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Re: Consensus: Tuning runtime behaviour with environment variables.
- From: Rich Felker <dalias at aerifal dot cx>
- To: Carlos O'Donell <carlos at redhat dot com>
- Cc: GNU C Library <libc-alpha at sourceware dot org>, Roland McGrath <roland at hack dot frob dot com>, "Joseph S. Myers" <joseph at codesourcery dot com>, Andreas Jaeger <aj at suse dot com>, "Ryan S. Arnold" <ryan dot arnold at gmail dot com>, Andi Kleen <andi at firstfloor dot org>, David Miller <davem at davemloft dot net>, Siddhesh Poyarekar <siddhesh at redhat dot com>, Andreas Schwab <schwab at suse dot de>
- Date: Wed, 29 May 2013 01:34:54 -0400
- Subject: Re: Consensus: Tuning runtime behaviour with environment variables.
- References: <51A58A92 dot 4050508 at redhat dot com>
On Wed, May 29, 2013 at 12:56:50AM -0400, Carlos O'Donell wrote:
> Community,
>
> I'd like to drive some consensus around the idea of using
> environment variables to tune runtime behaviour in glibc.
Like Roland, I'm largely opposed to environment variables or any means
of tuning the library behavior for an already-built/installed
application. However, if the community deems them desirable, my hope
would be that, at the very least:
- Aside from a few existing grandfathered-in ones, environment
variables or other tunables should merely transform the library from
one conforming implementation to a different conforming
implementation. No settings should make it non-conforming.
- Any settings which could cause a conforming application which works
correctly with the default settings to stop working correctly should
be ignored completely when the program is suid or AT_SECURE is set
in the aux vector.
- The namespace for glibc tuning variables should be clearly defined
in such a way that they can be mechanically removed from the
environment without having to worry that future additions will be
missed by the stripping code.
Rich