[systemd-devel] [PATCH resend] virt: detect_virtualization() do not abort on errors

[Lennart Poettering]

On Tue, 25.02.14 18:29, Djalal Harouni (tixxdz at opendz.org) wrote:

> The detect_virtualization() logic is to test several mechanisms in order
> to detect if we are in a container or a virtual machine. This implies that
> these tests may fail at an undetermined point.
> 
> An example: detect_container() needs privileges where detect_vm() does
> not, perhaps there are other cases.
> 
> Currently unprivileged code will fail in:
> detect_virtualization() => detect_container() => running_in_chroot()
> 
> This makes detect_virtualization() fail even for non container machines
> which prevents detection of virtual machines. Where in the other hand
> unprivileged code is able to test the CPUID hypervisor bit without any
> problem.
> 
> Since we are dealing here with some test mechanisms, then do not fail if
> detect_container() returns error, just continue with detect_vm() and
> give a chance to detect_vm_cpuid() and detect_vm_dmi(), then report
> errors if any.

This would have the effect that we'd detect different things depending
on whether we are called with or without priviliges?

I am pretty sure that would be a very bad idea. We should always detect
the same thing, though possibly fail with EPERM, never eat up the EPERM.

> This makes "systemd-detect-virt" tool able to detect virtual machines
> without any privileges.

systemd-detect-virt uses fs caps to get the necessary caps to work
correctly even without privs.

Also, we are exposing "Virtualization" as bus property on the manager
object of PID 1, so that anyone cast query this without the need for
privs. 

Lennart

-- 
Lennart Poettering, Red Hat