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Re: Last Call: draft-ietf-syslog-protocol (The syslog Protocol) to Proposed Standard

2007-02-01 16:19:59
"Mark" == Mark Andrews <Mark_Andrews(_at_)isc(_dot_)org> writes:

    >> >>>>> "Mark" == Mark Andrews <Mark_Andrews(_at_)isc(_dot_)org> writes:
    >> 
    >> >> - 'The syslog Protocol ' <draft-ietf-syslog-protocol-19.txt>
    >> as >> a Proposed Standard
    >> 
    Mark> draft-ietf-syslog-protocol-19.txt recommends using a
    Mark> reliable protocol.  Existing implementations of syslog do
    Mark> this and deadlock with nameservers which are logging via
    Mark> syslog.
    >> 
    >> 
    >> Please explain the deadlock in more detail.  One of the primary
    >> reasons for the syslog working group is reliable syslog, so I
    >> think we need to focus on how to avoid the deadlock in other
    >> ways rather than avoiding reliability.
 
    Mark>       nameserver logs to syslog.  syslog trys to resolve a
    Mark> address which requires the nameserver to succeed.  syslog()
    Mark> uses a reliable transport to talk to syslogd.  This pipe
    Mark> fills up.  syslog() then blocks waiting on syslogd which is
    Mark> waiting on the nameserver ....

This is mostly out of scope for the current document which focuses on
syslog communication between systems not within a system.

Additional ways to break the deadlock:

1) Provide syslogd with at least one non-locally-logging nameserver

2) Provide enough buffering that the probability you run into this is 
acceptable.

3) Use an asynchronous DNS library in syslogd


I do think a note about deadlocks would be useful in the protocol
document.


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