possible false positive in `pvestatd`

[computergeek125]

Running needrestart on Proxmox (Debian), installed from packages. needrestart itself is being wrapped by another script that periodically calls it to check on the server status.

I don't know exactly what circumstance causes this - it appears to be some ephemeral condition that is only present when a run of needrestart coincides with a periodic timer event within pvestatd. The output behavior (reporting a restart of pvestatd is needed) is the same on both servers, but it seems to have gotten there via a slightly different set of files.

needrestart -v -b:
[server 1]

[main] eval /etc/needrestart/needrestart.conf
[main] needrestart v3.11
[main] running in root mode
[main] systemd detected
NEEDRESTART-VER: 3.11
[Core] #854 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Python
[Python] #854: source=/usr/bin/ceph-crash
[Core] #1724 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #1724: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #2092 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #2092: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #2094 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #2094: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #2228 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #2228: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #2405 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #2405: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #3000 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #3000: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #3197 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #3197: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #3201 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #3201: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #3256 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #3256: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #48539 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #48539: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #122400 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #122400: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #204412 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #204412: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #232888 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #232888: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #233144 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #233144: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #245494 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Python
[Python] #245494: source=/usr/share/ifupdown2/__main__.py
[Core] #245494 uses obsolete script file(s):
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/io.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/bz2.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/argparse.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/dis.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/share/ifupdown2/__main__.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/textwrap.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/gettext.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/types.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/operator.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/warnings.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/abc.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/stat.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/posixpath.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/typing.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/functools.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/lzma.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/opcode.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/_py_abc.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/inspect.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/genericpath.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/tarfile.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/weakref.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/os.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/_collections_abc.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/gzip.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/fnmatch.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/token.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/shutil.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/copyreg.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/keyword.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/_weakrefset.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/copy.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/struct.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/_compression.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/encodings/aliases.py
[Core] #245494  /usr/lib/python3.13/locale.py
[main] #245494 is a child of #2094
[Core] #4047916 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #4047916: could not get a source file, skipping
[main] #2094 exe => /usr/bin/perl
[Core] #2094 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #2094: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #2094 source is UNKNOWN
[main] #2094 is pvestatd.service
[ucode] using NeedRestart::uCode::Intel
[ucode] using NeedRestart::uCode::AMD
[uCode/Intel] #0 current revision: 0x00bc
+ iucode_tool --scan-system
+ grep -oE [^[:space:]]+$
+ sig=0x000806c1
+ [ -r /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/microcode/processor_flags ]
+ cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/microcode/processor_flags
+ filter=-s 0x000806c1,0x80
+ test -r /etc/needrestart/iucode.sh
+ . /etc/needrestart/iucode.sh
+ type bsdtar
+ IUCODE_TOOL_EXTRA_OPTIONS=
+ test -r /etc/default/intel-microcode
+ . /etc/default/intel-microcode
+ test  = no
+ find /usr/share/misc -maxdepth 1 -type f -name intel-microcode* -perm /u+r
+ [ -n  ]
+ iucode_tool -l -s 0x000806c1,0x80 --ignore-broken -tb /lib/firmware/intel-ucode
+ grep 0x000806c1
[uCode/Intel] #0 available revision: 0x00bc
[uCode/AMD] #0 cpu vendor id mismatch
[Kernel] Linux: kernel release 6.17.13-2-pve, kernel version #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC PMX 6.17.13-2 (2026-03-13T08:06Z)
Failed to load NeedRestart::Kernel::kFreeBSD: [Kernel/kFreeBSD] Not running on GNU/kFreeBSD!
[Kernel/Linux] /boot/vmlinuz-6.17.13-2-pve => 6.17.13-2-pve (build@proxmox) #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC PMX 6.17.13-2 (2026-03-13T08:06Z) [6.17.13-2-pve]*
[Kernel/Linux] /boot/vmlinuz-6.17.2-1-pve => 6.17.2-1-pve (build@proxmox) #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC PMX 6.17.2-1 (2025-10-21T11:55Z) [6.17.2-1-pve]
[Kernel/Linux] /boot/vmlinuz-6.14.11-6-pve => 6.14.11-6-pve (build@proxmox) #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC PMX 6.14.11-6 (2026-03-13T08:44Z) [6.14.11-6-pve]
[Kernel/Linux] /boot/vmlinuz-6.14.11-4-pve => 6.14.11-4-pve (build@proxmox) #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC PMX 6.14.11-4 (2025-10-10T08:04Z) [6.14.11-4-pve]
[Kernel/Linux] /boot/vmlinuz-6.14.11-3-pve => 6.14.11-3-pve (build@proxmox) #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC PMX 6.14.11-3 (2025-09-22T10:13Z) [6.14.11-3-pve]
[Kernel/Linux] /boot/vmlinuz-6.14.8-2-pve => 6.14.8-2-pve (build@proxmox) #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC PMX 6.14.8-2 (2025-07-22T10:04Z) [6.14.8-2-pve]
[Kernel/Linux] /boot/vmlinuz-6.8.12-13-pve => 6.8.12-13-pve (build@proxmox) #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC PMX 6.8.12-13 (2025-07-22T10:00Z) [6.8.12-13-pve]
[Kernel/Linux] /boot/vmlinuz-6.2.16-20-pve => 6.2.16-20-pve (build@proxmox) #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC PMX 6.2.16-20 (2023-12-01T13:17Z) [6.2.16-20-pve]
[Kernel/Linux] /boot/vmlinuz-6.2.16-3-pve => 6.2.16-3-pve (tom@sbuild) #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC PVE 6.2.16-3 (2023-06-17T05:58Z) [6.2.16-3-pve]
[Kernel/Linux] Expected linux version: 6.17.13-2-pve
NEEDRESTART-KCUR: 6.17.13-2-pve
NEEDRESTART-KEXP: 6.17.13-2-pve
NEEDRESTART-KSTA: 1
NEEDRESTART-UCSTA: 1
NEEDRESTART-UCCUR: 0x00bc
NEEDRESTART-UCEXP: 0x00bc
NEEDRESTART-SVC: pvestatd.service

[server 2]

[main] eval /etc/needrestart/needrestart.conf
[main] needrestart v3.11
[main] running in root mode
[main] systemd detected
NEEDRESTART-VER: 3.11
[Core] #856 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Python
[Python] #856: source=/usr/bin/ceph-crash
[Core] #2122 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #2122: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #2159 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #2159: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #2220 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #2220: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #2234 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #2234: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #2706 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #2706: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #2733 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #2733: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #2883 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #2883: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #3294 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #3294: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #5854 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Python
[Python] #5854: process cwd is unreachable
[Core] #315872 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #315872: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #356723 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #356723: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #441775 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #441775: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #443021 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #443021: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #456865 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #456865: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #457863 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #457863: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #461479 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #461479: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #475459 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Python
[Python] #475459: source=/usr/share/ifupdown2/__main__.py
[Core] #475459 uses obsolete script file(s):
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/quopri.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/codecs.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/_collections_abc.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/doctest.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/decimal.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/pkgutil.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/abc.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/importlib/_bootstrap_external.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/gzip.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/importlib/machinery.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/base64.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/keyword.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/typing.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/_pyrepl/pager.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/pickle.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/email/_encoded_words.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/_compression.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/datetime.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/contextvars.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/codeop.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/encodings/aliases.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/ntpath.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/cmd.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/dis.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/shutil.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/pprint.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/token.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/email/base64mime.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/_pydecimal.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/dataclasses.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/fractions.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/types.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/string.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/io.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/operator.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/_opcode_metadata.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/_compat_pickle.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/tarfile.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/email/_policybase.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/fnmatch.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/_pydatetime.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/signal.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/reprlib.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/locale.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/numbers.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/share/ifupdown2/__main__.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/getopt.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/bz2.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/pdb.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/opcode.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/tempfile.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/argparse.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/email/charset.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/importlib/util.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/gettext.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/socket.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/inspect.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/copy.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/traceback.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/ast.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/os.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/_py_abc.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/random.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/statistics.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/stat.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/urllib/parse.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/subprocess.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/importlib/readers.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/bisect.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/textwrap.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/lzma.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/weakref.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/enum.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/linecache.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/email/quoprimime.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/pydoc.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/email/message.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/runpy.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/rlcompleter.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/tty.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/tokenize.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/__future__.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/ipaddress.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/copyreg.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/tracemalloc.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/contextlib.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/selectors.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/warnings.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/struct.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/_colorize.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/shlex.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/posixpath.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/_threading_local.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/threading.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/zipimport.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/email/encoders.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/genericpath.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/_weakrefset.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/email/utils.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/hashlib.py
[Core] #475459  /usr/lib/python3.13/functools.py
[main] #475459 is a child of #2159
[main] #2159 exe => /usr/bin/perl
[Core] #2159 is a NeedRestart::Interp::Perl
[Perl] #2159: could not get a source file, skipping
[Core] #2159 source is UNKNOWN
[main] #2159 is pvestatd.service
[ucode] using NeedRestart::uCode::AMD
[ucode] using NeedRestart::uCode::Intel
[uCode/AMD] #0 cpu vendor id mismatch
[uCode/Intel] #0 current revision: 0x00bc
+ grep -oE [^[:space:]]+$
+ iucode_tool --scan-system
+ sig=0x000806c1
+ [ -r /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/microcode/processor_flags ]
+ cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/microcode/processor_flags
+ filter=-s 0x000806c1,0x80
+ test -r /etc/needrestart/iucode.sh
+ . /etc/needrestart/iucode.sh
+ type bsdtar
+ IUCODE_TOOL_EXTRA_OPTIONS=
+ test -r /etc/default/intel-microcode
+ . /etc/default/intel-microcode
+ test  = no
+ find /usr/share/misc -maxdepth 1 -type f -name intel-microcode* -perm /u+r
+ [ -n  ]
+ iucode_tool -l -s 0x000806c1,0x80 --ignore-broken -tb /lib/firmware/intel-ucode
+ grep 0x000806c1
[uCode/Intel] #0 available revision: 0x00bc
[Kernel] Linux: kernel release 6.17.13-2-pve, kernel version #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC PMX 6.17.13-2 (2026-03-13T08:06Z)
[Kernel/Linux] /boot/vmlinuz-6.17.13-2-pve => 6.17.13-2-pve (build@proxmox) #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC PMX 6.17.13-2 (2026-03-13T08:06Z) [6.17.13-2-pve]*
[Kernel/Linux] /boot/vmlinuz-6.17.2-1-pve => 6.17.2-1-pve (build@proxmox) #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC PMX 6.17.2-1 (2025-10-21T11:55Z) [6.17.2-1-pve]
[Kernel/Linux] /boot/vmlinuz-6.14.11-6-pve => 6.14.11-6-pve (build@proxmox) #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC PMX 6.14.11-6 (2026-03-13T08:44Z) [6.14.11-6-pve]
[Kernel/Linux] /boot/vmlinuz-6.14.11-4-pve => 6.14.11-4-pve (build@proxmox) #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC PMX 6.14.11-4 (2025-10-10T08:04Z) [6.14.11-4-pve]
[Kernel/Linux] /boot/vmlinuz-6.14.11-3-pve => 6.14.11-3-pve (build@proxmox) #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC PMX 6.14.11-3 (2025-09-22T10:13Z) [6.14.11-3-pve]
[Kernel/Linux] /boot/vmlinuz-6.8.12-13-pve => 6.8.12-13-pve (build@proxmox) #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC PMX 6.8.12-13 (2025-07-22T10:00Z) [6.8.12-13-pve]
[Kernel/Linux] /boot/vmlinuz-6.8.12-4-pve => 6.8.12-4-pve (build@proxmox) #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC PMX 6.8.12-4 (2024-11-06T15:04Z) [6.8.12-4-pve]
[Kernel/Linux] Expected linux version: 6.17.13-2-pve
NEEDRESTART-KCUR: 6.17.13-2-pve
NEEDRESTART-KEXP: 6.17.13-2-pve
NEEDRESTART-KSTA: 1
NEEDRESTART-UCSTA: 1
NEEDRESTART-UCCUR: 0x00bc
NEEDRESTART-UCEXP: 0x00bc
NEEDRESTART-SVC: pvestatd.service

Spot checking a few of those files, they're timestamped almost a year in the past, so I don't think they are changing on disk