.

It is a nifty BSD one. If you assign argv[0] in the program to a
string, it shows in ps.

argv[0] = "new ps string";

The Linux method is:

strcpy(argv[0], "new ps string");

In the second case, you are actually writing into the environment area
use to store args. Not real great, but it works on Linux.

This does not:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <libutil.h>

int main(int numargs, char *argv[])
{
int ii;

argv[0] = "Postgres Power!";

for(ii=0;ii<100;ii++) sleep(1);

return 0;
}

$ cc test.c -lutil -o test
$ ./test

making it strcpy(argv[0],"Postgres Power!"); didn't either.

But:

making it: setproctitle("Postgres Power!"); gives this:

34273 p3 S 0:00.00 test: Postgres Power! (test)

Well, that's interesting. Our issue with setproctitle is how fast it
is. Every query changes its proctitle, so it has to be fast. Tom want
to have setproctitle on backend startup, then use the fast method on
platforms that support it.

Does the existing postgres ps title code work on your Linux?

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://www.op.net/~candle
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 853-3000
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  830 Blythe Avenue
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026

On Wed, 10 May 2000, Bruce Momjian wrote:

On Wed, 10 May 2000, Bruce Momjian wrote:

So if you use -lutil, the argv[0] trick works, and if you don't, it
doesn't? If so, we can get that into the FreeBSD template.

'splain the "argv[0] trick" briefly.

It is a nifty BSD one. If you assign argv[0] in the program to a
string, it shows in ps.

argv[0] = "new ps string";

The Linux method is:

strcpy(argv[0], "new ps string");

In the second case, you are actually writing into the environment area
use to store args. Not real great, but it works on Linux.

This does not:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <libutil.h>

int main(int numargs, char *argv[])
{
int ii;

argv[0] = "Postgres Power!";

for(ii=0;ii<100;ii++) sleep(1);

return 0;
}

$ cc test.c -lutil -o test
$ ./test

making it strcpy(argv[0],"Postgres Power!"); didn't either.

But:

making it: setproctitle("Postgres Power!"); gives this:

34273 p3 S 0:00.00 test: Postgres Power! (test)

Well, that's interesting. Our issue with setproctitle is how fast it
is. Every query changes its proctitle, so it has to be fast. Tom want
to have setproctitle on backend startup, then use the fast method on
platforms that support it.

Does the existing postgres ps title code work on your Linux?

I'm assuming you're not asking me..

Vince.
--
==========================================================================
Vince Vielhaber -- KA8CSH email: vev@michvhf.com http://www.pop4.net
128K ISDN from $22.00/mo - 56K Dialup from $16.00/mo at Pop4 Networking
Online Campground Directory http://www.camping-usa.com
Online Giftshop Superstore http://www.cloudninegifts.com
==========================================================================

making it: setproctitle("Postgres Power!"); gives this:

34273 p3 S 0:00.00 test: Postgres Power! (test)

Well, that's interesting. Our issue with setproctitle is how fast it
is. Every query changes its proctitle, so it has to be fast. Tom want
to have setproctitle on backend startup, then use the fast method on
platforms that support it.

Does the existing postgres ps title code work on your Linux?

I'm assuming you're not asking me..

I thought I was. :-)

I now realize you are running FreeBSD. Yikes.

So neither works. Well, that is a problem. Does the -lutil help?

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://www.op.net/~candle
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 853-3000
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  830 Blythe Avenue
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026

On Wed, 10 May 2000, Bruce Momjian wrote:

making it: setproctitle("Postgres Power!"); gives this:

34273 p3 S 0:00.00 test: Postgres Power! (test)

Well, that's interesting. Our issue with setproctitle is how fast it
is. Every query changes its proctitle, so it has to be fast. Tom want
to have setproctitle on backend startup, then use the fast method on
platforms that support it.

Does the existing postgres ps title code work on your Linux?

I'm assuming you're not asking me..

I thought I was. :-)

I now realize you are running FreeBSD. Yikes.

So neither works. Well, that is a problem. Does the -lutil help?

No, I compiled every time with -lutil

Vince.
--
==========================================================================
Vince Vielhaber -- KA8CSH email: vev@michvhf.com http://www.pop4.net
128K ISDN from $22.00/mo - 56K Dialup from $16.00/mo at Pop4 Networking
Online Campground Directory http://www.camping-usa.com
Online Giftshop Superstore http://www.cloudninegifts.com
==========================================================================

I thought I was. :-)

I now realize you are running FreeBSD. Yikes.

So neither works. Well, that is a problem. Does the -lutil help?

No, I compiled every time with -lutil

Oh. Can you look at the setproctitle code on your platform and see how
it implements it?

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://www.op.net/~candle
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 853-3000
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  830 Blythe Avenue
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026

On Wed, 10 May 2000, Bruce Momjian wrote:

I thought I was. :-)

I now realize you are running FreeBSD. Yikes.

So neither works. Well, that is a problem. Does the -lutil help?

No, I compiled every time with -lutil

Oh. Can you look at the setproctitle code on your platform and see how
it implements it?

I've attached it since it's small.

Vince.
--
==========================================================================
Vince Vielhaber -- KA8CSH email: vev@michvhf.com http://www.pop4.net
128K ISDN from $22.00/mo - 56K Dialup from $16.00/mo at Pop4 Networking
Online Campground Directory http://www.camping-usa.com
Online Giftshop Superstore http://www.cloudninegifts.com
==========================================================================

On Thu, 11 May 2000, Peter Eisentraut wrote:

On Wed, 10 May 2000, Bruce Momjian wrote:

Oh. Can you look at the setproctitle code on your platform and see
how it implements it?

In the end I believe we'll make the world a better place if we're using
setproctitle when available. Sendmail does. If someone really complains
about speed loss we can always make it an option not to use it, but I
won't buy into that until I see some profiling evidence.

Its a rare thing, but definitely agree with Peter here :)

[Charset iso-8859-1 unsupported, filtering to ASCII...]

On Wed, 10 May 2000, Bruce Momjian wrote:

It is a nifty BSD one. If you assign argv[0] in the program to a
string, it shows in ps.

argv[0] = "new ps string";

The Linux method is:

Maybe I should add that this could more accurately be called the `SysV
method' and also works on SysV-derived models. Heubrid (a.k.a. hogwash)
systems such as Solaris and HPUX may support both or none, depending on
the time of day.

OK.

strcpy(argv[0], "new ps string");

In the second case, you are actually writing into the environment area
use to store args. Not real great, but it works on Linux.

You just copy the environment somewhere else before you do that. Or don't
use the environment. Not a big deal.

But do they really do that? The scary part about the Linux code in
pg_status.h is that is just zeros out all the argv bytes and starts
writing, and that is environment memory.

Now, I do some tricks in postmaster.c so I know I have at least 5
elements to argv[], but I never do anything that makes sure I have
enough environment space to start copying strings in there.

argv[0] = "string"
strcpy(argv[0], "string");

The first makes argv[0] point into user-space memory, while the second
writes into environment memory. (Allowing ps to dynamically read
argv[0] memory that is pointing to user-space is a kvm() trick.)

Linux people seem to be happy with their version, but frankly, I would
not allow it on BSD. I would _at_ _least_ put something in postmaster.c
so I _knew_ that argv[0] had a reasonable size for me to copy into it.
(Massimo write the Linux code, I believe.)

Guess it is more a philosophical issue. Linux folks like it because it
works, while I don't because it is not bullet-proof.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://www.op.net/~candle
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 853-3000
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  830 Blythe Avenue
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026

[Charset iso-8859-1 unsupported, filtering to ASCII...]

On Wed, 10 May 2000, Bruce Momjian wrote:

Oh. Can you look at the setproctitle code on your platform and see
how it implements it?

In the end I believe we'll make the world a better place if we're using
setproctitle when available. Sendmail does. If someone really complains
about speed loss we can always make it an option not to use it, but I
won't buy into that until I see some profiling evidence.

Good point. I just did it because it worked on BSD, and I don't have
setproctitle. If sendmail does it by default if setproctitle exists,
maybe that is the way to go.

BSDI 4.01 doesn't have setproctitle, but I don't need it because I can
just assign anything in there.

I saw the FreeBSD code, and it seems they have added a sysctl() call in
the library setproctitle code to handle it.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://www.op.net/~candle
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 853-3000
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  830 Blythe Avenue
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026

On Thu, 11 May 2000, Peter Eisentraut wrote:

On Wed, 10 May 2000, Bruce Momjian wrote:

Oh. Can you look at the setproctitle code on your platform and see
how it implements it?

In the end I believe we'll make the world a better place if we're using
setproctitle when available. Sendmail does. If someone really complains
about speed loss we can always make it an option not to use it, but I
won't buy into that until I see some profiling evidence.

Its a rare thing, but definitely agree with Peter here :)

I think I do too. Let me add this to the TODO list:

* use setproctitle() if it exists for 'ps' display of status

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://www.op.net/~candle
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 853-3000
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  830 Blythe Avenue
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026