xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/protect/protect.1 (revision 271171e0d97b88ba2a7c3bf750c9672b484c1c13)
1.\" Copyright (c) 2013 Hudson River Trading LLC
2.\" Written by: John H. Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org>
3.\" All rights reserved.
4.\"
5.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
6.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
7.\" are met:
8.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
9.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
10.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
11.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
12.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
13.\"
14.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
15.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
16.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
17.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
18.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
19.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
20.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
21.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
22.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
23.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
24.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
25.\"
26.\" $FreeBSD$
27.\"
28.Dd July 12, 2022
29.Dt PROTECT 1
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm protect
33.Nd "protect processes from being killed when swap space is exhausted"
34.Sh SYNOPSIS
35.Nm
36.Op Fl i
37.Ar command
38.Nm
39.Op Fl cdi
40.Fl g Ar pgrp
41.Nm
42.Op Fl cdi
43.Fl p Ar pid
44.Sh DESCRIPTION
45The
46.Nm
47command is used to mark processes as protected.
48The kernel does not kill protected processes when swap space is exhausted.
49Note that this protected state is not inherited by child processes by default.
50.Pp
51The options are:
52.Bl -tag -width command
53.It Fl c
54Remove protection from the specified processes.
55.It Fl d
56Apply the operation to all current children of the specified processes.
57.It Fl i
58Apply the operation to all future children of the specified processes.
59.It Fl g Ar pgrp
60Apply the operation to all processes in the specified process group.
61.It Fl p Ar pid
62Apply the operation to the specified process.
63.It Ar command
64Execute
65.Ar command
66as a protected process.
67.El
68.Pp
69Note that only one of the
70.Fl p
71or
72.Fl g
73flags may be specified when adjusting the state of existing processes.
74.Pp
75Daemons can be protected on startup using
76.Ao Ar name Ac Ns Va _oomprotect
77option from
78.Xr rc.conf 5 .
79.Sh EXIT STATUS
80.Ex -std
81.Sh EXAMPLES
82Mark the Xorg server as protected:
83.Pp
84.Dl "pgrep Xorg | xargs protect -p"
85.Pp
86Protect all ssh sessions and their child processes:
87.Pp
88.Dl "pgrep sshd | xargs protect -dip"
89.Pp
90Remove protection from all current and future processes:
91.Pp
92.Dl "protect -cdi -p 1"
93.Pp
94Using
95.Xr ps 1
96to check if the protect flag has been applied to the process:
97.Pp
98.Dl "ps -O flags,flags2 -p 64430"
99.Pp
100.Dl " PID        F       F2 TT  STAT    TIME COMMAND"
101.Dl "64430 10104002 00000001  5  S+   0:00.00 ./main"
102.Dl "        ^P            ^PI"
103.Pp
104In the above example
105.Nm P
106points at the protected flag and
107.Nm PI
108points at the inheritance flag.
109The process is protected if
110.Nm P
111bit is set to 1.
112All children of this process will also be protected if
113.Nm PI
114bit is set to 1.
115.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
116.Bl -diag
117.It "protect: procctl: Operation not permitted"
118The
119.Nm
120command does not have the required permissions to protect selected processes.
121There are many reasons why this could be the case, e.g.:
122.Bl -dash
123.It
124.Nm
125is not executed by root.
126.It
127.Nm
128is executed inside a
129.Xr jail 8 ,
130which is not supported at the moment.
131.El
132.El
133.Sh SEE ALSO
134.Xr ps 1 ,
135.Xr procctl 2 ,
136.Xr rc.conf 5
137.Sh BUGS
138If you protect a runaway process that allocates all memory the system will
139deadlock.
140