Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:38:19 -0400
From: "J. Bruce Fields" <bfields@fieldses.org>
To: Harry Edmon <harry@uw.edu>
Cc: linux-nfs@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Odd problem with Stale NFS file handle - NFS v3 server under
 2.6.35.x
Message-ID: <20100824233819.GC7283@fieldses.org>
References: <4C7407D2.1040304@uw.edu>
 <20100824225857.GA7283@fieldses.org>
 <4C745182.2080206@uw.edu>
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On Tue, Aug 24, 2010 at 04:10:58PM -0700, Harry Edmon wrote:
> J. Bruce Fields wrote:
> >On Tue, Aug 24, 2010 at 10:56:34AM -0700, Harry Edmon wrote:
> >>I am having a problem getting odd ESTALE (Stale NFS file handle)
> >>errors.   The server and client are both amd64 architecture.   I am
> >>runnning a simple csh script on the client with the following:
> >>
> >>if (! -e /home/disk/data/gempak/upperair/latest ) then
> >>   mkdir /home/disk/data/gempak/upperair/latest
> >>endif
> >>
> >>The script randomly comes back with:
> >>
> >> mkdir: cannot create directory
> >>`/home/disk/data/gempak/model/latest': File exists
> >
> >Why is it "model" here and "upperair" in the above?
> OOPS.  The actual script has both, and I have had failure on both.
> I was trying to simplify my report, and ended up mixed the two.   So
> change above the script to:
> 
> if (! -e /home/disk/data/gempak/model/latest ) then
>   mkdir /home/disk/data/gempak/model/latest
> endif

Got it, thanks.

> >>When I do an strace I am seeing the following when it fails:
> >>
> >>20745 stat("/home/disk/data/gempak/model/latest", 0x7fff56ed9580) = -1 ESTALE (Stale NFS file handle)
> >>
> >>...
> >>
> >>20751 mkdir("/home/disk/data/gempak/model/latest", 0777) = -1 EEXIST (File exists)
> >
> >Could you give a more complete description of the code that's running?
> >(For example: how is "latest" being removed, and how do you know that
> >"latest" isn't created after checking whether it exists but before the
> >mkdir?)
> >
> >--b
> Actually, the directory never gets removed.   This code is in the
> script just as a emergency check in case it is moved to a different
> disk and the directory structure has not yet been created.  So it
> should never get to the "mkdir", in fact the directory has entries
> that date from 2007.   I have other files that never change in other
> scripts that I am seeing the "ESTALE" error when "stat" is run on
> them, so it is a more universal problem on this client/server setup
> than just this example.

What filesystem are you exporting?  (ext3, xfs, ?)

And what do your exports look like?

--b.

> >>The kernel version of the client does not matter (I have tried
> >>2.6.34.5 and 2.6.35.3).   But the server kernel does matter.   It
> >>occurs with 2.6.35 and 2.6.35.3.   It does not with 2.6.34.5.
> >>
> >>The ESTALE only occurs with "stat" and "lstat" in the scripts I have tried.  Attached is my configuration file from the server.  The mount on the client is:
> >>
> >>imist2:/home/data on /home/disk/data type nfs (rw,noatime,intr,proto=tcp,addr=192.168.1.12)
> >>
> >>
> >>Any ideas?