• NeilBrown's avatar
    NFS: flush cached directory information slightly more readily. · 37d9d76d
    NeilBrown authored
    If cached directory contents becomes incorrect, there is no way to
    flush the contents.  This contrasts with files where file locking is
    the recommended way to ensure cache consistency between multiple
    applications (a read-lock always flushes the cache).
    
    Also while changes to files often change the size of the file (thus
    triggering a cache flush), changes to directories often do not change
    the apparent size (as the size is often rounded to a block size).
    
    So it is particularly important with directories to avoid the
    possibility of an incorrect cache wherever possible.
    
    When the link count on a directory changes it implies a change in the
    number of child directories, and so a change in the contents of this
    directory.  So use that as a trigger to flush cached contents.
    
    When the ctime changes but the mtime does not, there are two possible
    reasons.
     1/ The owner/mode information has been changed.
     2/ utimes has been used to set the mtime backwards.
    
    In the first case, a data-cache flush is not required.
    In the second case it is.
    
    So on the basis that correctness trumps performance, flush the
    directory contents cache in this case also.
    Signed-off-by: default avatarNeilBrown <neilb@suse.de>
    Signed-off-by: default avatarTrond Myklebust <Trond.Myklebust@netapp.com>
    37d9d76d
inode.c 39 KB