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Re: [MiNT] kernel 1.15.10b fragmentation



Hi!

On Tue, Jan 02, 2001 at 03:29:24PM +0100, Petr Stehlik wrote:
> > Nope. But it helps to set the memory protection flags of such offending
> > programs to `readable' in most cases - sometimes you need `global',
> > depending on what protocol messages they use.
> 
> Sounds like the proposed kernel call would allow somebody to write a
> checker - an application that would automatically scan your system, find
> all offending programs and set their memory protection flags.

Nope, not really. To be effective, this checker would have to speak all
possible pointer-based protocols currently in use on TOS-based systems
(AV, OLGA, BubbleGEM, to name just a few) and test all possible commands
in a real-life scenario. Not to mention it would have to find and run
each possible client installed on your system.

Thus, I don't think it's feasible. What the new kernel call would allow,
though, is to easily protect your own applications from ill-behaved
clients - even though /they/ make the fault, /your/ program would
otherwise be killed with a memory violation.

Of course, this is already possible by using a SIGBUS handler, but the
new call would make life easier, especially for non-C-programmers.

> Another approach is to manually keep a list of all programs together
> with suggested memory flags. Then a simple script could be written
> that would again scan your system, find the files and set their flags.
> Just to have the list of all programs :-)

That would indeed be a sensible approach.


Ciao

Thomas


-- 
Thomas Binder (Gryf @ IRCNet)  gryf@hrzpub.tu-darmstadt.de
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