xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/protect/protect.1 (revision fa9896e082a1046ff4fbc75fcba4d18d1f2efc19)
1.\" Copyright (c) 2013 Hudson River Trading LLC
2.\" Written by: John H. Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org>
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26.Dd July 12, 2022
27.Dt PROTECT 1
28.Os
29.Sh NAME
30.Nm protect
31.Nd "protect processes from being killed when swap space is exhausted"
32.Sh SYNOPSIS
33.Nm
34.Op Fl i
35.Ar command
36.Nm
37.Op Fl cdi
38.Fl g Ar pgrp
39.Nm
40.Op Fl cdi
41.Fl p Ar pid
42.Sh DESCRIPTION
43The
44.Nm
45command is used to mark processes as protected.
46The kernel does not kill protected processes when swap space is exhausted.
47Note that this protected state is not inherited by child processes by default.
48.Pp
49The options are:
50.Bl -tag -width command
51.It Fl c
52Remove protection from the specified processes.
53.It Fl d
54Apply the operation to all current children of the specified processes.
55.It Fl i
56Apply the operation to all future children of the specified processes.
57.It Fl g Ar pgrp
58Apply the operation to all processes in the specified process group.
59.It Fl p Ar pid
60Apply the operation to the specified process.
61.It Ar command
62Execute
63.Ar command
64as a protected process.
65.El
66.Pp
67Note that only one of the
68.Fl p
69or
70.Fl g
71flags may be specified when adjusting the state of existing processes.
72.Pp
73Daemons can be protected on startup using
74.Ao Ar name Ac Ns Va _oomprotect
75option from
76.Xr rc.conf 5 .
77.Sh EXIT STATUS
78.Ex -std
79.Sh EXAMPLES
80Mark the Xorg server as protected:
81.Pp
82.Dl "pgrep Xorg | xargs protect -p"
83.Pp
84Protect all ssh sessions and their child processes:
85.Pp
86.Dl "pgrep sshd | xargs protect -dip"
87.Pp
88Remove protection from all current and future processes:
89.Pp
90.Dl "protect -cdi -p 1"
91.Pp
92Using
93.Xr ps 1
94to check if the protect flag has been applied to the process:
95.Pp
96.Dl "ps -O flags,flags2 -p 64430"
97.Pp
98.Dl " PID        F       F2 TT  STAT    TIME COMMAND"
99.Dl "64430 10104002 00000001  5  S+   0:00.00 ./main"
100.Dl "        ^P            ^PI"
101.Pp
102In the above example
103.Nm P
104points at the protected flag and
105.Nm PI
106points at the inheritance flag.
107The process is protected if
108.Nm P
109bit is set to 1.
110All children of this process will also be protected if
111.Nm PI
112bit is set to 1.
113.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
114.Bl -diag
115.It "protect: procctl: Operation not permitted"
116The
117.Nm
118command does not have the required permissions to protect selected processes.
119There are many reasons why this could be the case, e.g.:
120.Bl -dash
121.It
122.Nm
123is not executed by root.
124.It
125.Nm
126is executed inside a
127.Xr jail 8 ,
128which is not supported at the moment.
129.El
130.El
131.Sh SEE ALSO
132.Xr ps 1 ,
133.Xr procctl 2 ,
134.Xr rc.conf 5
135.Sh BUGS
136If you protect a runaway process that allocates all memory the system will
137deadlock.
138