netfilter buglog - Oct 2011 - [Bug 758] New: Retry iptables command on transient failure

http://bugzilla.netfilter.org/show_bug.cgi?id=758

           Summary: Retry iptables command on transient failure
           Product: iptables
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: All
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: enhancement
          Priority: P5
         Component: iptables
        AssignedTo: netfilter-buglog at lists.netfilter.org
        ReportedBy: nils.rennebarth at funkwerk-ec.com
   Estimated Hours: 0.0


On our system, the command

# iptables -t mangle -D <some chain> <some rule>
or
# iptables -t mangle -F <some chain>

sometimes fails with exit code 4. Retrying the same command again works.
This happens often enough that is is annoying.

Couldn't iptables itself try a number of times and only exit if the
condition persists instead of giving up immediately?

The message when that happens suggests that it comes from the
following fragment in iptables-standalone.c:

                if (errno == EAGAIN) {
                        exit(RESOURCE_PROBLEM);
                }
so I assume, that some system call returned EAGAIN. This may indicate a
real error condition (deadlock situation), which is why I wouldn't
retry indefinitely, but failing on a single try appears to be a
common case.


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