Debian Bug report logs - #684205
postgresql-common: pg_checksystem sending ioctl to a partition

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Package: postgresql-common; Maintainer for postgresql-common is Debian PostgreSQL Maintainers <[email protected]>; Source for postgresql-common is src:postgresql-common (PTS, buildd, popcon).

Reported by: "Nelson A. de Oliveira" <[email protected]>

Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2012 19:39:01 UTC

Severity: minor

Found in version postgresql-common/134

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Report forwarded to [email protected], [email protected], Debian PostgreSQL Maintainers <[email protected]>:
Bug#684205; Package postgresql-common. (Tue, 07 Aug 2012 19:39:04 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Acknowledgement sent to "Nelson A. de Oliveira" <[email protected]>:
New Bug report received and forwarded. Copy sent to [email protected], Debian PostgreSQL Maintainers <[email protected]>. (Tue, 07 Aug 2012 19:39:04 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Message #5 received at [email protected] (full text, mbox, reply):

From: "Nelson A. de Oliveira" <[email protected]>
To: Debian Bug Tracking System <[email protected]>
Subject: postgresql-common: pg_checksystem sending ioctl to a partition
Date: Tue, 07 Aug 2012 16:35:20 -0300
Package: postgresql-common
Version: 134
Severity: normal

Hi!

I am unsure on how harmless it's but I am seeing this on kern.log:

[4927088.495625] pg_checksystem: sending ioctl 5401 to a partition!
[4927088.495629] pg_checksystem: sending ioctl 5401 to a partition!
[4927088.507403] pg_checksystem: sending ioctl 30e to a partition!
[4927088.507413] pg_checksystem: sending ioctl 30e to a partition!
[6729871.075313] pg_checksystem: sending ioctl 5401 to a partition!
[6729871.075325] pg_checksystem: sending ioctl 5401 to a partition!
[6729871.075389] pg_checksystem: sending ioctl 30e to a partition!
[6729871.075395] pg_checksystem: sending ioctl 30e to a partition!
[7509389.237269] pg_checksystem: sending ioctl 5401 to a partition!
[7509389.237280] pg_checksystem: sending ioctl 5401 to a partition!
[7509389.237344] pg_checksystem: sending ioctl 30e to a partition!
[7509389.237351] pg_checksystem: sending ioctl 30e to a partition!
[9840643.158979] pg_checksystem: sending ioctl 5401 to a partition!
[9840643.158991] pg_checksystem: sending ioctl 5401 to a partition!
[9840643.159056] pg_checksystem: sending ioctl 30e to a partition!
[9840643.159063] pg_checksystem: sending ioctl 30e to a partition!

Harmless?

Thank you!

Best regards,
Nelson

-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 3.2.0-2-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=pt_BR.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=pt_BR.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages postgresql-common depends on:
ii  adduser                   3.113+nmu3
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]     1.5.44
ii  logrotate                 3.8.1-4
ii  lsb-base                  4.1+Debian7
ii  postgresql-client-common  134
ii  procps                    1:3.3.3-2
ii  ssl-cert                  1.0.31

postgresql-common recommends no packages.

postgresql-common suggests no packages.

-- debconf information excluded



Information forwarded to [email protected], Debian PostgreSQL Maintainers <[email protected]>:
Bug#684205; Package postgresql-common. (Wed, 08 Aug 2012 09:00:03 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Message #8 received at [email protected] (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Christoph Berg <[email protected]>
To: "Nelson A. de Oliveira" <[email protected]>, [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Pkg-postgresql-public] Bug#684205: postgresql-common: pg_checksystem sending ioctl to a partition
Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2012 10:49:33 +0200
[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]
Re: Nelson A. de Oliveira 2012-08-07 <[email protected]>
> I am unsure on how harmless it's but I am seeing this on kern.log:
> 
> [4927088.495625] pg_checksystem: sending ioctl 5401 to a partition!

At least it is intended:

sub get_device_write_cache {
    open DRV, $_[0] or return -1;
    sub HDIO_GET_WCACHE () {0x30e;}
    my $pval = pack 'l', 0;
    ioctl DRV, &HDIO_GET_WCACHE, $pval or return -1;

The check seems to be broken here. At least when using LVM, ioctl() on
the partition doesn't look through the LVM layer to check the write
cache on the base disk. (Verified by using hdparm -W 1 /dev/sda.)

Looks like we need to do something smarter for LVM systems, or at
least disable the check there.

For the actual question: yes, harmless.

Christoph
-- 
[email protected] | http://www.df7cb.de/
[signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, inline)]

Severity set to 'minor' from 'normal' Request was from Martin Pitt <[email protected]> to [email protected]. (Thu, 16 Aug 2012 07:15:03 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Information forwarded to [email protected], Debian PostgreSQL Maintainers <[email protected]>:
Bug#684205; Package postgresql-common. (Fri, 31 Aug 2012 23:45:03 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Acknowledgement sent to Joe Hillenbrand <[email protected]>:
Extra info received and forwarded to list. Copy sent to Debian PostgreSQL Maintainers <[email protected]>.

Your message did not contain a Subject field. They are recommended and useful because the title of a $gBug is determined using this field. Please remember to include a Subject field in your messages in future.

(Fri, 31 Aug 2012 23:45:03 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Message #15 received at [email protected] (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Joe Hillenbrand <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2012 16:31:14 -0700
[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]
I just had this error show up on our production server when or 
rails/unicorn processes became unresponsive.

[2012-08-31T16:10:18-07:00] {notice} kernel: snigicl50 oapriin
[2012-08-31T16:10:18-07:00] {warning} kernel: [1231708.586185] 
pg_checksystem: sending ioctl 5401 to a partition!
[2012-08-31T16:10:18-07:00] {warning} kernel: [1231708.586189] gcekytm 
edn ot 41t atto!<>1378569]p_hcsse:snigicl50 oapriin
[2012-08-31T16:10:18-07:00] {notice} kernel[210.824]: gcekytm edn ot 0 
oapriin
[2012-08-31T16:10:18-07:00] {notice} kernel[210.826]: gcekytm edn ot 0 
oapriin
[2012-08-31T16:10:18-07:00] {notice} kernel[210.827]: gcekytm edn ot 0 
oapriin

I'm not sure it's harmless.

[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]

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