On Sun, 23 Oct 2011 19:10:34 -0500 Dan Nelson <dnel...@allantgroup.com> wrote:
> In the last episode (Oct 23), Christopher J. Ruwe said:
> > I need to get the maximum size of an pwd-entry to determine the
> > correct buffersize for calling getpwnam_r("uname",&pwd, buf,
> > bufsize, &pwdp). I would like to use sysconf(_SC_GETPW_R_SIZE_MAX)
> > to determine bufsize, which unfornutately fails (returns -1).
> > Currently, I used 16384, which seems to be too much, bit works for
> > the time being.
> >
> > From recent mails I get that _SC_GETPW_R_SIZE_MAX is not available
> > on FreeBSD, e.g.,
> > http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-ports-bugs/2009-September/173081.html
> > and
> > http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2011-May/msg01013.html.
> > This assertion seems to be backed
> > by /usr/srclib/libc/gen/sysconf.c, line 374.
> >
> > From Stevens & Rago, Adavanced Programming in the UNIX Environment,
> > I can get that FreeBSD supports all possible members in the passwd
> > structure, but where can I determine the maximum size of these so
> > that I can calculate the ax size of the pwd struct therefrom? Does
> > anybody know or know where to look what maximum size a pwd-entry
> > can have?
> >
> > Knowing the maximum size a pwd structure can have, it seems like to
> > be an idea to define the correct value in sysconf.c. As that is
> > not done though suggested in the code, are there any obstacles in
> > defining that value so nobody has done that so far?
>
> >From looking at the libc/gen/getpwent.c file, it looks like a
> >maximum size
> might be 1MB. The wrapper functions that convert getpw*_r functions
> into ones that simply return a pointer to malloced data all use the
> getpw() helper function, which starts with a 1k buffer and keeps
> doubling its size until the data fits or it hits PWD_STORAGE_MAX
> (1MB). PWD_STORAGE_MAX is only checked within that getpw() function,
> though, so it's possible that an nss library might return an even
> longer string to a get*_r call. It's up to you to decide what your
> own limit is :)
>
Uh ... it's just that I hoped I had not to decide ;-)
However, 1M seems to be rather large to me. Let's see (pwd.h):
116 struct passwd {
117 char *pw_name; /* user name */
118 char *pw_passwd; /* encrypted password */
119 uid_t pw_uid; /* user uid */
120 gid_t pw_gid; /* user gid */
121 time_t pw_change; /* password change time */
122 char *pw_class; /* user access class */
123 char *pw_gecos; /* Honeywell login info */
124 char *pw_dir; /* home directory */
125 char *pw_shell; /* default shell */
126 time_t pw_expire; /* account expiration */
127 int pw_fields; /* internal: fields filled in */
128 };
So pw_name -> MAXLOGNAME (from param.h) = 17. pw_passwd ->
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/one-time-passwords.html = 129. pw_uid &
pw_gid each sizeof(__uint32_t) ?= 32b. time_t -> sizeof(__int64_t) ?= 64b.
At some point, I would just sum it up and reach some size which might be
machine dependant, but should be somewhere (guessing/estimating now) between 4k
and 16k. I am short on time just now, am I on the right track or am I missing
something which should be obvious to someone with experience, but is not to me
(lacking experience)?
Thanks and regards,
--
Christopher J. Ruwe
TZ GMT + 2
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