On Tue, 15 Jun 1999, Brett Lymn wrote:

# 1) The generation number is attached to a vnode which is ok - you get
# one of those when you open the file _but_ the vnode goes back onto the
# free list when the file is closed.  If I understand things correctly
# the vnode can then be recycled if there is the need for another file
# (I know the vnodes linger around but at some point they start getting
# recycled).  This means that if you open the first file again you get a
# filehandle with a new generation number which will not match the list.

I thought the generation number was only generated on a newfs or a
fsirand on a filesystem.  I know that if someone has a file open across
NFS and you fsirand the filesystem it's on, the next access returns
ESTALE.

I would think you'd use dev/ino/generation triplets, actually -- the
generation number is there to make sure someone hasn't supplanted the binary.

# 
# 2) Generation numbers do wrap around, eventually.

...which means what, exactly?

				--*greywolf;
--
NetBSD: Mach 3 stealthOS, undetectable by media radar.