Re: Automated submission of kernel panic reports: sysutils/panicmail

On Mon, Nov 4, 2013, at 20:26, Thomas Mueller wrote:
> > Hi all,
>         
> > After considerable review on freebsd-hackers (thanks dt71 and jilles!) I have
> > now added sysutils/panicmail to the FreeBSD ports tree.  If you install this
> > and add
> >         panicmail_enable="YES"
> > to your /etc/rc.conf, a panic report will be generated and sent to root_at_ for
> > you to review and submit (via email).  You can skip the reviewing step and
> > submit panics automatically by setting panicmail_autosubmit="YES".
> 
> > The panics submitted are encrypted to an RSA key which I hold in order to keep
> > them secure in transit; and I intend to keep the raw panic reports confidential
> > except to the minimum extent necessary for other developers to help me process
> > the incoming reports.
> 
> > If I receive enough panic reports to be useful, I hope to provide developers
> > with aggregate statistics.  This may include:
> 
> > * regular email reports listing the "top panics", to help guide developers
> > towards the most fertile areas for stability improvements;
> 
> > * email to specific developers alerting them to recurring panics in code they
> > maintain (especially if it becomes clear that the panic has been recently
> > introduced); and
> 
> > * guidance to re_at_ and secteam_at_ about how often a particular panic occurs if
> > an errata notice is being considered
> 
> > as well as other yet-to-be-imagined reports of a similarly aggregate and
> > anonymized nature.
> 
> > So please install the sysutils/panicmail port and enable it in rc.conf!  This
> > all depends on getting useful data, and I can't do that without your help.
> 
> --
> > Colin Percival
> > Security Officer Emeritus, FreeBSD | The power to serve
> > Founder, Tarsnap | www.tarsnap.com | Online backups for the truly paranoid
> 
> Question that arises is how does the system know where to send the email,
> and through what SMTP server, especially if panicmail_autosubmit="YES".
> 

Every computer on the planet has the capability of being able to send
email directly without an SMTP server. The only question is if the
receiving end is willing to accept it, or discard it as spam.

> In the case of a kernel panic, wouldn't the system crash/freeze, and
> would it then be able to compose an email message?
> 

This is all handled on the next boot after the panic.

> I use mail/mpop and mail/msmtp rather than messing with sendmail or
> postfix; have multiple email accounts and inboxes.
> 

Does it provide a compatible /usr/sbin/sendmail binary? If so, it will
just work^TM.

> Now come to think of it, I don't think I ever sent an email from FreeBSD
> as root, only as nonroot.
> 
> Something like panicmail ought to be ported to NetBSD pkgsrc, considering
> that NetBSD seems so much more unstable and crash-prone than FreeBSD on
> my hardware.
>  

I hope more projects pick this up too. :-)