Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!uwm.edu!linac!att!ucbvax!PAN.SSEC.HONEYWELL.COM!thompson
From: thompson@PAN.SSEC.HONEYWELL.COM (John Thompson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Subject: re: process priorities (problem?)
Message-ID: <9103201503.AA18257@pan.ssec.honeywell.com>
Date: 20 Mar 91 15:03:34 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 34



> > An ordinary, unpriviledged user in this environment may very well have reason to
> > adjust the priority of some process on his or her node, and can only hurt
> > themselves by doing so.  When nodes are used in shared environments,
> What happens if the user renices disk servers? The registry deamon? 
> The glbd? There are vital services running which need to be available to
> the net as a whole! (TCP gateways, servers for diskless computers) 
Things go real belly up.  (I assume it was a rhetorical question, but....)
We've had users raise their priorities through the roof, and drop other people's
priorities through the basement.  We've had the tcpd time out all connections,
because somebody 'needed to run fast', so changed their lower priority to 12
(Aegis-land - Unix equiv is renice -gawdawfullow).  IMHO, HP/Apollo is copping
out with their "that's a feature" argument.  Aborting processes was a feature, 
and at sr10 they came up with an extension (`node_data/node_owners).  The same
thing should hold true for priorities.  Each user may have his own system (though
that's arguable too), but they can certainly hurt other people with their antics.

> >their users must learn that it is socially unacceptable to take advantage of
> >some of the features available.  If we required root access to renice processes,
> >we would be depriving our users of a feature that they have become accustomed to
> >and which we feel they can benefit from.
That's why something like `node_data/node_owners would be good.  People who think
that shotguns are valuable computing tools should be able to fire at will.  Those
of us who like to preserve systems should be able to limit the people who can 
pull the trigger.
 
-- jt --
John Thompson
Honeywell, SSEC
Plymouth, MN  55441
thompson@pan.ssec.honeywell.com

Me?  Represent Honeywell?  You've GOT to be kidding!!!