From 8e873e9dc0be2d372877f027c6292040edda44bd Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Dmitry Vyukov Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2018 13:36:15 +0200 Subject: Update syzbot.md --- docs/syzbot.md | 20 ++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 20 insertions(+) (limited to 'docs') diff --git a/docs/syzbot.md b/docs/syzbot.md index 82912cd49..ee8c7e283 100644 --- a/docs/syzbot.md +++ b/docs/syzbot.md @@ -141,6 +141,26 @@ travelled through memory. Finally there is a "Uninit was created at:" section which points either to a heap allocation or a stack variable which is the original source of uninitialized-ness. +## No custom patches + +While `syzbot` can test patches that fix bugs, it does not support applying +custom patches during fuzzing. It always tests vanilla unmodified git trees. +There are several reasons for this: + +- custom patches may not apply tomorrow +- custom patches may not apply to all of the tested git trees +- it's hard to communicate exact state of the code with bug reports (not just hash anymore) +- line numbers won't match in reports (which always brings suspecion as to the quality of reports) +- custom patches can also introduce bugs, and even if they don't a developer may (rightfully) + question validity of and may not want to spend time on reports obtained + with a number of out-of-tree patches +- order of patch application generatelly matters, and at some point patches + need to be removed, there is nobody to manage this + +We've experimented with application of custom patches in the past and it lead +to unrecoverable mess. If you want `syzbot` to pick up patches sooner, +ask tree maintainers for priority handling. + ## Is syzbot code available? Yes, it is [here](https://github.com/google/syzkaller/tree/master/dashboard/app). -- cgit mrf-deployment