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diff --git a/Documentation/locks.txt b/Documentation/locks.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..ce1be79edfb --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/locks.txt @@ -0,0 +1,84 @@ + File Locking Release Notes + + Andy Walker <andy@lysaker.kvaerner.no> + + 12 May 1997 + + +1. What's New? +-------------- + +1.1 Broken Flock Emulation +-------------------------- + +The old flock(2) emulation in the kernel was swapped for proper BSD +compatible flock(2) support in the 1.3.x series of kernels. With the +release of the 2.1.x kernel series, support for the old emulation has +been totally removed, so that we don't need to carry this baggage +forever. + +This should not cause problems for anybody, since everybody using a +2.1.x kernel should have updated their C library to a suitable version +anyway (see the file "Documentation/Changes".) + +1.2 Allow Mixed Locks Again +--------------------------- + +1.2.1 Typical Problems - Sendmail +--------------------------------- +Because sendmail was unable to use the old flock() emulation, many sendmail +installations use fcntl() instead of flock(). This is true of Slackware 3.0 +for example. This gave rise to some other subtle problems if sendmail was +configured to rebuild the alias file. Sendmail tried to lock the aliases.dir +file with fcntl() at the same time as the GDBM routines tried to lock this +file with flock(). With pre 1.3.96 kernels this could result in deadlocks that, +over time, or under a very heavy mail load, would eventually cause the kernel +to lock solid with deadlocked processes. + + +1.2.2 The Solution +------------------ +The solution I have chosen, after much experimentation and discussion, +is to make flock() and fcntl() locks oblivious to each other. Both can +exists, and neither will have any effect on the other. + +I wanted the two lock styles to be cooperative, but there were so many +race and deadlock conditions that the current solution was the only +practical one. It puts us in the same position as, for example, SunOS +4.1.x and several other commercial Unices. The only OS's that support +cooperative flock()/fcntl() are those that emulate flock() using +fcntl(), with all the problems that implies. + + +1.3 Mandatory Locking As A Mount Option +--------------------------------------- + +Mandatory locking, as described in 'Documentation/mandatory.txt' was prior +to this release a general configuration option that was valid for all +mounted filesystems. This had a number of inherent dangers, not the least +of which was the ability to freeze an NFS server by asking it to read a +file for which a mandatory lock existed. + +From this release of the kernel, mandatory locking can be turned on and off +on a per-filesystem basis, using the mount options 'mand' and 'nomand'. +The default is to disallow mandatory locking. The intention is that +mandatory locking only be enabled on a local filesystem as the specific need +arises. + +Until an updated version of mount(8) becomes available you may have to apply +this patch to the mount sources (based on the version distributed with Rick +Faith's util-linux-2.5 package): + +*** mount.c.orig Sat Jun 8 09:14:31 1996 +--- mount.c Sat Jun 8 09:13:02 1996 +*************** +*** 100,105 **** +--- 100,107 ---- + { "noauto", 0, MS_NOAUTO }, /* Can only be mounted explicitly */ + { "user", 0, MS_USER }, /* Allow ordinary user to mount */ + { "nouser", 1, MS_USER }, /* Forbid ordinary user to mount */ ++ { "mand", 0, MS_MANDLOCK }, /* Allow mandatory locks on this FS */ ++ { "nomand", 1, MS_MANDLOCK }, /* Forbid mandatory locks on this FS */ + /* add new options here */ + #ifdef MS_NOSUB + { "sub", 1, MS_NOSUB }, /* allow submounts */ |