If a user puts init=/whatever on the command line and /whatever can't be run, then the kernel will try a few default options before giving up. If init=/whatever came from a bootloader prompt, then this is unexpected but probably harmless. On the other hand, if it comes from a script (e.g. a tool like virtme or perhaps a future kselftest script), then the fallbacks are likely to exist, but they'll do the wrong thing. For example, they might unexpectedly invoke systemd.
This makes a failure to run the specified init= process be fatal. As a temporary measure, users can set CONFIG_INIT_FALLBACK=y to preserve the old behavior. If no one speaks up, we can remove that option entirely after a release or two. Signed-off-by: Andy Lutomirski <l...@amacapital.net> --- Changes from v4: - Update the panic message (sorry for the noise) Changes from v3: - Get rid of the strictinit option. Now the new behavior is the default unless CONFIG_INIT_FALLBACK=y (Rob Landley) Changes from v2: - Improve docs further, to leave the door open to giving strictinit some sensible semantics if init= is not set. - Improve error output in the failure case (Shuah Khan). Changes from v1: - Add missing "if" to the docs (Randy Dunlap) init/Kconfig | 11 +++++++++++ init/main.c | 7 ++++++- 2 files changed, 17 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/init/Kconfig b/init/Kconfig index e84c6423a2e5..063029a1556f 100644 --- a/init/Kconfig +++ b/init/Kconfig @@ -1299,6 +1299,17 @@ source "usr/Kconfig" endif +config INIT_FALLBACK + bool "Fall back to defaults if init= parameter is bad" + help + If enabled, the kernel will try the default init binaries if an + explicit request from the init= parameter fails. + + This is a temporary measure to allow broken configurations + to continue to boot. + + If unsure, say N. + config CC_OPTIMIZE_FOR_SIZE bool "Optimize for size" help diff --git a/init/main.c b/init/main.c index bb1aed928f21..2bd6105e5dc5 100644 --- a/init/main.c +++ b/init/main.c @@ -960,8 +960,13 @@ static int __ref kernel_init(void *unused) ret = run_init_process(execute_command); if (!ret) return 0; +#ifndef CONFIG_INIT_FALLBACK + panic("Requested init %s failed (error %d).", + execute_command, ret); +#else pr_err("Failed to execute %s (error %d). Attempting defaults...\n", - execute_command, ret); + execute_command, ret); +#endif } if (!try_to_run_init_process("/sbin/init") || !try_to_run_init_process("/etc/init") || -- 1.9.3 -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majord...@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/