From owner-freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Apr 8 04:20:13 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-bugs@hub.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F344F16A4CE for ; Fri, 8 Apr 2005 04:20:12 +0000 (GMT) Received: from freefall.freebsd.org (freefall.freebsd.org [216.136.204.21]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D253143D46 for ; Fri, 8 Apr 2005 04:20:12 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from gnats@FreeBSD.org) Received: from freefall.freebsd.org (gnats@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.13.3/8.13.3) with ESMTP id j384KCGm007617 for ; Fri, 8 Apr 2005 04:20:12 GMT (envelope-from gnats@freefall.freebsd.org) Received: (from gnats@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.13.3/8.13.1/Submit) id j384KCoW007616; Fri, 8 Apr 2005 04:20:12 GMT (envelope-from gnats) Date: Fri, 8 Apr 2005 04:20:12 GMT Message-Id: <200504080420.j384KCoW007616@freefall.freebsd.org> To: freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.org From: Bob Johnson Subject: Re: kern/79336: [nfs] NFS client doesn't detect file updates on Novell NFS server X-BeenThere: freebsd-bugs@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: Bob Johnson List-Id: Bug reports List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 08 Apr 2005 04:20:13 -0000 The following reply was made to PR kern/79336; it has been noted by GNATS. From: Bob Johnson To: freebsd-gnats-submit@FreeBSD.org, bob89@eng.ufl.edu Cc: Subject: Re: kern/79336: [nfs] NFS client doesn't detect file updates on Novell NFS server Date: Fri, 8 Apr 2005 00:16:14 -0400 Novell has informed us that they believe their server complies with the NFS RFCs and they will not fix this problem. I have done a packet trace and confirmed their description: when a file is replaced by a new copy of the file on a Novell NFS server, the file timestamps sent to the NFS client do not change. According to Novell, the NFS client is expected to detect that the mtime of the parent directory has changed, and do new LOOKUPs to get the timestamps for the file itself. The FreeBSD client instead does an ACCESS query on the file, which shows the timestamps unchanged. The FreeBSD server thus uses its cached copy rather than fetching the new file contents from the server. I do not agree with Novell's contention that their server complies with the NFS RFCs, but that doesn't solve the problem. touch-ing the file on the BSD server seems to force the timestamps to be updated, thus forcing the file contents on the client to update and may be the basis of a usable workaround in some situations. Deleting the file from the Novell NFS server before copying the new version to the server does not cause this problem, and should be a workaround for some situations. Similarly, editing the file in place on the NFS server does not seem to cause the problem. It does not appear to be possible to disable the cache on the FreeBSD client.