dtrace discuss - Aug 2006 - DTrace instrumental in exposing Sendmail bug

I thought you might like to know that DTrace has been instrumental in 
exposing a bug in Sendmail.

The bug is to do with how Sendmail processes multiple queue directories. 
  As documented, Sendmail is supposed to start one queue runner per 
configured directory.  But a regression introduced some time ago means 
that only one queue runner is ever created.

Details at:

http://jc.ngo.org.uk/blog/2006/08/19/day-41-of-60-multiple-queues-multiple-queue-runners-pt-2/

http://jc.ngo.org.uk/blog/2006/08/21/day-43-of-60-multiple-queues-multiple-queue-runners-pt-3/

Thanks, DTrace.

N

At 10:23 AM +0100 8/22/06, Nik Clayton wrote:
> I thought you might like to know that DTrace has been
> instrumental in exposing a bug in Sendmail.
If there isn''t such a thing already, it might be worth
setting up a page (wiki area) for DTrace success stories.
Similarly, a set of "application notes" could help folks
to do common sorts of tasks.

-r

P.S.  How long until O''Reilly does a DTrace Cookbook?
-- 
http://www.cfcl.com/rdm            Rich Morin
http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/resume     rdm at cfcl.com
http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/weblog     +1 650-873-7841

Technical editing and writing, programming, and web development

On Tue, Aug 22, 2006 at 10:23:36AM +0100, Nik Clayton
wrote:
> I thought you might like to know that DTrace has been instrumental in 
> exposing a bug in Sendmail.
> 
> The bug is to do with how Sendmail processes multiple queue directories. 
>  As documented, Sendmail is supposed to start one queue runner per 
> configured directory.  But a regression introduced some time ago means 
> that only one queue runner is ever created.
> 
> Details at:
> 
>
http://jc.ngo.org.uk/blog/2006/08/19/day-41-of-60-multiple-queues-multiple-queue-runners-pt-2/
> 
>
http://jc.ngo.org.uk/blog/2006/08/21/day-43-of-60-multiple-queues-multiple-queue-runners-pt-3/
> 
> Thanks, DTrace.
Thanks for passing that on!  This is, frankly, the highest possible praise
for a debugging tool:  using it to find a really nasty problem.  We have
always prided ourselves on the fact that DTrace is, above all, useful.
(To us, if to no one else.)  Anyway, glad you nailed the problem, and
thanks again for passing it on...

	- Bryan

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Bryan Cantrill, Solaris Kernel Development.       http://blogs.sun.com/bmc