Bug #27198 Error returns from time() are ignored
Submitted: 16 Mar 2007 4:57 Modified: 18 Jul 2007 19:21
Reporter: Arjen Lentz Email Updates:
Status: Closed Impact on me:
None 
Category:MySQL Server Severity:S2 (Serious)
Version:4.0, 4.1, 5.0, 5.1 OS:Any (any)
Assigned to: Tatiana Azundris Nuernberg CPU Architecture:Any
Tags: bfsm_2007_04_05, error, time, unix_timestamp

[16 Mar 2007 4:57] Arjen Lentz 
Description:
UNIX_TIMESTAMP() uses the value of THD::query_start(). query_start() returns THD::start_time and that is set from the result of a call to time(). time() can fail, but THD::set_time() uses the result regardless of whether an error occurred. time() returns -1 on error.

Calls to gettimeofday() done in our customized version of mysqld can fail. The failures are very infrequent, but they occur. Given that, it's assumed that that time() also fails occasionally. Given that this is used for unix_timestamp(), it would be preferre that THD::set_time be changed to check the return value for an error.

How to repeat:
Check in source code.
[16 Mar 2007 10:05] Sveta Smirnova 
Thank you for the report.

Verified as described.
[16 Mar 2007 21:16] Sergei Golubchik 
according to 'man time' it can only fail if

   EFAULT result buffer points outside the accessible address space.

which cannot be the case in MySQL
[13 Jul 2007 15:49] Bugs System 
A patch for this bug has been committed. After review, it may
be pushed to the relevant source trees for release in the next
version. You can access the patch from:

  http://lists.mysql.com/commits/30885

ChangeSet@1.2214, 2007-07-13 17:50:58+02:00, tnurnberg@sin.intern.azundris.com +2 -0
  Bug#27198: Error returns from time() are ignored
  
  gettimeofday() can fail and presumably, so can time().
  Keep an eye on it.
  
  Since we have no data on this at all so far, we just
  retry on failure (and log the event), assuming that
  this is just an intermittant failure. This might of
  course hang the threat until we succeed. Once we know
  more about these failures, an appropriate more clever
  scheme may be picked (only try so many times per thread,
  etc., if that fails, return last "good" time() we got or
  some such).  Using sql_print_information() to log as this
  probably only occurs in high load scenarios where the debug-
  trace likely is disabled (or might interfere with testing
  the effect).  No test-case as this is a non-deterministic
  issue.
[17 Jul 2007 8:00] Tatiana Azundris Nuernberg 
pushed to maint versions of 4.0.31, 4.1.24, 5.0.46, 5.1.21
[17 Jul 2007 18:16] Bugs System 
Pushed into 4.0.31
[18 Jul 2007 19:21] Paul DuBois 
Noted in 4.0.31, 4.1.24, 5.0.46, 5.1.21 changelogs.

Error returns from the time() system call were ignored.
[19 Jul 2007 15:47] Bugs System 
Pushed into 5.1.21-beta
[19 Jul 2007 15:49] Bugs System 
Pushed into 5.0.48
[19 Jul 2007 15:51] Bugs System 
Pushed into 4.1.24