2001-12-05 17:29:19

by Derek Glidden

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Random "File size limit exceeded" under 2.4


I've been experiencing random and occasional encounters with "File size
limit exceeded" errors under 2.4 kernels when trying to make
filesystems. Unfortunately, there's no real rhyme or reason when this
occurs, except that - usually - if I recompile a kernel or do a big
rsync on a box that isn't giving me these problems, and then try to mkfs
something, I'll encounter it. And if I'm unable to mkfs a device
because of this error - usually - if I reboot the box, it goes away.

Note that it has *nothing* to do with the device I'm trying to mkfs
being over 2GB! Once I start experiencing this, I've had *any* device
that I try to mkfs error out with SIGXFSZ until I rebooted. (Usually,
of course. I hate bugs that aren't consistent....)

I know I've seen this with at least stock 2.4.10, 2.4.13 and 2.4.14 and
also 2.4.10 and 2.4.14 with XFS patches. There may have been other
earlier versions in there were I ran into it but ignored it or
overlooked it. All our boxes here at work are more-or-less stock Debian
2.2 with upgraded modutils to support running 2.4 kernels.

I don't have any particular correlation between hardware except that all
of them have had IDE drives in them so my only real suspicion is some
bizarrity in the IDE drivers.

I've got a machine that's experiencing this problem right now and I've
done "strace" on both mke2fs and mkreiserfs to see what the results
would be and it's a little wierd and beyond my interpretation
capabilities. Here are the last few lines from both of those straces:

mke2fs.strace:

lseek(4, 2015346688, SEEK_SET) = 2015346688
write(4, "\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"...,
32768) = 32768
lseek(4, 2015379456, SEEK_SET) = 2015379456
write(4, "\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"...,
4096) = 4096
write(1, "\10\10\10\10\10", 5) = 5
write(1, "16/72", 5) = 5
_llseek(4, 18446744071562084352, [2147500032], SEEK_SET) = 0
write(4, "\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"...,
32768) = -1 EFBIG (File too large)
--- SIGXFSZ (File size limit exceeded) ---
+++ killed by SIGXFSZ +++


mkreiserfs.strace:

_llseek(4, 1744830464, [1744830464], SEEK_SET) = 0
write(4, "\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"...,
4096) = 4096
_llseek(4, 1879048192, [1879048192], SEEK_SET) = 0
write(4, "\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"...,
4096) = 4096
_llseek(4, 2013265920, [2013265920], SEEK_SET) = 0
write(4, "\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"...,
4096) = 4096
_llseek(4, 18446744071562067968, [2147483648], SEEK_SET) = 0
write(4, "\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"...,
4096) = -1 EFBIG (File too large)
--- SIGXFSZ (File size limit exceeded) ---
+++ killed by SIGXFSZ +++


And this is the output of "sfdisk -l" for that box:

# sfdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 1655 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
Units = cylinders of 8225280 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from
0

Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 0+ 32 33- 265072 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 33 98 66 530145 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda3 99 164 66 530145 83 Linux
/dev/hda4 165 1654 1490 11968425 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 165+ 413 249- 2000092 83 Linux
/dev/hda6 414+ 479 66- 530144+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda7 480+ 1654 1175- 9438187 83 Linux


Now it looks to me that in both cases, the mkfs is trying to seek well
beyond the end of the device for some reason. Except that the drive
isn't anything unusual - it's a 13GB Maxtor 91360U4 and the IDE
interface is reported as "VIA vt82c596a (rev 09) IDE UDMA33 controller
on pci00:07.1" which the VIA line of controllers has generally been very
well supported under Linux, in my experience. Plus, as I said, I've
seen this on a number of boxen with different drives and IDE controllers
in them, so I don't see it being particular to a specific drive or
controller.

--
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
$_='while(read+STDIN,$_,2048){$a=29;$b=73;$c=142;$t=255;@t=map
{$_%16or$t^=$c^=($m=(11,10,116,100,11,122,20,100)[$_/16%8])&110;
$t^=(72,@z=(64,72,$a^=12*($_%16-2?0:$m&17)),$b^=$_%64?12:0,@z)
[$_%8]}(16..271);if((@a=unx"C*",$_)[20]&48){$h=5;$_=unxb24,join
"",@b=map{xB8,unxb8,chr($_^$a[--$h+84])}@ARGV;s/...$/1$&/;$d=
unxV,xb25,$_;$e=256|(ord$b[4])<<9|ord$b[3];$d=$d>>8^($f=$t&($d
>>12^$d>>4^$d^$d/8))<<17,$e=$e>>8^($t&($g=($q=$e>>14&7^$e)^$q*
8^$q<<6))<<9,$_=$t[$_]^(($h>>=8)+=$f+(~$g&$t))for@a[128..$#a]}
print+x"C*",@a}';s/x/pack+/g;eval

usage: qrpff 153 2 8 105 225 < /mnt/dvd/VOB_FILENAME \
| extract_mpeg2 | mpeg2dec -

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/DeCSS/Gallery/
http://www.eff.org/ http://www.anti-dmca.org/


2001-12-05 20:21:18

by Andrew Morton

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Random "File size limit exceeded" under 2.4

Derek Glidden wrote:
>
> I've been experiencing random and occasional encounters with "File size
> limit exceeded" errors under 2.4 kernels when trying to make
> filesystems.

I don't know if anyone has come forth to fix this yet.

Apparently it's something to do with your shell setting
rlimits, and block devices are (bogusly) honouring those
settings.

The word is that if you log in as `root' at the login
prompt, rather than using `su', the problem goes away.

2001-12-05 22:33:38

by Miquel van Smoorenburg

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Random "File size limit exceeded" under 2.4

In article <[email protected]>,
Andrew Morton <[email protected]> wrote:
>Derek Glidden wrote:
>>
>> I've been experiencing random and occasional encounters with "File size
>> limit exceeded" errors under 2.4 kernels when trying to make
>> filesystems.
>
>I don't know if anyone has come forth to fix this yet.
>
>Apparently it's something to do with your shell setting
>rlimits, and block devices are (bogusly) honouring those
>settings.

Perhaps the old app is calling sys_old_getrlimit() from
linux/kernel/sys.c. It truncates rlimits to 0x7FFFFFFF
if it's bigger than that. 0x7FFFFFFF used to be the old
RLIM_INFINITY in 2.2 [actually, ((long)(~0UL>>1))]. In
2.4, RLIM_INFINITY is (~0UL).

So if you call sys_setrlimit() with the old RLIM_INFINITY from 2.2
OR with the result from sys_old_getrlimit(), then the new limit
will be 0x7FFFFFFF instead of unlimited.

Looks like someone forgot to implement sys_old_setrlimit(),
which would have been the right thing to do.

Now all we can do is to hack sys_setrlimit and let it translate
0x7FFFFFFF to RLIM_INFINITY.

The following untested and uncompiled patch might do it, or not...

--- linux-2.4.17-pre2/kernel/sys.c.orig Tue Sep 18 23:10:43 2001
+++ linux-2.4.17-pre2/kernel/sys.c Wed Dec 5 23:30:50 2001
@@ -1120,6 +1120,16 @@
return -EINVAL;
if(copy_from_user(&new_rlim, rlim, sizeof(*rlim)))
return -EFAULT;
+#if !defined(__ia64__)
+ /*
+ * In 2.2, RLIMIT_INFINITY was defined as ((long)(~0UL>>1)).
+ * Reckognize it and translate it to the new RLIMIT_INFINITY.
+ */
+ if ((long)new_rlim.rlim_cur == ((long)(~0UL>>1)))
+ new_rlim.rlim_cur = RLIMIT_INFINITY;
+ if ((long)new_rlim.rlim_max == ((long)(~0UL>>1)))
+ new_rlim.rlim_max = RLIMIT_INFINITY;
+#endif
old_rlim = current->rlim + resource;
if (((new_rlim.rlim_cur > old_rlim->rlim_max) ||
(new_rlim.rlim_max > old_rlim->rlim_max)) &&

Mike.
--
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity,
and I'm not sure about the former" -- Albert Einstein.

2001-12-15 07:40:39

by Ken Brownfield

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Random "File size limit exceeded" under 2.4

FWIW, I've been using this over-engineered, under-tested command line
utility to run e2fsck on our older distributions:

http://web.irridia.com/info/linux/unflimit.c

It works like "nice" or "time", but sets the proper RLIM_INFINITY
filesize limit for the inheriting subshell. For example:

unflimit e2fsck /dev/sda3

The boot-time fscks work fine, but in multiuser I'm extremely lucky to
get it to work without this.

The kernel patch below would work, I expect, but I think it's not
necessarily the Right Thing To Do. If Andrew is right, is anyone
looking at why block devices (or fsck?) are honoring the filesize limit?

Thanks,
--
Ken.
[email protected]

On Wed, Dec 05, 2001 at 10:33:19PM +0000, Miquel van Smoorenburg wrote:
| In article <[email protected]>,
| Andrew Morton <[email protected]> wrote:
| >Derek Glidden wrote:
| >>
| >> I've been experiencing random and occasional encounters with "File size
| >> limit exceeded" errors under 2.4 kernels when trying to make
| >> filesystems.
| >
| >I don't know if anyone has come forth to fix this yet.
| >
| >Apparently it's something to do with your shell setting
| >rlimits, and block devices are (bogusly) honouring those
| >settings.
|
| Perhaps the old app is calling sys_old_getrlimit() from
| linux/kernel/sys.c. It truncates rlimits to 0x7FFFFFFF
| if it's bigger than that. 0x7FFFFFFF used to be the old
| RLIM_INFINITY in 2.2 [actually, ((long)(~0UL>>1))]. In
| 2.4, RLIM_INFINITY is (~0UL).
|
| So if you call sys_setrlimit() with the old RLIM_INFINITY from 2.2
| OR with the result from sys_old_getrlimit(), then the new limit
| will be 0x7FFFFFFF instead of unlimited.
|
| Looks like someone forgot to implement sys_old_setrlimit(),
| which would have been the right thing to do.
|
| Now all we can do is to hack sys_setrlimit and let it translate
| 0x7FFFFFFF to RLIM_INFINITY.
|
| The following untested and uncompiled patch might do it, or not...
|
| --- linux-2.4.17-pre2/kernel/sys.c.orig Tue Sep 18 23:10:43 2001
| +++ linux-2.4.17-pre2/kernel/sys.c Wed Dec 5 23:30:50 2001
| @@ -1120,6 +1120,16 @@
| return -EINVAL;
| if(copy_from_user(&new_rlim, rlim, sizeof(*rlim)))
| return -EFAULT;
| +#if !defined(__ia64__)
| + /*
| + * In 2.2, RLIMIT_INFINITY was defined as ((long)(~0UL>>1)).
| + * Reckognize it and translate it to the new RLIMIT_INFINITY.
| + */
| + if ((long)new_rlim.rlim_cur == ((long)(~0UL>>1)))
| + new_rlim.rlim_cur = RLIMIT_INFINITY;
| + if ((long)new_rlim.rlim_max == ((long)(~0UL>>1)))
| + new_rlim.rlim_max = RLIMIT_INFINITY;
| +#endif
| old_rlim = current->rlim + resource;
| if (((new_rlim.rlim_cur > old_rlim->rlim_max) ||
| (new_rlim.rlim_max > old_rlim->rlim_max)) &&
|
| Mike.
| --
| "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity,
| and I'm not sure about the former" -- Albert Einstein.
|
| -
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