Debian bug report logs - #786
syslogd gone awol

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From thor.cam.ac.uk!iwj10 Mon Apr 10 09:16:31 1995
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Date: Mon, 10 Apr 95 17:16 BST
From: iwj10@thor.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson)
To: debian-bugs@pixar.com
Subject: syslogd gone awol

Package: syslogd
Version: 1.2-7

I've just had an instance of the syslogd apparently stop answering
logging requests.  This caused various other system services to become
seriously broken, of course.  When I started another copy of syslogd
the problem went away.

Unfortunately I don't seem to be able to get much debugging info.  I
can't make the syslogd process dump core because the default ulimit is
not to.  I can't even get a meaningful stack backtrace because the
daemon is stripped.

There wasn't anything useful anywhere in /var/log or on the console.

If it is impossible to diagnose this problem with the information I
give here then please consider this bug report to concern the lack of
suitable means for diagnosing and fixing intermittent problems with
system daemons (of which the syslogd is merely one example).  This may
be a policy problem, eg, the default ulimit being bad.

Ian.

# gdb syslogd 64
GDB is free software and you are welcome to distribute copies of it
 under certain conditions; type "show copying" to see the conditions.
There is absolutely no warranty for GDB; type "show warranty" for details.
GDB 4.12 (i486-debian-linux), Copyright 1994 Free Software Foundation, Inc...
(no debugging symbols found)...

/sbin/64: No such file or directory.
Attaching to program `/sbin/syslogd', process 64
0x60032924 in ?? ()
(gdb) where
#0  0x60032924 in ?? ()
#1  0x60032a14 in ?? ()
#2  0x2964 in ?? ()
#3  0x2f75 in ?? ()
#4  0xbffff8fc in ?? ()
#5  0x1a03 in ?? ()
#6  0x1059 in ?? ()
#7  0x600992d0 in ?? ()
#8  0x5dec8960 in ?? ()
Cannot access memory at address 0x992d0b8.
(gdb) quit
The program is running.  Quit anyway (and detach it)? (y or n) y
Detaching from program: /sbin/syslogd process 64
# 

I had to use kill -9 to kill it; a straightforward kill didn't allow
it to go away.

$ cat syslog.conf
# /etc/syslog.conf: syslogd(8) configuration file.
# $Id: syslog.conf,v 3.3 1995/02/24 23:44:14 imurdock Exp $

auth.*                                                  /var/log/auth.log
#cron.*                                                 /var/log/cron.log
daemon.*;mail.*                                         /var/log/daemon.log
news.crit                                               /var/log/news.crit
news.err                                                /var/log/news.err
news.notice                                             /var/log/news.notice
*.=debug                                                /var/log/debug
*.=info;*.=notice;*=.warn;auth.none;cron.none;daemon.none;mail.none;news.none  /var/log/messages
*.emerg                                                 *

# I like to have messages displayed on the console, but only on a virtual
# console I usually leave idle.
#auth.*;daemon.*;mail.*;news.crit;news.err;news.notice;*.=debug;*.=info;*.=notice;*.=warn;cron.none     /dev/tty1

# The named pipe /dev/xconsole is for the `xconsole' utility.  To use it,
# you must invoke `xconsole' with the `-file' option:
# 
#    $ xconsole -file /dev/xconsole [...]
auth.*;daemon.*;mail.*;news.crit;news.err;news.notice;*.=debug;*.=info;*.=notice;*.=warn;cron.none      |/dev/xconsole
$