Messages in this thread | | | Date | Fri, 26 Oct 2007 09:52:06 +1000 | From | David Chinner <> | Subject | Re: [PATCH] VFS: new fgetattr() file operation |
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On Fri, Oct 26, 2007 at 01:10:14AM +0200, Miklos Szeredi wrote: > > On Wed, Oct 24, 2007 at 05:27:04PM +0200, Miklos Szeredi wrote: > > > > >> Wouldn't you be better off by attempting to implement an "open > > > > >> by ino" operation and an operation to get the generation count > > > > >> for the file and then modifying the network protocol of interest > > > > >> to use these as identifiers for the file to be manipulated? > > > > >> > > > > > > > > > > You mean an "open by inode" on the userspace API? My guess, it > > > > > wouldn't get very far. > > > > > > > > This isn't a new idea and has been implemented on a variety of > > > > different systems. > > > > > > Like? > > > > XFS. > > > > 'man open_by_handle' > > Doesn't seem widely used, with 600 something google hits.
from the man page:
"They are intended for use by a limited set of system utilities such as backup programs."
It also gets used by HSMs and so it is current, tested and is not going away....
> And in this > old thread Linus is not entirely enthusiastic about the concept: > > http://lkml.org/lkml/1999/1/11/244
That was "open by inode number", AFAICT. A handle is an opaque blob that can be an arbitrary length defined by the filesystem. You have to convert a fd or path to a handle first before you can use it later, so any filesystem can implement it...
i.e. it is exactly what this (unanswered) post suggested:
http://lkml.org/lkml/1999/1/13/186
Just my 2c worth....
Cheers,
Dave. -- Dave Chinner Principal Engineer SGI Australian Software Group - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
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