Messages in this thread | ![/](/images/icornerl.gif) | | Date | Thu, 01 Jan 2004 09:28:08 +0800 | From | Michael Clark <> | Subject | Re: File change notification |
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On 01/01/04 02:48, Rüdiger Klaehn wrote: > Javier Fernandez-Ivern wrote: > >> Rüdiger Klaehn wrote: >> >>> I have been wondering for some time why there is no decent file >>> change notification mechanism in linux. Is there some deep >>> philosophical reason for this, or is it just that nobody has found >>> the time to implement it? If it is the latter, I am willing to >>> implement it as long there is a chance to get this accepted into the >>> mainstream kernel. >> >> >> >> Well, there's fam. But AFAIK that's all done in user space, and your >> approach would be significantly more efficient (as a matter of fact, >> fam could be modified to use your change device as a first level of >> notification.) >> > Fam is a user space library that has some nice features such as network > transparent change notification. It currently uses the dnotify mechanism > if the underlying kernel supports it, but as I mentioned the dnotify > mechanism requires an open file handle and works only for single > directories. If the underlying os does not support dnotify, fam resorts > to polling for file changes (yuk!).
Have you had a look at dazuko. It provides a consistent file access notification mechanism (and also intervention for denying access) across linux and freebsd. It is currently being used by various on-access virus scanners. It is under active development and supports 2.6 (and 2.4)
http://www.dazuko.org/about.shtml
Seems like a good idea. I've always thought it would be nice to use something like this to maintain a dynamic locatedb (among many other potential uses).
~mc
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