Using threads (pthreads) in a VFS module on Linux

[Volker Lendecke]

On Sat, Sep 29, 2012 at 01:45:45PM -0700, Richard Sharpe wrote:
> At Samba XP during my presentation on the Samba VFS someone asked me
> about whether or not you can really use threads in a VFS Module.
> 
> At that time I blithely answered yes. While the answer is true, in my
> experience, at least for Linux, it is a little more complicated than
> that.
> 
> If you use AIO, you should be aware that it uses signals. If you do
> not disable the signals that Samba uses in your threads you risk nasty
> things happening. For example, IO completions can silently disappear
> if you have multiple outstanding AIO requests at any one time, which
> after all, is the raison d'être of AIO. Windows does not like it when
> it does not get a response for some IOs for a long period of time and
> simply resets the connection.
> 
> The solution is to use pthread_sigmask and friends to switch off all
> signals, or at least the ones Samba wants, before starting your
> threads.

Please be aware that neither aio_fork nor aio_pthread (now
the default) use signals. The Posix API is now done in the
aio_posix module. Please also be aware that our internal
messaging system uses SIGUSR1, but this use might possibly
go away relatively soon (not for 4.0 though).

Volker

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