Re: [PATCH 13/17] watch_queue: Implement mount topology and attribute change notifications [ver #5]

From: Miklos Szeredi
Date: Wed Aug 05 2020 - 03:43:56 EST


On Wed, Aug 5, 2020 at 3:54 AM Ian Kent <raven@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>

> > > It's way more useful to have these in the notification than
> > > obtainable
> > > via fsinfo() IMHO.
> >
> > What is it useful for?
>
> Only to verify that you have seen all the notifications.
>
> If you have to grab that info with a separate call then the count
> isn't necessarily consistent because other notifications can occur
> while you grab it.

No, no no. The watch queue will signal an overflow, without any
additional overhead for the normal case. If you think of this as a
protocol stack, then the overflow detection happens on the transport
layer, instead of the application layer. The application layer is
responsible for restoring state in case of a transport layer error,
but detection of that error is not the responsibility of the
application layer.


Thanks,
Miklos