cron autopkgtest failure on armhf

[Bryce Harrington]

The cron autopkgtests fail on armhf when run with exim4, blocking the latest exim4 merge's migration:

https://code.launchpad.net/~bryce/ubuntu/+source/exim4/+git/exim4/+merge/448540
https://autopkgtest.ubuntu.com/packages/c/cron/mantic/armhf
https://autopkgtest.ubuntu.com/results/autopkgtest-mantic/mantic/armhf/c/cron/20230821_121833_8b636@/log.gz

1824s autopkgtest [07:59:06]: test check-listings-protection: [-----------------------
1826s +---------------------------------+
1826s | Here we are testing the patch |
1826s | features/protect-list.patch |
1826s +---------------------------------+
1826s ================= adding user 'dummy' =====================
1826s info: Adding user `dummy' ...
1826s logger: send message failed: Invalid argument
1826s info: Selecting UID/GID from range 1000 to 59999 ...
1826s logger: send message failed: Invalid argument
1826s info: Adding new group `dummy' (1001) ...
1826s logger: send message failed: Invalid argument
1826s info: Adding new user `dummy' (1001) with group `dummy (1001)' ...
1826s logger: send message failed: Invalid argument
1826s info: Creating home directory `/home/dummy' ...
1826s logger: send message failed: Invalid argument
1826s info: Copying files from `/etc/skel' ...
1826s logger: send message failed: Invalid argument
1826s info: Adding new user `dummy' to supplemental / extra groups `users' ...
1826s logger: send message failed: Invalid argument
1826s info: Adding user `dummy' to group `users' ...
1826s logger: send message failed: Invalid argument
1826s ========= Inject an obfuscated line into dummy's crontab ==============
1827s ========== testing the crontab of user 'dummy' =============
1827s ========= here is a hexa dump of $(crontab -u dummy -l) ====
1827s 00000000 2a 20 2a 20 2a 20 2a 20 2a 20 3e 2f 74 6d 70 2f |* * * * * >/tmp/|
1827s 00000010 78 3b 0d 6e 6f 20 63 72 6f 6e 74 61 62 20 66 6f |x;.no crontab fo|
1827s 00000020 72 20 64 75 6d 6d 79 08 08 62 6f 0a |r dummy..bo.|
1827s 0000002c
1827s +---------------------------------------------+
1827s | Good! characters
 and  were protected |
1827s +---------------------------------------------+
1827s autopkgtest [07:59:09]: test check-listings-protection: -----------------------]

1831s check-listings-protection FAIL stderr: logger: send message failed: Invalid argument
1831s autopkgtest [07:59:13]: test check-listings-protection: - - - - - - - - - - stderr - - - - - - - - - -
1831s logger: send message failed: Invalid argument
1831s logger: send message failed: Invalid argument
1831s logger: send message failed: Invalid argument
1831s logger: send message failed: Invalid argument
1831s logger: send message failed: Invalid argument
1831s logger: send message failed: Invalid argument
1831s logger: send message failed: Invalid argument

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

The command generating the failure is:

echo "================= adding user 'dummy' ====================="
getent passwd dummy || adduser --disabled-password --gecos "" dummy

Debian does not seem to hit this error running with exim4 on armhf:

https://ci.debian.net/data/autopkgtest/testing/armhf/c/cron/36827801/log.gz

361s +---------------------------------+
361s | Here we are testing the patch |
361s | features/protect-list.patch |
361s +---------------------------------+
361s ================= adding user 'dummy' =====================
362s info: Adding user `dummy' ...
362s info: Selecting UID/GID from range 1000 to 59999 ...
362s info: Adding new group `dummy' (1001) ...
362s info: Adding new user `dummy' (1001) with group `dummy (1001)' ...
362s info: Creating home directory `/home/dummy' ...
362s info: Copying files from `/etc/skel' ...
362s info: Adding new user `dummy' to supplemental / extra groups `users' ...
362s info: Adding user `dummy' to group `users' ...
362s ========= Inject an obfuscated line into dummy's crontab ==============
362s ========== testing the crontab of user 'dummy' =============
362s ========= here is a hexa dump of $(crontab -u dummy -l) ====
362s 00000000 2a 20 2a 20 2a 20 2a 20 2a 20 3e 2f 74 6d 70 2f |* * * * * >/tmp/|
362s 00000010 78 3b 0d 6e 6f 20 63 72 6f 6e 74 61 62 20 66 6f |x;.no crontab fo|
362s 00000020 72 20 64 75 6d 6d 79 08 08 62 6f 0a |r dummy..bo.|
362s 0000002c

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

I haven't identified where the command `logger` gets called in this particular test case, however the following bug report filed against util-linux seems relevant:

    https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/util-linux/+bug/1991436
    https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues/2336

According to that report, the issue crops up inside LXD containers only, which may explain why this occurs on armhf only. As I understand it, that architecture is implemented synthetically in the autopkgtest infrastructure as a container, unlike how the other architectures are set up, and probably unlike how Debian implements their armhf testing.

The upstream fix for this appears to be included in util-linux v2.39, which is currently in mantic-proposed:

    https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/commit/3b59942da4bd157ed9a4a5d12e2f62317e2c61e3

    util-linux | 2.38.1-5ubuntu2 | mantic
    util-linux | 2.39.1-4ubuntu1 | mantic-proposed

Thus, I believe triggering against this latter version of util-linux should resolve the migration issue.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

I've run the following triggers against the package:

https://autopkgtest.ubuntu.com/request.cgi?release=mantic&arch=armhf&package=cron&trigger=cron%2F3.0pl1-163ubuntu1&trigger=taningia%2F0.2.2-2build1&trigger=libinfinity%2F0.7.2-1build2&trigger=dracut%2F059-4ubuntu1&trigger=exim4%2F4.96-17ubuntu1&trigger=postgresql-15%2F15.4-1ubuntu1&trigger=gtk4%2F4.12.0%2Bds-1ubuntu1&trigger=ismrmrd%2F1.8.0-2build1&trigger=binutils%2F2.41-4ubuntu1&trigger=cataclysm-dda%2F0.G-4&trigger=pango1.0%2F1.51.0%2Bds-2&trigger=systemd%2F253.5-1ubuntu2&trigger=openzwave%2F1.6.1914%2Bds-1build1&trigger=slic3r-prusa%2F2.6.0%2Bdfsg-2&trigger=util-linux%2F2.39.1-4ubuntu1&trigger=ncbi-igblast%2F1.19.0-1build1&trigger=mdadm%2F4.2%2B20230508-6ubuntu1&trigger=dante%2F1.4.2%2Bdfsg-7build8&trigger=check%2F0.15.2-2build1&trigger=libdkim%2F1%3A1.0.21-4build4

https://autopkgtest.ubuntu.com/request.cgi?release=mantic&arch=armhf&package=cron&trigger=cron%2F3.0pl1-163ubuntu1&trigger=exim4%2F4.96-17ubuntu1&trigger=util-linux%2F2.39.1-4ubuntu1&trigger=mdadm%2F4.2%2B20230508-6ubuntu1&trigger=libdkim%2F1%3A1.0.21-4build4