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Re: curl/c-ares problem with a chroot'ed program

From: Dan Fandrich <dan_at_coneharvesters.com>
Date: Wed, 4 Feb 2004 16:04:09 -0800

On Wed, Feb 04, 2004 at 06:32:18PM -0500, codemastr wrote:
> Ok here's the problem. libcurl calls ares_init() in Curl_addrinfo().
> Curl_addrinfo() is called for each download. Here is the problem,
> ares_init() loads /etc/resolv.conf. Once my program does chroot(),
> /etc/resolv.conf is now "outside the root" and therefore inaccessible. As a
> result, c-ares and libcurl can no longer determine my nameserver info.
>
> There is a solution I've come up with that is the best I can think of.
> (maybe someone can come up with a better method of implementation).
>
> CURL_GLOBAL_ARES. If this is set in curl_global_init, then curl will call
> ares_init, store the results in a global var (could result in threading
> issues, though this global var should never be modified, only read therefore
> I can't forsee any...), then Curl_addrinfo() will no longer call
> ares_init(), instead, it will simply use this global var.
>
> If CURL_GLOBAL_ARES is _not_ specified then everything works as it currently
> does.
>
> This should solve the problem since as long as I call curl_global_init
> before chroot(), curl will store the resolv.conf info and it will work. This
> also serves to make things faster since it doesn't have to read a file (or
> on win look in the registry) each time a DNS query is to be made...
>
> Suggestions/comments?

This proposed solution will have a problem with long-running apps on
hosts with DHCP-assigned IP addressies or portable hosts. If a new DNS
address is configured in /etc/resolv.conf due to a DHCP lease expiring or a
laptop user moving into a new WiFi hotspot (for example) then libcurl could
stop resolving hosts. There has to be some way to check for changes in
/etc/resolv.conf at run time. It doesn't necessarily have to be on every
lookup; it may be good enough in practise to reload it just when a lookup
fails.

>>> Dan

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Received on 2004-02-05