[linux-cifs-client] About CIFS mount flags.

[Dave Kleikamp]

On Wed, 2007-10-03 at 17:21 +0530, Hariharan T.S. wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> While using the following mount command
> mount -t cifs //9.152.25.231/homes /mnt --verbose -o user=root,rw
> The mount flag fs_flag value is 3136, ie ST_NODIRATIME, ST_NOATIME etc 
> are set which we have not mentioned at all in the command. Moreover it 
> doesn't behave as per the flags set.
> 
> May I request anyone to explain me how this flags are set and not 
> responding accordingly.

I'll try.  For a network file system such as cifs, the server will
update the access times when a file or directory is accessed.  It's
really not a good idea to have the client file system and the server
both updating the access time.  The ST_* flags prevent the VFS code in
the client from updating the access times.  The behavior you see is due
to the server updating the access times.

I hope that made sense.

Thanks,
Shaggy
-- 
David Kleikamp
IBM Linux Technology Center