Uncovering a 24-year-old bug in the Linux Kernel (2021)
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Uncovering a 24-year-old bug in the Linux Kernel (2021)
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Re: Uncovering a 24-year-old bug in the Linux Kernel (2021)
#2I remember when this was originally posted, but I voted it up again because I think it's such an excellent story, and excellent programming. We need more people and companies like this, who are willing to go beyond "oh it fails randomly sometimes" and track down the underlying issues.
=> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26102241 Previous Discussion (497 points - 41 comments)
Re: Uncovering a 24-year-old bug in the Linux Kernel (2021)
#3[deleted]
Re: Uncovering a 24-year-old bug in the Linux Kernel (2021)
#4Awesome breakdown - as someone who is fairly familiar with TCP theoretically but not with the details of the TCP implementation in the Linux kernel, this was just the right balance of detail. Great technical writing IMO!
Re: Uncovering a 24-year-old bug in the Linux Kernel (2021)
#5I remember when this was originally posted, but I voted it up again because I think it's such an excellent story, and excellent programming. We need more people and companies like this, who are willing to go beyond "oh it fails randomly sometimes" and track down the underlying issues. => https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26102241 Previous Discussion (497 points - 41 comments)
> We need more people and companies like this, who are willing to go beyond "oh it fails randomly sometimes" and track down the underlying issues.
I absolutely disagree. Most capable engineers I know have this urge to go down rabbit holes and fix any issue, this is nothing special.
Everyone wants to be the hero that found a bug deep in the stack, make a glorious pull request, and be celebrated in the community.
I much more value people who have enough self-control to pick meaningful battles, and follow the right priorities.
Re: Uncovering a 24-year-old bug in the Linux Kernel (2021)
#6As someone who thrives on tracking down rare but annoying bugs in a debugger, I love stories like this. It is not just bugs that cause real failures which can be headaches; but also bugs that just slow things down unexpectantly. They can sometimes go undetected for decades like this one.
I wrote an article this past year that talks about silent bugs that slowly eat resources and collectively can be very expensive in terms of wasted time and energy: https://didgets.substack.com/p/finding-and-fixing-a-billion-...
Re: Uncovering a 24-year-old bug in the Linux Kernel (2021)
#7I remember when this was originally posted, but I voted it up again because I think it's such an excellent story, and excellent programming. We need more people and companies like this, who are willing to go beyond "oh it fails randomly sometimes" and track down the underlying issues. => https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26102241 Previous Discussion (497 points - 41 comments)
> We need more people and companies like this, who are willing to go beyond "oh it fails randomly sometimes" and track down the underlying issues. I absolutely disagree. Most capable engineers I know have this urge to go down rabbit holes and fix any issue, this is nothing special. Everyone wants to be the hero that found a bug deep in the stack, make a glorious pull request, and be celebrated in the community. I muc…
Eh, right, many bugs we have don't really matter.
Oh what is that you say, security vulnerabilities are also just bugs that get exploited? Oh well...
Re: Uncovering a 24-year-old bug in the Linux Kernel (2021)
#8I remember when this was originally posted, but I voted it up again because I think it's such an excellent story, and excellent programming. We need more people and companies like this, who are willing to go beyond "oh it fails randomly sometimes" and track down the underlying issues. => https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26102241 Previous Discussion (497 points - 41 comments)
> We need more people and companies like this, who are willing to go beyond "oh it fails randomly sometimes" and track down the underlying issues. I absolutely disagree. Most capable engineers I know have this urge to go down rabbit holes and fix any issue, this is nothing special. Everyone wants to be the hero that found a bug deep in the stack, make a glorious pull request, and be celebrated in the community. I muc…
Exactly. I could fix any complex bug. I just choose not to.
Re: Uncovering a 24-year-old bug in the Linux Kernel (2021)
#9I remember when this was originally posted, but I voted it up again because I think it's such an excellent story, and excellent programming. We need more people and companies like this, who are willing to go beyond "oh it fails randomly sometimes" and track down the underlying issues. => https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26102241 Previous Discussion (497 points - 41 comments)
[deleted]
Re: Uncovering a 24-year-old bug in the Linux Kernel (2021)
#10I remember when this was originally posted, but I voted it up again because I think it's such an excellent story, and excellent programming. We need more people and companies like this, who are willing to go beyond "oh it fails randomly sometimes" and track down the underlying issues. => https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26102241 Previous Discussion (497 points - 41 comments)
> We need more people and companies like this, who are willing to go beyond "oh it fails randomly sometimes" and track down the underlying issues. I absolutely disagree. Most capable engineers I know have this urge to go down rabbit holes and fix any issue, this is nothing special. Everyone wants to be the hero that found a bug deep in the stack, make a glorious pull request, and be celebrated in the community. I muc…
GP’s comment is also odd because the article notes they took your approach. They documented the problem when they first noticed it happening infrequently and moved on to higher priorities. When it started happening every single day it became mission critical to investigate.