Subject: Re: Removing tmpfs' experimental status
To: Brett Lymn <blymn@baesystems.com.au>
From: Julio M. Merino Vidal <jmmv84@gmail.com>
List: tech-kern
Date: 10/23/2006 14:21:37
On 10/23/06, Brett Lymn <blymn@baesystems.com.au> wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 23, 2006 at 12:43:55PM +0200, Julio M. Merino Vidal wrote:
> >
> > But do we really need to specify that a given file system cannot be
> > exported?  I mean, is the lack of NFS exportability for a given file
> > system a bug?
> >
>
> Not a bug but it means that fileassoc will not work on that
> filesystem.  Really, generating a fh is not that hard, it just has to
> be something that can uniquely identify the file on the file system.
> At a guess, in your case, it could be the address of the file node in
> memory... it really does not matter as long as it's unique :)

Hmm, I don't think I explained myself correctly.

tmpfs _already_ supports file handles.  But exporting a tmpfs over NFS
does not work for whatever reason -- can't remember the exact details.

So, tmpfs should have a way to tell the NFS server code that it has to
disallow exports of these filesystems.  Now the question is: do we
really need to be able to do this?  I mean, may other file systems
benefit from such a feature (supporting file handles but not wanting
to be ever exported)?  Or we simply want to fix those file systems
(tmpfs in my case) to support NFS exportability?

-- 
Julio M. Merino Vidal <jmmv84@gmail.com>
The Julipedia - http://julipedia.blogspot.com/