pgrep: Add support for ignoring ancestors with -A/--ignore-ancestors

pgrep and friends naturally filter their own processes from their
matches. The same issue can occur when elevating with tools like sudo or
doas, where the elevating shim layers linger as a parent and are
returned in the results. For example:

    % sudo pkill -9 -cf someelevatedcmdline
    1
    zsh: killed     sudo pkill -9 -cf someelevatedcmdline

This is a situation we've actually seen in production, where some poor
soul changes how permission management works (for example with Linux's
hidepid option), needs to elevate a pgrep or pkill call, and now ends up
with more than they bargained for. Even after the issue is noticed,
resolving it requires reinventing some of the pgrep logic, which is
unfortunate.

This commit adds the -A/--ignore-ancestors option which excludes pgrep's
ancestors from the results:

    % sudo ./pkill -9 -Acf someelevatedcmdline
    0

We looks at multiple layers of the process hierarchy because, while
things like sudo only have one layer of shimming, some mechanisms (like
those found in a typical container manager like those found in Docker or
Kubernetes) may have many more.

Signed-off-by: Chris Down <chris@chrisdown.name>

2 files changed, 63 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/man/pgrep.1 b/man/pgrep.1
index 5e1db7f..c11af42 100644
--- a/man/pgrep.1
+++ b/man/pgrep.1
@@ -177,6 +177,16 @@ Fail if pidfile (see \fB\-F\fR) not locked.
 \fB\-r\fR, \fB\-\-runstates\fR \fID,R,S,Z,\fP...
 Match only processes which match the process state.
 .TP
+\fB\-A\fR, \fB\-\-ignore-ancestors\fR\fR
+Ignore all ancestors of
+.BR pgrep ,
+.BR pkill ,
+or
+.BR pidwait .
+For example, this can be useful when elevating with
+.BR sudo
+or similar tools.
+.TP
 \fB\-\-cgroup \fIname\fP,...
 Match on provided control group (cgroup) v2 name. See
 .BR cgroups (8)
diff --git a/src/pgrep.c b/src/pgrep.c
index 6490ad6..5d13c28 100644
--- a/src/pgrep.c
+++ b/src/pgrep.c
@@ -124,6 +124,7 @@ static struct el *opt_pgrp = NULL;
 static struct el *opt_rgid = NULL;
 static struct el *opt_pid = NULL;
 static struct el *opt_ppid = NULL;
+static struct el *opt_ignore_ancestors = NULL;
 static struct el *opt_sid = NULL;
 static struct el *opt_term = NULL;
 static struct el *opt_euid = NULL;
@@ -180,6 +181,7 @@ static int __attribute__ ((__noreturn__)) usage(int opt)
     fputs(_(" -F, --pidfile <file>      read PIDs from file\n"), fp);
     fputs(_(" -L, --logpidfile          fail if PID file is not locked\n"), fp);
     fputs(_(" -r, --runstates <state>   match runstates [D,S,Z,...]\n"), fp);
+    fputs(_(" -A, --ignore-ancestors    exclude our ancestors from results\n"), fp);
     fputs(_(" --cgroup <grp,...>        match by cgroup v2 names\n"), fp);
     fputs(_(" --ns <PID>                match the processes that belong to the same\n"
         "                           namespace as <pid>\n"), fp);
@@ -194,6 +196,50 @@ static int __attribute__ ((__noreturn__)) usage(int opt)
     exit(fp == stderr ? EXIT_USAGE : EXIT_SUCCESS);
 }
 
+static struct el *get_our_ancestors(void)
+{
+#define PIDS_GETINT(e) PIDS_VAL(EU_##e, s_int, stack, info)
+    struct pids_info *info = NULL;
+    struct el *list = NULL;
+    int i = 0;
+    int size = 0;
+    int done = 0;
+    pid_t search_pid = getpid();
+    struct pids_stack *stack;
+
+    if (procps_pids_new(&info, Items, 15) < 0)
+        xerrx(EXIT_FATAL, _("Unable to create pid info structure"));
+
+    while (!done) {
+        if (search_pid == 0)
+            break;
+
+        if (i == size) {
+            grow_size(size);
+            list = xrealloc(list, (1 + size) * sizeof(*list));
+        }
+
+        while ((stack = procps_pids_get(info, PIDS_FETCH_TASKS_ONLY))) {
+            if (PIDS_GETINT(PID) == search_pid) {
+                list[++i].num = PIDS_GETINT(PPID);
+                search_pid = list[i].num;
+                break;
+            }
+
+            done = 1;
+        }
+    }
+
+    if (i == 0) {
+        free(list);
+        list = NULL;
+    } else {
+        list[0].num = i;
+    }
+    return list;
+#undef PIDS_GETINT
+}
+
 static struct el *split_list (const char *restrict str, int (*convert)(const char *, struct el *))
 {
     char *copy;
@@ -612,6 +658,8 @@ static struct el * select_procs (int *num)
 
         if (PIDS_GETINT(PID) == myself)
             continue;
+        else if (opt_ignore_ancestors && match_numlist(PIDS_GETINT(PID), opt_ignore_ancestors))
+            continue;
         else if (opt_newest && PIDS_GETULL(STARTTIME) < saved_start_time)
             match = 0;
         else if (opt_oldest && PIDS_GETULL(STARTTIME) > saved_start_time)
@@ -756,6 +804,7 @@ static void parse_opts (int argc, char **argv)
     };
     static const struct option longopts[] = {
         {"signal", required_argument, NULL, SIGNAL_OPTION},
+        {"ignore-ancestors", no_argument, NULL, 'A'},
         {"count", no_argument, NULL, 'c'},
         {"cgroup", required_argument, NULL, CGROUP_OPTION},
         {"delimiter", required_argument, NULL, 'd'},
@@ -808,7 +857,7 @@ static void parse_opts (int argc, char **argv)
         prog_mode = PGREP;
     }
 
-    strcat (opts, "LF:cfinoxP:O:g:s:u:U:G:t:r:?Vh");
+    strcat (opts, "LF:cfinoxP:O:Ag:s:u:U:G:t:r:?Vh");
 
     while ((opt = getopt_long (argc, argv, opts, longopts, NULL)) != -1) {
         switch (opt) {
@@ -892,6 +941,9 @@ static void parse_opts (int argc, char **argv)
         case 'a':
             opt_longlong = 1;
             break;
+        case 'A':
+            opt_ignore_ancestors = get_our_ancestors();
+            break;
         case 'n':   /* Solaris: match only the newest */
             if (opt_oldest|opt_negate|opt_newest)
                 usage ('?');