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author | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2020-06-02 01:45:27 +0300 |
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committer | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2020-06-02 01:45:27 +0300 |
commit | b23c4771ff62de8ca9b5e4a2d64491b2fb6f8f69 (patch) | |
tree | 3ff6b2bdfec161fbc383bba06bab6329e81b02f7 /Documentation/filesystems/locks.rst | |
parent | c2b0fc847f3122e5a4176c3772626a7a8facced0 (diff) | |
parent | e35b5a4c494a75a683ddf4901a43e0a128d5bfe3 (diff) | |
download | linux-b23c4771ff62de8ca9b5e4a2d64491b2fb6f8f69.tar.xz |
Merge tag 'docs-5.8' of git://git.lwn.net/linux
Pull documentation updates from Jonathan Corbet:
"A fair amount of stuff this time around, dominated by yet another
massive set from Mauro toward the completion of the RST conversion. I
*really* hope we are getting close to the end of this. Meanwhile,
those patches reach pretty far afield to update document references
around the tree; there should be no actual code changes there. There
will be, alas, more of the usual trivial merge conflicts.
Beyond that we have more translations, improvements to the sphinx
scripting, a number of additions to the sysctl documentation, and lots
of fixes"
* tag 'docs-5.8' of git://git.lwn.net/linux: (130 commits)
Documentation: fixes to the maintainer-entry-profile template
zswap: docs/vm: Fix typo accept_threshold_percent in zswap.rst
tracing: Fix events.rst section numbering
docs: acpi: fix old http link and improve document format
docs: filesystems: add info about efivars content
Documentation: LSM: Correct the basic LSM description
mailmap: change email for Ricardo Ribalda
docs: sysctl/kernel: document unaligned controls
Documentation: admin-guide: update bug-hunting.rst
docs: sysctl/kernel: document ngroups_max
nvdimm: fixes to maintainter-entry-profile
Documentation/features: Correct RISC-V kprobes support entry
Documentation/features: Refresh the arch support status files
Revert "docs: sysctl/kernel: document ngroups_max"
docs: move locking-specific documents to locking/
docs: move digsig docs to the security book
docs: move the kref doc into the core-api book
docs: add IRQ documentation at the core-api book
docs: debugging-via-ohci1394.txt: add it to the core-api book
docs: fix references for ipmi.rst file
...
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/filesystems/locks.rst')
-rw-r--r-- | Documentation/filesystems/locks.rst | 72 |
1 files changed, 72 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/locks.rst b/Documentation/filesystems/locks.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..c5ae858b1aac --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/filesystems/locks.rst @@ -0,0 +1,72 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + +========================== +File Locking Release Notes +========================== + + Andy Walker <andy@lysaker.kvaerner.no> + + 12 May 1997 + + +1. What's New? +============== + +1.1 Broken Flock Emulation +-------------------------- + +The old flock(2) emulation in the kernel was swapped for proper BSD +compatible flock(2) support in the 1.3.x series of kernels. With the +release of the 2.1.x kernel series, support for the old emulation has +been totally removed, so that we don't need to carry this baggage +forever. + +This should not cause problems for anybody, since everybody using a +2.1.x kernel should have updated their C library to a suitable version +anyway (see the file "Documentation/process/changes.rst".) + +1.2 Allow Mixed Locks Again +--------------------------- + +1.2.1 Typical Problems - Sendmail +^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ +Because sendmail was unable to use the old flock() emulation, many sendmail +installations use fcntl() instead of flock(). This is true of Slackware 3.0 +for example. This gave rise to some other subtle problems if sendmail was +configured to rebuild the alias file. Sendmail tried to lock the aliases.dir +file with fcntl() at the same time as the GDBM routines tried to lock this +file with flock(). With pre 1.3.96 kernels this could result in deadlocks that, +over time, or under a very heavy mail load, would eventually cause the kernel +to lock solid with deadlocked processes. + + +1.2.2 The Solution +^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ +The solution I have chosen, after much experimentation and discussion, +is to make flock() and fcntl() locks oblivious to each other. Both can +exists, and neither will have any effect on the other. + +I wanted the two lock styles to be cooperative, but there were so many +race and deadlock conditions that the current solution was the only +practical one. It puts us in the same position as, for example, SunOS +4.1.x and several other commercial Unices. The only OS's that support +cooperative flock()/fcntl() are those that emulate flock() using +fcntl(), with all the problems that implies. + + +1.3 Mandatory Locking As A Mount Option +--------------------------------------- + +Mandatory locking, as described in +'Documentation/filesystems/mandatory-locking.rst' was prior to this release a +general configuration option that was valid for all mounted filesystems. This +had a number of inherent dangers, not the least of which was the ability to +freeze an NFS server by asking it to read a file for which a mandatory lock +existed. + +From this release of the kernel, mandatory locking can be turned on and off +on a per-filesystem basis, using the mount options 'mand' and 'nomand'. +The default is to disallow mandatory locking. The intention is that +mandatory locking only be enabled on a local filesystem as the specific need +arises. + |