[Bug 1804847] Re: systemd=229-4ubuntu21.8 use of fchownat failes on some systems (openvz)

[Andreas Kar]

Please forgive me if I don't get overall picture correctly because I'm
not a professional in kernel development. Moreover I have no insights
what is going on with the systemd changes and who is actually affected
and why I'm affected. In the Armbian forums is stated that the problem
originates in Ubuntu so I decided to share my information here.

I just see right now that I'm limited to either upgrade the Ubuntu
revision (reinstall my machine) or hold systemd updates on a revision
not facing the issue. I would really appreciate more information if this
will ever get fixed again or what options we have in the long run to
surpass the issue because I doesn't sound that the problem will ever be
fixed again. Sorry again for my stupid question but there might be more
people affected with the same problem who probably want to know a
resolution.

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Title:
  systemd=229-4ubuntu21.8 use of fchownat failes on some systems
  (openvz)

Status in systemd package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released

Bug description:
  The following description is taken from:

  https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/systemd/+question/676237

  Hello everyone,
  I'm running 16.04 LTS on a virtual server which, I think, uses OpenVz. After a recent reboot I found most of my services to be in a failed state. The reason for that, I guess, are these log entries:

  Nov 17 04:47:42 h2118376 systemd-tmpfiles[165]: fchownat() of /run/elasticsearch failed: Invalid argument
  Nov 17 04:47:42 h2118376 systemd-tmpfiles[165]: fchownat() of /run/kopano failed: Invalid argument
  Nov 17 04:47:42 h2118376 systemd-tmpfiles[165]: fchownat() of /run/kopano failed: Invalid argument
  Nov 17 04:47:42 h2118376 systemd-tmpfiles[165]: fchownat() of /run/php failed: Invalid argument
  Nov 17 04:47:42 h2118376 systemd-tmpfiles[165]: fchownat() of /run/postgresql failed: Invalid argument
  Nov 17 04:47:42 h2118376 systemd-tmpfiles[165]: fchownat() of /run/redis failed: Invalid argument
  Nov 17 04:47:42 h2118376 systemd-tmpfiles[165]: fchownat() of /run/screen failed: Invalid argument
  Nov 17 04:47:42 h2118376 systemd-tmpfiles[165]: fchownat() of /run/utmp failed: Invalid argument
  Nov 17 04:47:42 h2118376 systemd-tmpfiles[165]: fchownat() of /run/systemd/netif failed: Invalid argument
  Nov 17 04:47:42 h2118376 systemd-tmpfiles[165]: fchownat() of /run/systemd/netif/links failed: Invalid argument
  Nov 17 04:47:42 h2118376 systemd-tmpfiles[165]: fchownat() of /run/systemd/netif/leases failed: Invalid argument
  Nov 17 04:47:42 h2118376 systemd-tmpfiles[165]: fchownat() of /run/log/journal failed: Invalid argument
  Nov 17 04:47:42 h2118376 systemd-tmpfiles[165]: fchownat() of /run/log/journal/bbad3a438f4b4fb49e5d0700bd5981e8 failed: Invalid argument
  Nov 17 04:47:42 h2118376 systemd-tmpfiles[165]: fchownat() of /run/log/journal/bbad3a438f4b4fb49e5d0700bd5981e8/system.journal failed: Invalid argument

  To verify I tried this:

  /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d# SYSTEMD_LOG_LEVEL=debug systemd-tmpfiles --create elasticsearch.conf
  Reading config file "elasticsearch.conf".
  Running create action for entry d /var/run/elasticsearch
  Found existing directory "/var/run/elasticsearch".
  "/run/elasticsearch" has right mode 40755
  chown "/run/elasticsearch" to 120.128
  fchownat() of /run/elasticsearch failed: Invalid argument

  I can manually chown the directories, e.g. "chown
  elasticsearch:elasticsearch /var/run/elasticsearch" and restart the
  service successfully.  My suspicion is, this is related to an upgrade
  of systemd to 229-4ubuntu21.8.

  At this point I don't know what to do.

  I'm also confused about the version I have installed, which I thought is systemd-229. Howver, I looked at https://github.com/systemd/systemd/blob/v229/src/tmpfiles/tmpfiles.c and found that fchownat() is only used from version 238+:
  Tag v237 (and earlier, including 229):
  /.../
                          if (chown(fn,
                                    i->uid_set ? i->uid : UID_INVALID,
                                    i->gid_set ? i->gid : GID_INVALID) < 0)
                                  return log_error_errno(errno, "chown(%s) failed: %m", path);
  }
  /.../

  Tag v238

  /.../
      if (fchownat(fd,
                               "",
                               i->uid_set ? i->uid : UID_INVALID,
                               i->gid_set ? i->gid : GID_INVALID,
                               AT_EMPTY_PATH) < 0)
  return log_error_errno(errno, "fchownat() of %s failed: %m", path);
  /.../

  Any help fixing this problem would be highly appreciated.
  Many thanks,
  Rafael

  === Notes ===
  fchownat() was added to Linux in kernel 2.6.16;
  library support was added to glibc in version 2.4.
  checkinf if it is blocked/filtered/sandboxed, rarther than unavailable.
  glibc in bionic requires minimum linux 3.2.

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