watchdogd v4.1

Changes

• Add watchdogctl list-clients command to display currently subscribed
  clients to the process supervisor. Outputs to stdout in either table
  format (default) with colored headers, or JSON format with -j/--json
• New global -j, --json option for machine-readable output, currently
  supported by list-clients and status commands
• New API: wdog_clients() returns array of wdog_client_t structs for
  programmatic access to subscribed clients. See API documentation at
  https://codedocs.xyz/troglobit/watchdogd/wdog_8h.html
• Enhance watchdogctl status command to display formatted output by
  default, with device information, capabilities, and reset history in
  a human-readable table format. Use -j/--json for JSON output

Fixes

• Fix #48: generic scripts running more than 1 second would fail with
  false "critical error" reports and cause unwanted system reboots due
  to uninitialized exit status variable. Found and fixed by Fiona Klute
• Fix #55: watchdogctl reload with tempmon crashes watchdogd
• Fix #56: issue causing unwanted reboot when watchdogctl reload was
  called while a generic monitor script was running. The script_watcher
  timer was not stopped during reload, leading to an invalid PID (-1)
  being used, which triggered a system reset
• Fix memory leak in generic monitor with optional script path, would
  be triggered on watchdogctl reload

watchdogd v4.0

Breaking changes: the generic script monitor has new syntax, the
status files have moved, and the format has changed. Also, the
default value for safe-exit in the .conf file has been changed.

Changes

• Support for multiple watchdog devices added, issue #26

• The format of watchdogctl status and /run/watchdogd/status has
  been changed to JSON and includes more information about the currently
  running daemon and the capabilities of watchdog devices in use

• The configure --with-$MONITOR=SEC flag has been changed to not
  take an argument (this was never used). To change the poll interval
  of a system monitor, use the configuration file

• A new file system monitor: fsmon /var { ... }, multiple monitors,
  fsmon /path, are supported

• A new temperature monitor: tempmon /path/to/sensor {...}. It
  supports multiple sensors, both thermal and hwmon type. See the
  documentation for details

• The syntax for the generic monitor script has changed. This is a
  breaking change, everyone must update. New syntax:

    generic /path/to/montor-script.sh { ... }
  

• The generic scripts monitor now supports running multiple scripts

• Documentation of the libwdog supervisor API by Andreas Helbech Kleist

• API docs at https://codedocs.xyz/troglobit/watchdogd/wdog_8h.html

• State file location changed from /var/lib/ to /var/lib/misc/.
  This is the recommended location in the Linux FHS, and what most
  systems use. Both the default watchdogd.conf and documentation has
  been updated. Unless a file is specified by the user, the daemon will
  automatically relocate to the new location at runtime. If the new
  directory does not exist, the daemon will fall back to use the old
  path, if it exists, issue #36

• The default watchdogd.conf now enables reset reason by default.
  This is a strong recommendation since it is then possible to trace
  the reset cause also for system monitors

• Simplified README by splitting it into multiple files, some text even
  moved entirely to man pages instead

• The status files cluttering up /run have been moved to their own
  subdirectory, /run/watchdogd. This includes the PID file, last boot
  status, and the socket for watchdogctl. The latter remains the
  recommended tool to query status and interact with the daemon

• The configure script flags for enabling system monitors have been
  simplified. None of the monitors take an argument (poll seconds),
  this because that is configured in watchdogd.conf

Fixes

• Fix #28: watchdogd crash in case "Label" or "Reset date" field in
  reset reason is empty. Found and fixed by Christian Theiss
• Fix #30: replace Finit compile-time detection with runtime check, this
  allows synchronized reboot using watchdogd with Finit in Buildroot
• Fix #39: generic monitoring script with runtime > 1 second cause
  system to reboot. Found and fixed by Senthil Nathan Thangaraj
• Fix #41: calling custom supervisor script cause watchdogd to disable
  monitoring, regardless of script exit code.
• Fix #43: watchdogctl clear, and wdog_reset_reason_clr() API, does
  not work. Regression introduced in v3.4.
• The generic script plugin can now be disabled at runtime. Prior to
  this release, it was not possible when once enabled.
• The label (cause) of the system monitor forcing a reset is now saved in
  the reset reason file. Previously only "forced reset" was the only
  message, which without persistent logs did not say much.

watchdogd v3.5

Minor compat release; integration with Finit and new libite.

Changes

• Migrate from Travis-CI to GitHub Actions
• Use SIGTERM to signal PID 1, SIGINT Stops working in Finit v4.1
• Updated examples and manual page(s) with new 'enabled' setting
• Updated README with exact build example for correct paths
• Add support for new libite namespace, as of libite v2.5.0

watchdogd v3.4

Changes

• Clarify nomenclature: reset cause vs. reset reason
• Change layout and formatting of watchdogctl status output
• Change defaults for supervisor, still disabled by default but now also with priority set to zero by default. This allows running the supervisor in cgroups v2 systems without realtime priority.

Fixes

• Fix missing pidfile touch on SIGHUP
• Fix problem with plugins being enabled (but incomplete) by default. Now all sections have an enabled = [true|false] setting, and all are disabled by default. You need to uncomment end enable.

watchdogd v3.4-rc1

Changes

• Clarify nomenclature: reset cause vs. reset reason
• Change layout and formatting of watchdogd status output

Fixes

• Fix missing pidfile touch on SIGHUP

watchdogd v3.3

Changes

• Increased severity of syslog messages preceding reboot, instead of LOG_ERROR all messages that result in a reboot use LOG_EMERG because many syslogd services default to log emerg to console
• Add handy summary of options to configure script

Fixes

• Fix possible garbled next_ack for users of libwdog due to badly handled timeout in poll() when connecting to watchdogd
• Fix configure script defaults for the following settings:
  • --enable-compat, was always enabled
  • --enable-exampels, were always enabled
  • --enable-syslog-mark, was always enabled
• Fix use-after-free bug in new script monitor, introduced in v3.2

watchdogd v3.2

Changes

• Issue #17: When the process supervisor is enabled watchdogd now always runs with elevated RT priority. Previous releases changed to SCHED_RR only when the first supervised process connected, and conversely disbled RT prio when the last process disconnected. This change gives a more predictable behavior and also means watchdogd
  can be relied upon until the system has been properly diagnosed
• If the (optional) supervisor script returns OK (0) the timer for the offending process is now disarmed and the system is not rebooted.
• Retry handover from Finit buit-in watchdog if first attempt fails
• New generic script monitor, thanks to Tom Deblauwe. Can periodically call a site specific script, with timeout in case the script hangs

Fixes

• Fix #16: Only force reboot on exit if watchdogd is enabled
• When disabling and the re-enabling watchdogd using the API the daemon was sometimes stopped by Finit. This happened because the daemon re-issued a watchdog handover signal to Finit. The fix is to only do the handover once.
• When re-enabling watchdogd the supervisor was not properly elevating the RT priority, instead it remained as a SCHED_OTHER process. This fix makes sure to save and re-use the configured RT priority.

watchdogd v3.2-rc1

Changes

• Issue #17: When the process supervisor is enabled watchdogd now always runs with elevated RT priority. Previous releases changed to SCHED_RR only when the first supervised process connected, and conversely disbled RT prio when the last process disconnected. This change gives a more predictable behavior and also means watchdogd
  can be relied upon until the system has been properly diagnosed
• If the (optional) supervisor script returns OK (0) the timer for the offending process is now disarmed and the system is not rebooted.
• Retry handover from Finit buit-in watchdog if first attempt fails
• New generic script monitor, thanks to Tom Deblauwe. Can periodically call a site specific script, with timeout in case the script hangs

Fixes

• Fix #16: Only force reboot on exit if watchdogd is enabled
• When disabling and the re-enabling watchdogd using the API the daemon was sometimes stopped by Finit. This happened because the daemon re-issued a watchdog handover signal to Finit. The fix is to only do the handover once.
• When re-enabling watchdogd the supervisor was not properly elevating the RT priority, instead it remained as a SCHED_OTHER process. This fix makes sure to save and re-use the configured RT priority.

watchdogd v3.1

Changes

• Supervised processes can now also cause reset if the ACK sequence is wrong when kicking or unsubscribing
• Issue #7: Add support for callback script to the process supervisor: script = /path/to/script.sh in the supervisor {} section enables it. When enabled all action is delegated to the script, which is called as: script.sh supervisor CAUSE PID LABEL. For more information, see the manual for watchdogd.conf
• A new command 'fail' has been added to watchdogctl. It can be used with the supervisor script to record the reset cause and do a WDT reset. The reset CAUSE can be forwarded by the script to record the correct (or another) reset cause
• Add -p PID to watchdogctl. Works with reset and fail commands
• Always warn at startup if driver/WDT does not support safe exit, i.e. "magic close"
• Issue #4: Add warning if .conf file cannot be found
• Issue #5: Add recorded time of reset to reset cause state file

Fixes

• Omitting critical/reboot level from a checker plugin causes default value of 95% to be set, causing reboot by loadavg plugin. Fixed by defaulting to 'off' for checker/monitor critical/reboot level
• Issue #6: mismatch in label length between supervised processes and that in wdog_reason_t => increase from 16 to 48 chars
• Issue #11: problem disabling the process supervisor at runtime, it always caused a reboot

watchdogd v3.0

This release includes major changes to both the build system and the watchdogd command line interface, making it incompatible with previous versions. Therefore the major version number has been bumped.

Application writes can now ask pkg-config for CFLAGS and LIBS to use the process supervisor interface in libwdog.so

Reset cause is now queried and saved in /var/lib/watchdogd.state at boot. Use the new watchdogctl tool to interact with and query status from the daemon.

A configuration file, /etc/watchdogd.conf, with many more options for the health monitor plugins, the process supervisor, and the reset cause.

Changes

• A configuration file, /etc/watchdogd.conf, has been added
• A new tool, watchdogctl, to interact with daemon has been added
• New official Watch Dog Detective logo, courtesy of Ron Leishman, licensed for use with the watchdogd project
• New or updated manual pages for daemon, ctrl tool, and the .conf file
• Health monitor plugins now support running external script instead of default reboot action
• Health monitor plugins no longer need critical/reboot level set, only warning is required to enable a monitor
• Completely overhauled watchdogd command line options and arguments. Some options in previous releases were not options but optional arguments, while others were useless options for a daemon:
  • Watchdog device node is now an argument not a -d option
  • No more --logfile=FILE option, redirect stderr instead
  • -n now prevents the daemon from forking to the background
  • -f is now used by the --config file option
  • When running in the foreground, output syslog also to stderr, unless the -s, or --syslog, option is given
  • -l, --loglevel replaces --verbose option
  • Use BusyBox options -T and -t for WDT timeout and kick, this replaces the previous -w and -k options
• No more support for attaching an external supervisor process using SIGUSR1 and SIGUSR2
• Conversion to GNU Configure and Build system
• Native support for building Debian packages
• Default install prefix changed, from /usr/local to /
• Added pkg-config support to libwdog
• Save reset cause in /var/lib/watchdogd.state, by default disabled enable with the .conf file
• Possible to disble default reset cause backend and plug in your own. See src/rc.h for the API required of your own backend
• Updates to libwdog API, including a compatiblity mode for current customer(s) using watchdogd 2.0 with a supervisor patch
• Added libwdog example clients
• Added customer specific compat /var/run/supervisor.status
• Support for delayed reboot in user API, wdog_reset_timeout()
• Fully integrated with Finit, PID 1. Both reboot(1) and reset via watchdogd, e.g. watchdogctl reset, is delegated via Finit to properly shut down the system, sync and unmount all file systems before delegating the actual reset to the WDT.