Documentation or software - bug?

Hi there,

I try to set up a box without procfs, thus I've to set some kernel parameters using _sysctl().

I wrote a little quick-n-dirty program to set at least integer and struct ( or better array ) parameters.

I can set all struct, integer and boolean values with this program except ip_forward.

Due to the docs ip_forward is a BOOLEAN parameter, so the length of the value array for _sysctl should be 1.

... but ...

in ${KERNELSRC}/net/ipv4/sysctl_net_ipv4.c I find:
snip -->
<-- snap
static int ipv4_sysctl_forward_strategy(ctl_table *table ... snip -->
<-- snap

	if (newlen != sizeof(int))
		return -EINVAL;

snip -->

If the config file for my program looks like this:

	# CTL_NET IPV4  FORWARD : YES
	3	  5     8	: 1
I get ``Invalid argument'' from my program.
If the config file for my program looks like this:
	3	  5     8	: 1 1 1 1

it works and I have a ``1'' in /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward. ... sure sizeof(int) is 4 on my machine.

My question:
Is there something wrong with the documentation, and NET_IPV4_FORWARD awaits 4 integers to set/unset IP forwarding, or is something wrong in sysctl_net_ipv4.c, or did I understand something wrong, and my program has to be written in some other kind?

My program itself is in the attachment.

Thanks for every help
Frank

PS:
If the configuration file looks like this:

	3  5  16  1 : 1

(the ``3 5 8'' is due to sysctl.h only for compatibility with 2.0 kernels, and I run an 2.4.16) i get ENODIR.

/*****************************************************************************************
** **
** sysconf.c: Version 0.1 15.03.2002 **
** **
** Author: Frank Schaefer <[email protected]> **
** **
** Purpose: **

**  For security reasons we decided NOT to enable procfs on our firewall.		**
**  Thus we had to realize an alternative for the settings of kernel parameters.	**
**  Also for security reasons this program doesn't take any parameters, and all paths	**
**  etc. will be hardcoded into this program.						**

** **
** Files: **
** Configuration file for sysctl: /etc/sysconf.conf **
** **
** Configuration file syntax: **
** - lines starting with a whitespace and lines starting with '#' are comments **
** empty lines are comnments **
** <#> : integer **
** <ws>: whitespace **

**  <#>[<ws>[<ws>...[<#><ws>[<ws>...]...]]]:[<ws>...]<#>[<ws>...[<#><ws>[<ws>...]...]]	**
**  Whereas the part up to the colon is the syscontrol name as described in		**
**  /usr/include/linux/sysctl.h, and the part after the colon is the values to set	**
**											**
**  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!		**
**  !!!!!!!!!! EDIT THE CONFIGURATION FILE WITH EXTREME CAUTION !!!!!!!!!!!		**
**  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!		**
**  There isn't any possibility to check correct settings at this level. Incorrect	**
**  settings can cause a complete system crash.						**

** **
** Return value: **
** 0: all settings due to the configuration file succeeded **
** n: number of attempts to set parameters failed **
** **
*****************************************************************************************/ #include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <linux/unistd.h>
#include <linux/types.h>
#include <linux/sysctl.h>
#include <errno.h>

/* read one line from the configuration file, ignore comments and store the name and
the value in the arrays pointed to by name and value
INPUT: id - filehandle
name - pointer to name array
nlen - where to store length of the name
value - pointer to value array
vlen - where to store length of the value
OUTPUT: 0 : O.K. name and value contain the next parameter to set

		1 : end of configuratin file reached name and value doesn't make
		    sense								*/

int readconf( FILE* id, int* name, int* nlen, int* value, int* vlen ) {
char *buf, *buffer;
unsigned char indx;
int v_indx = 0, colon = 0;
char c;
int *target = name;

	buf = malloc( 80 * sizeof( char ) );
	buffer = buf;
	do {
		if( ! fgets( buffer, 80 * sizeof( char ) , id ) ) {
			free( buf );
			return( 1 );
		}
	} while ( ( *buffer == ' ' ) || ( *buffer == '\t' ) || ( *buffer == '#' ) || \
		  ( *buffer == '\n') );
	do {
		indx = strspn( buffer, "0123456789" );
		if( *(buffer + indx) == ':' ) colon = 1;
		*(buffer + indx) = '\0';
		*(target + v_indx++) = atoi( buffer );
		buffer = buffer + indx + 1;
		indx = strcspn( buffer, "0123456789" );
		c = *(buffer + indx);
		*(buffer + indx) = '\0';
		if( strcspn( buffer, ":" ) != strlen( buffer ) ) colon = 1;
		*(buffer + indx) = c;
		buffer = buffer + indx;
		if( colon && ( target != value ) ) {
			target = value;
			*nlen = v_indx;
			v_indx = 0;
		}
	} while ( strlen( buffer ) > 0 );
	*vlen = v_indx;
	free( buf );
	return( 0 );
}

/* Set one parameter in the OS kernel
INPUT: name - pointer to the name array
nlen - length of the array
value - pointer to the value array
vlen - length of the array
OUTPUT: 0 - O.K.

		-1	- error								*/
_syscall1( int, _sysctl, struct __sysctl_args *, args );
int sysctl( int* name, int nlen, void* value, size_t vlen ) {
size_t	ovlen = 1;
	struct __sysctl_args args = { name, nlen, 0, &ovlen, value, vlen };
	return _sysctl( &args );
}

int main( ) {
int name[5], value[16], nlen, vlen, ret = 0;
char cfgfile[] = "/etc/sysconf.conf";
FILE* stream;

	stream = fopen( cfgfile, "r" );
	if( ! stream ) {
		fprintf( stderr, "Could not read configuration file: %s\n", cfgfile );
		exit( 1 );
	}
	while( readconf( stream, name, &nlen, value, &vlen ) != 1 ) {
		if( sysctl( name, nlen, (void*)value, (size_t)vlen ) ) {
			perror( "sysctl" );
			ret++;
		}
	}
	close( stream );
	exit( ret );
}