diff options
author | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@ppc970.osdl.org> | 2005-04-16 18:20:36 -0400 |
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committer | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@ppc970.osdl.org> | 2005-04-16 18:20:36 -0400 |
commit | 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 (patch) | |
tree | 0bba044c4ce775e45a88a51686b5d9f90697ea9d /Documentation/dnotify.txt |
Linux-2.6.12-rc2v2.6.12-rc2
Initial git repository build. I'm not bothering with the full history,
even though we have it. We can create a separate "historical" git
archive of that later if we want to, and in the meantime it's about
3.2GB when imported into git - space that would just make the early
git days unnecessarily complicated, when we don't have a lot of good
infrastructure for it.
Let it rip!
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1 | Linux Directory Notification | ||
2 | ============================ | ||
3 | |||
4 | Stephen Rothwell <sfr@canb.auug.org.au> | ||
5 | |||
6 | The intention of directory notification is to allow user applications | ||
7 | to be notified when a directory, or any of the files in it, are changed. | ||
8 | The basic mechanism involves the application registering for notification | ||
9 | on a directory using a fcntl(2) call and the notifications themselves | ||
10 | being delivered using signals. | ||
11 | |||
12 | The application decides which "events" it wants to be notified about. | ||
13 | The currently defined events are: | ||
14 | |||
15 | DN_ACCESS A file in the directory was accessed (read) | ||
16 | DN_MODIFY A file in the directory was modified (write,truncate) | ||
17 | DN_CREATE A file was created in the directory | ||
18 | DN_DELETE A file was unlinked from directory | ||
19 | DN_RENAME A file in the directory was renamed | ||
20 | DN_ATTRIB A file in the directory had its attributes | ||
21 | changed (chmod,chown) | ||
22 | |||
23 | Usually, the application must reregister after each notification, but | ||
24 | if DN_MULTISHOT is or'ed with the event mask, then the registration will | ||
25 | remain until explicitly removed (by registering for no events). | ||
26 | |||
27 | By default, SIGIO will be delivered to the process and no other useful | ||
28 | information. However, if the F_SETSIG fcntl(2) call is used to let the | ||
29 | kernel know which signal to deliver, a siginfo structure will be passed to | ||
30 | the signal handler and the si_fd member of that structure will contain the | ||
31 | file descriptor associated with the directory in which the event occurred. | ||
32 | |||
33 | Preferably the application will choose one of the real time signals | ||
34 | (SIGRTMIN + <n>) so that the notifications may be queued. This is | ||
35 | especially important if DN_MULTISHOT is specified. Note that SIGRTMIN | ||
36 | is often blocked, so it is better to use (at least) SIGRTMIN + 1. | ||
37 | |||
38 | Implementation expectations (features and bugs :-)) | ||
39 | --------------------------- | ||
40 | |||
41 | The notification should work for any local access to files even if the | ||
42 | actual file system is on a remote server. This implies that remote | ||
43 | access to files served by local user mode servers should be notified. | ||
44 | Also, remote accesses to files served by a local kernel NFS server should | ||
45 | be notified. | ||
46 | |||
47 | In order to make the impact on the file system code as small as possible, | ||
48 | the problem of hard links to files has been ignored. So if a file (x) | ||
49 | exists in two directories (a and b) then a change to the file using the | ||
50 | name "a/x" should be notified to a program expecting notifications on | ||
51 | directory "a", but will not be notified to one expecting notifications on | ||
52 | directory "b". | ||
53 | |||
54 | Also, files that are unlinked, will still cause notifications in the | ||
55 | last directory that they were linked to. | ||
56 | |||
57 | Configuration | ||
58 | ------------- | ||
59 | |||
60 | Dnotify is controlled via the CONFIG_DNOTIFY configuration option. When | ||
61 | disabled, fcntl(fd, F_NOTIFY, ...) will return -EINVAL. | ||
62 | |||
63 | Example | ||
64 | ------- | ||
65 | |||
66 | #define _GNU_SOURCE /* needed to get the defines */ | ||
67 | #include <fcntl.h> /* in glibc 2.2 this has the needed | ||
68 | values defined */ | ||
69 | #include <signal.h> | ||
70 | #include <stdio.h> | ||
71 | #include <unistd.h> | ||
72 | |||
73 | static volatile int event_fd; | ||
74 | |||
75 | static void handler(int sig, siginfo_t *si, void *data) | ||
76 | { | ||
77 | event_fd = si->si_fd; | ||
78 | } | ||
79 | |||
80 | int main(void) | ||
81 | { | ||
82 | struct sigaction act; | ||
83 | int fd; | ||
84 | |||
85 | act.sa_sigaction = handler; | ||
86 | sigemptyset(&act.sa_mask); | ||
87 | act.sa_flags = SA_SIGINFO; | ||
88 | sigaction(SIGRTMIN + 1, &act, NULL); | ||
89 | |||
90 | fd = open(".", O_RDONLY); | ||
91 | fcntl(fd, F_SETSIG, SIGRTMIN + 1); | ||
92 | fcntl(fd, F_NOTIFY, DN_MODIFY|DN_CREATE|DN_MULTISHOT); | ||
93 | /* we will now be notified if any of the files | ||
94 | in "." is modified or new files are created */ | ||
95 | while (1) { | ||
96 | pause(); | ||
97 | printf("Got event on fd=%d\n", event_fd); | ||
98 | } | ||
99 | } | ||