Bug 240779

Created attachment 155110 [details]
nash support for spaces in kernel command line

This request was evaluated by Red Hat Product Management for inclusion in a Red
Hat Enterprise Linux maintenance release.  Product Management has requested
further review of this request by Red Hat Engineering, for potential
inclusion in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Update release for currently deployed
products.  This request is not yet committed for inclusion in an Update
release.

Fixed in mkinitrd-5.1.19.6-21 .

Some information from bhinson on s390x:

on 5.1 we have FAIL with 
root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 selinux=0 vmhalt="CPU 0 CMD IPL CMS" BOOT_IMAGE=2
and 
root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 vmhalt="CPU 0 CMD IPL CMS" selinux=0 BOOT_IMAGE=2

e.g. no matter the parameters order.

on 5.2 snap#3 both cases PASS


on 5.1 testing with the values from comment #4 doesn't show the bug. We assume
that as "asdf" is not a valid argument some sanity check is in place before
parsing the values.

pjones,
can you answer the following questions please: 
1) As mentioned in comment #6 is there any validation/sanity check that only
supported parameters are passed on the command line?

2) Does the parameter order really not matter? 
bhinson explained:
the kernel will parse any and all args, and if there's a single number, it will
be interpreted as the runlevel, no matter where it is

Is this correct?

3) I tried testing with x86_64 but I may have been victim of 1). Also I've
noticed parameters like console="-- ttyS0,115200" when using Xen on i386, x86_64
and ia64. This is having quotes and space and is parsed as expected (unless it's
not parsed by --). Do you have any idea why? 

4) Based on 3) can you say for sure that it affects all arches as well? If yes
any hints for reproducing and testing on other arches are welcome.

1) no, none whatsoever, by intent.
2) the order matters only in that "init=/foo/bar" means to run /foo/bar as init,
and anything after an "init=" parameter is treated as command line arguments for
the init process *by the initrd* (not the kernel)
3) Not sure I understand the question here...
4) no arches do any special handling here AFAIK.

My grub.conf file is:

title Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (2.6.18-53.el5)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-53.el5 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 
        initrd /initrd-2.6.18-53.el5.img

adding asdf="foo 0" to any or all of the 3 lines above doesn't cause the system
to poweroff (run level 0) but instead it boots into its previously configured
run level. 

This is on x86_64 with RHEL 5.1 Server GA. So I can't reproduce the desired
behavior. 

Given comment #6 and that this was originally filed against s390 I'd like to
move to VERIFIED and change the Hardware field to s390x. Is everybody happy with
that?

Thanks.

That works for me.  Moving arch to s390x.

An advisory has been issued which should help the problem
described in this bug report. This report is therefore being
closed with a resolution of ERRATA. For more information
on the solution and/or where to find the updated files,
please follow the link below. You may reopen this bug report
if the solution does not work for you.

http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2008-0437.html