[RFC][PATCH 06/10] cifs: define inode-level cache object and register them

[Jeff Layton]

On Fri, 25 Jun 2010 22:46:38 +0100
David Howells <dhowells at redhat.com> wrote:

> Jeff Layton <jlayton at samba.org> wrote:
> 
> > Looks like it mostly uses the ctime. IMO, the mtime would be a better
> > choice since it changes less frequently, but I don't guess that it
> > matters very much.
> 
> I'd've thought mtime changes more frequently since that's altered when data is
> written.  ctime is changed when attributes are changed.
> 

IIUC, updating mtime for a write is also an attribute change, and that
affects ctime. According to the stat(2) manpage:

       The field st_ctime is changed by writing or by setting  inode  informa-
       tion (i.e., owner, group, link count, mode, etc.).

> Note that Ext4 appears to have a file creation time field in its inode
> (struct ext4_inode::i_crtime[_extra]).  Can Samba be made to use that?
> 

Is it exposed to userspace in any (standard) way? It would be handy to
have that. While we're wishing...it might also be nice to have a
standard way to get at the i_generation from userspace too.

-- 
Jeff Layton <jlayton at samba.org>