Re: FTS not ready for a remount during traversal

[Eric Blake]

Jim Meyering <jim <at> meyering.net> writes:

> > Yes, it makes sense. However what other possibilities do we have actually?
> 
> Change the kernel, or find a way to make fts do what we
> want without the added cost.

We have already asked the kernel folks if they would be willing to make readdir
() report accurate d_ino values for mount points, and they complained that it 
would be too expensive to guarantee correct d_ino information compared to the 
number of clients that don't care whether it is correct.  But they did mention 
the possibility of perhaps adding some sort of flag, or a new d_type, which 
identifies mount points, and which the application can then use to make it 
obvious that a stat() is necessary to get reliable inode information for _just 
that directory_.

This seems like yet another case where convincing the kernel folks to GIVE us 
this information would be helpful.  Just knowing whether a directory is a mount 
point will give us the power to know whether we need to stat() it after 
automounting, without penalizing the common case of a directory that is not a 
mount point.  Since mount point semantics are squarely on the shoulders of the 
kernel, please consider pushing harder for a fix to come from the kernel, 
rather than a workaround in coreutils.

-- 
Eric Blake