Re: [PATCH] kernel 2.4.19 & 2.5.38 - coredump sysctl

[Andrew Morton]

Michael Sinz wrote:
> 
> coredump name format control via sysctl
> 
> Provides for a way to securely move where core files show up and to
> set the name pattern for core files to include the UID, Program,
> Hostname, and/or PID of the process that caused the core dump.

That seems a reasonable thing to want to do.

> ...
> The following format options are available in that string:
> 
>        %P   The Process ID (current->pid)
>        %U   The UID of the process (current->uid)
>        %N   The command name of the process (current->comm)
>        %H   The nodename of the system (system_utsname.nodename)
>        %%   A "%"
> 
> For example, in my clusters, I have an NFS R/W mount at /coredumps
> that all nodes have access to. The format string I use is:
> 
>         sysctl -w "kernel.core_name_format=/coredumps/%H-%N-%P.core"
> 

Does it need to be this fancy?  Why not just have:

        if (core_name_format is unset)
                use "core"
        else
                use core_name_format/nodename-uid-pid-comm.core

which saves all that string format processing, while giving
people everything they could want?