[ovs-dev] [PATCH] rhel: Stop managing the /run/openvswitch directory with systemd.

[Aaron Conole]

Markos Chandras <mchandras at suse.de> writes:

> On 27/03/18 14:34, Aaron Conole wrote:
>> 
>> Systemd has fixed this with commit:
>> 
>> 30c81ce2cef9 ("pid1: when creating service directories, don't chown existing files")
>> 
>> Which was caught thanks to some proactive testing:
>> 
>> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1508495
>> 
>> I think we probably don't need this fix, provided downstream versions
>> backport that commit.
>> 
>
> Hi Aaron,
>
> Thank you for the information. I am curious, do you know why we are
> managing the /run/openvswitch directory in the systemd service file
> given that ovs-lib already tries to manage it as well?

There are a few advantages (and some disadvantages, also).

One thing that's nice is systemd will clean up the directories when the
service ends.  I realize that /run is usually tmpfs, but it's nice that
they don't linger - even if ovs-lib "breaks in the middle" (meaning
something goes wrong .. though I'm unable to name an instance where I
observed that).  Actually, I am looking at tmpfiles.d entries for
managing some of these complicated directory lists (like /dev/hugepages,
etc).

Another advantage is when we fully hook up with the
user+group+capabilities (it's on my TODO list) in systemd service
files.  At that point, it will not be possible for the ovs-lib to create
the runtime directories.

Of course, we know the biggest disadvantage - if systemd breaks things,
they are really broken.

Does it make sense?