Sample Header Ad - 728x90

Who changes `/proc/sys/kernel/random/boot_id` in Linux (SLES)?

3 votes
2 answers
1702 views
Well, I thought it's just logical that the kernel changes /proc/sys/kernel/random/boot_id during boot, and then keeps that value while running. At least that would make sense to me if the intended use of boot_id is to find out *when* the machine rebooted. When monitoring the file using monit, I noticed that the file seems to change even if the machine did not reboot; that means the timestamp of the file changes, not the contents. So I wonder who changes the file's timestamps. For reference, here's my monit configuration being used: ~~~lang-monitrc check file bootid with path /proc/sys/kernel/random/boot_id #if changed timestamp then alert if content != "^[0-9a-f]{8}-[0-9a-f]{4}-[0-9a-f]{4}-[0-9a-f]{4}-[0-9a-f]{12}" then alert if changed checksum then alert group local ~~~ When checking the monitoring results I got: ~~~lang-text File 'bootid' status OK monitoring status Monitored monitoring mode active on reboot start permission 444 uid 0 gid 0 size 0 B access timestamp Tue, 07 May 2024 11:01:31 change timestamp Tue, 07 May 2024 11:01:31 modify timestamp Tue, 07 May 2024 11:01:31 content match no checksum d174a6b860689b62417af5eccd2b17ee (MD5) data collected Tue, 07 May 2024 11:46:11 ~~~ Cross-checking I got: ~~~lang-text # stat /proc/sys/kernel/random/boot_id File: '/proc/sys/kernel/random/boot_id' Size: 0 Blocks: 0 IO Block: 1024 regular empty file Device: 4h/4d Inode: 9770501 Links: 1 Access: (0444/-r--r--r--) Uid: ( 0/ root) Gid: ( 0/ root) Access: 2024-05-07 11:01:31.721335498 +0200 Modify: 2024-05-07 11:01:31.721335498 +0200 Change: 2024-05-07 11:01:31.721335498 +0200 Birth: - # uptime 11:49am up 14 days 0:49, 4 users, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00 ~~~ The system is running SLES12 SP5 on x86_64, and the only "suspects" are cron-jobs and "snapper": ~~~lang-journal May 07 11:00:01 v04 systemd: Started Session 7426 of user root. May 07 11:00:01 v04 systemd: Started Session 7428 of user root. May 07 11:00:01 v04 systemd: Started Session 7427 of user root. May 07 11:00:01 v04 CRON: (root) CMD ([ -x /usr/lib64/sa/sa1 ] && exe May 07 11:00:01 v04 run-crons: suse.de-snapper: OK ~~~
Asked by U. Windl (1715 rep)
May 7, 2024, 10:00 AM
Last activity: May 17, 2024, 10:08 AM