Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1755084AbYHLWFg (ORCPT ); Tue, 12 Aug 2008 18:05:36 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1752397AbYHLWFO (ORCPT ); Tue, 12 Aug 2008 18:05:14 -0400 Received: from earthlight.etchedpixels.co.uk ([81.2.110.250]:50057 "EHLO lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-FAIL) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1752133AbYHLWFN (ORCPT ); Tue, 12 Aug 2008 18:05:13 -0400 Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2008 22:47:30 +0100 From: Alan Cox To: Linus Torvalds Cc: OGAWA Hirofumi , Al Viro , linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: [RFC] readdir mess Message-ID: <20080812224730.0e668dee@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> In-Reply-To: References: <20080812062241.GQ28946@ZenIV.linux.org.uk> <87ej4u9nf5.fsf@devron.myhome.or.jp> <87proe81c1.fsf@devron.myhome.or.jp> X-Mailer: Claws Mail 3.5.0 (GTK+ 2.12.11; x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu) Organization: Red Hat UK Cyf., Amberley Place, 107-111 Peascod Street, Windsor, Berkshire, SL4 1TE, Y Deyrnas Gyfunol. Cofrestrwyd yng Nghymru a Lloegr o'r rhif cofrestru 3798903 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1539 Lines: 38 On Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:05:43 -0700 (PDT) Linus Torvalds wrote: > > > On Wed, 13 Aug 2008, OGAWA Hirofumi wrote: > > > > However, there are some similar stuff: ->st_size, ->st_nlink and > > ->st_ino in stat() (cp_old_stat()). Maybe EOVERFLOW is the reason for > > consistency... > > .. I actually had an old binary that triggered that case (actually, it was > O_LARGEFILE in open()), and didn't work as a result. I only needed to run > it once, so I literally hacked up a once-time-use kernel that just removed > the EOVERFLOW in open. > > So no, I'm not a fan of EOVERFLOW at all. Not in readdir(), not really > anywhere else. In a lot of places the standard mandates it to ensure you don't get nasty suprises. There are places where during the LFS work people found apps whose large file response was unpleasant - things like "get the file length, reduce it to an exact number of records long with ftruncate in case we got a partial record write somewhere" do horrible things when the length wraps. That said there is nothing that says we can't have a 'posix_me_harder' sysfs control for such things. The standards say what should occur in the normal situation not what should occur if you intentionally move out of the standard definition. Alan -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/