confusing smss routine (ea)

[Gunnar Dalsnes]

I was doing some changes to RtlCreateUserProcess and saw the strage 
rotuine SmCreateUserProcess:

http://svn.reactos.com/viewcvs/trunk/reactos/subsys/smss/smapiexec.c?rev=142...

It has several bugs/problems/confusions:
1) RtlDestroyProcessParameters is not called if RtlCreateUserProcess failed.
2) If WaitForIt is TRUE and you specify a timeout, the caller in not 
notified if SmCreateUserProcess returned due to timeout. The process 
will stay running forever.
3) If TerminateIt is TRUE, handles are closed. This is wrong/confusing. 
Closing the handles does not terminate the process (wrong name?).
4) If you dont pass a UserProcessInfo and TerminateIt is FALSE,
it will leak thread/process handles.
5) If you pass UserProcessInfo and TerminateIt is TRUE, the 
thread/process handles in UserProcessInfo will be invalid.

etc.etc.

VERY confusing and bug prone:

SmCreateUserProcess is used once in the end of this file and it pass 
FALSE for TerminateIt and pass no UserProcessInfo thus the 
thread/process handles will never be closed.

I should have fixed it myself if i just understod how this routine is 
_supposed_ to work:-D

Regards
Gunnar

[ea]

Hi Gunnar,
> I was doing some changes to RtlCreateUserProcess and saw the strage 
> rotuine SmCreateUserProcess:
>
> http://svn.reactos.com/viewcvs/trunk/reactos/subsys/smss/smapiexec.c?rev=142...
>
> It has several bugs/problems/confusions:

Sorry, SM is not finished yet.
> RtlDestroyProcessParameters is not called if RtlCreateUserProcess
>
> failed.

This is a bug.
> If WaitForIt is TRUE and you specify a timeout, the caller in not
>
> notified if SmCreateUserProcess returned due to timeout. The process 
> will stay running forever.

This is a bug.
> If TerminateIt is TRUE, handles are closed. This is
>
> wrong/confusing. Closing the handles does not terminate the process 
> (wrong name?).

This is a bug.
> If you dont pass a UserProcessInfo and TerminateIt is FALSE,
>
> it will leak thread/process handles.

This may not be a bug, but, as you noted, a badly chosen name. The 
intended use of the TerminateIt is for native processes, which handles 
SM is not interested in, when (if) they terminate. A native process, 
which is not a subsystem server, could run forever (see the native shell 
Steven proposed a few days ago).
> If you pass UserProcessInfo and TerminateIt is TRUE, the
>
> thread/process handles in UserProcessInfo will be invalid.

This is an intended behaviour: if TerminateIt==TRUE I am not interested 
in those handles. SM is interested only in subsystems, which it will 
manage (as it self-register for managing such images). Maybe running 
native boot-time processes should be done after self-registering, but it 
would be useless, because those processes do not need to connect to 
\SmApiPort.
> etc.etc.
>
> VERY confusing and bug prone:

I am sorry: I have got neither the sources, nor the documents David 
Cutler wrote.
> SmCreateUserProcess is used once in the end of this file and it pass 
> FALSE for TerminateIt and pass no UserProcessInfo thus the 
> thread/process handles will never be closed.

It is used also in initrun.c, for running native boot-time processes 
(autocheck, chkreg et sim.) before any environment subsystem is active.
> I should have fixed it myself if i just understod how this routine is 
> _supposed_ to work:-D

This is a critical routine, because every child process SM creates is 
originated there. But current bugs, I am sure it will need more work to 
match that role.

Please feel free to fix any bug you find: I am not the owner of the SM! 
:) I just tried to implement how I gussed things work there (do not 
exclude the case I am wrong, I am a bad programmer etc.).

I am sorry I can't fix the bugs right now, but I'll be busy for a few 
more days.

Emanuele Aliberti

[Alex Ionescu]

ea wrote:
> I am sorry: I have got neither the sources, nor the documents David 
> Cutler wrote.

Actually David didn't work much with the Win32 and SMSS/CSRSS stuff. You 
need to talk with Mark Lucovsky. He left Microsoft two weeks ago ;).

The documents are inside a book located at the National Museum of 
American History, Behring Center, called the NT OS/2 Design Workbook... 
you can take some pictures of the SMSS chapter ;)

Best regards,
Alex Ionescu

[Anich Gregor]

On Thursday 31 March 2005 02:44, Alex Ionescu wrote:
> ea wrote:
> > I am sorry: I have got neither the sources, nor the documents David
> > Cutler wrote.
>
> Actually David didn't work much with the Win32 and SMSS/CSRSS stuff. You
> need to talk with Mark Lucovsky. He left Microsoft two weeks ago ;).
>
> The documents are inside a book located at the National Museum of
> American History, Behring Center, called the NT OS/2 Design Workbook...
> you can take some pictures of the SMSS chapter ;)
>
> Best regards,
> Alex Ionescu

Alex, you have violated both rules at 
http://reactos.com/wiki/index.php/Coding_Style
(http://reactos.com:8080/archives/public/ros-dev/2005-March/002541.html)

I would appreciate it if you had enough respect for others to respond to my 
email, but it seems like you dont.