Re: rm -r sometimes produces errors under NFS

[Paul Eggert]

Jim Meyering <address@hidden> writes:

> When an NFS client sees a successful unlink, it is reasonable to
> expect a client-side rewinddir/readdir sequence *not* to produce
> the just-unlinked name.

I agree, but won't this hurt rewinddir performance?  After all, one of
the goals of the existing Mac OS workaround was to not be much of a
performance hit elsewhere.

> I hope this sort of coherence (between
> an unlink syscall and a subsequent rewinddir/readdir) is guaranteed
> by a standard.

"standard"?  NFS?  I'm afraid not.  Nobody guarantees POSIX behavior
once NFS is involved, as far as I know.

PS.  Somewhat off the subject, anyone interested in NFS and guarantees
should know about Ed Nightingale's recent work in this area, e.g., his
"Rethink the Sync" paper.  The underyling idea (speculative execution
in Linux) is a good one, and the performance results are impressive.
See <http://notrump.eecs.umich.edu/group/group.html>.  It's
first-class stuff (not that it'll help you here....).