[linux-cifs-client] Re: [PATCH] cifs: remove dnotify thread code

[Jamie Lokier]

Jeff Layton wrote:
> CIFS has a call that tells the server to notify the client when a
> directory changes (NT_TRANSACT_NOTIFY_CHANGE). This, in principle would
> allow us to implement a subset of inotify/dnotify across the network.
> I'm not sure which kind we'd be able to implement (probably "queued
> at best).

With oplocks you can implement "lease" (and therefore "coherent") for
file data reads and writes, at least.  I'm not sure if it also covers
attributes and directory operations.

You would use NT_TRANSACT_NOTIFY_CHANGE for "queued" when possible,
because it's much cheaper and intended for this, although you could
use oplocks (expensively) for this too.

-- Jamie