oss-security - Re: [patch] proc.5: tell how to parse /proc/*/stat correctly

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Message-ID: <20221228152458.6xyksrxunukjrtzx@mutt-hbsd>
Date: Wed, 28 Dec 2022 10:24:58 -0500
From: Shawn Webb <shawn.webb@...denedbsd.org>
To: oss-security@...ts.openwall.com
Cc: Alejandro Colomar <alx.manpages@...il.com>,
	Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@...il.com>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-man@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [patch] proc.5: tell how to parse /proc/*/stat
 correctly

On Tue, Dec 27, 2022 at 04:44:49PM -0800, Lyndon Nerenberg (VE7TFX/VE6BBM) wrote:
> Dominique Martinet writes:
> 
> > But, really, I just don't see how this can practically be said to be parsable...
> 
> In its current form it never will be.  The solution is to place
> this variable-length field last.  Then you can "cut -d ' ' -f 51-"
> to get the command+args part (assuming I counted all those fields
> correctly ...)
> 
> Of course, this breaks backwards compatability.

It would also break forwards compatibility in the case new fields
needed to be added.

The only solution would be a libxo-style feature wherein a
machine-parseable format is exposed by virtue of a file extension.

Examples:

1. /proc/pid/stats.json
2. /proc/pid/stats.xml
3. /proc/pid/stats.yaml_shouldnt_be_a_thing

Thanks,

-- 
Shawn Webb
Cofounder / Security Engineer
HardenedBSD

https://git.hardenedbsd.org/hardenedbsd/pubkeys/-/raw/master/Shawn_Webb/03A4CBEBB82EA5A67D9F3853FF2E67A277F8E1FA.pub.asc

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