Re: Adding an option to avoid SIGPIPE for all file descriptors

[Steven Bellovin <smb%cs.columbia.edu@localhost>]

On Jan 23, 2012, at 11:05 58PM, Matt Thomas wrote:

> 
> On Jan 23, 2012, at 7:58 PM, Steven Bellovin wrote:
> 
>>> I also wonder whether we should also have a note that disabled SIGPIPE.
>>> similar to what paxctl does.
>>> 
>> You mean a system-wide flag?  That would worry me; I think it would have
>> bad effects, since anything that did
>> 
>>      a | b 
> 
> paxctl sets a note in the executable.
> 
I don't like that, either, but on philosophical grounds.

The problem I have is that the semantics of the execution now depend on
something not in the source code; however, the code needs to know about
it in order to cope properly.  (Setuid is somewhat different, since it
also reflects the policy of the site.)  I also don't see the point, as
opposed to a system call to set the flag.  


                --Steve Bellovin, https://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb