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Date: Sun, 24 Nov 2002 08:38:22 -0500 (EST)
From: Alexander Viro <viro@math.psu.edu>
To: Werner Almesberger <wa@almesberger.net>
cc: Patrick Mochel <mochel@osdl.org>, Rusty Lynch <rusty@linux.co.intel.com>,
       Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [BUG] sysfs on 2.5.48 unable to remove files while in use
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On Sun, 24 Nov 2002, Werner Almesberger wrote:

> do you really need a "magic" file for this ? I don't know how
> well sysfs supports mkdir/rmdir (if at all), but they would
> seem to provide a much more natural interface. (VFS allows
> rmdir to remove non-empty directories, so you wouldn't have
> to rm -r.)

a) sysfs doesn't allow mkdir/rmdir and thus avoids an imperial buttload
of races - witness the crap in devfs.

b) rmdir of non-empty directory pretty much guarantees another buttload of
races.

c) mkdir creating non-empty directory or rmdir removing non-empty directory
is *ugly*.  BTW, Roman's "filesystem" for modules in its current form is
vetoed, as far as I'm concerned - this sort of magic is just plain wrong.

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