This is the mail archive of the glibc-bugs@sourceware.org mailing list for the glibc project.


Index Nav: [Date Index] [Subject Index] [Author Index] [Thread Index]
Message Nav: [Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]
Other format: [Raw text]

[Bug libc/12459] New: [RFE] glibc could have a nss_init call that's like res_init but for nsswitch.conf


http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=12459

           Summary: [RFE] glibc could have a nss_init call that's like
                    res_init but for nsswitch.conf
           Product: glibc
           Version: unspecified
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: libc
        AssignedTo: drepper.fsp@gmail.com
        ReportedBy: rstrode@redhat.com


Right now, long running processes don't get updates to the nsswitch module list
in /etc/nsswitch.conf if nscd isn't running.  This is because libc caches the
module list in memory after it's initially read.

It would be useful if there was a nss_init() call akin to res_init() that would
flush the cached list and reload it.

A relevant downstream bug report is here:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=621700

In that case the long running process was GDM (graphical login screen).  A user
used authconfig to change their nsswitch.conf and then used fast user switching
(which jumps to a login screen on a different vt) to try to test the new
configuration.  Because the login screen was around before the user ran
authconfig, the list of nsswitch modules was stale.  This caused a getpwnam()
call to fail, which ultimately lead to login failure.

I worked around this for the above bug report by spawning a helper program to
do the getpwnam() call for me.

-- 
Configure bugmail: http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/userprefs.cgi?tab=email
------- You are receiving this mail because: -------
You are on the CC list for the bug.


Index Nav: [Date Index] [Subject Index] [Author Index] [Thread Index]
Message Nav: [Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]