Directory cache and SMB2

Tom Talpey ttalpey at microsoft.com
Fri Mar 30 16:42:58 UTC 2018


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jeremy Allison <jra at samba.org>
> Sent: Friday, March 30, 2018 12:17 PM
> To: Tom Talpey <ttalpey at microsoft.com>
> Cc: Ralph Böhme <slow at samba.org>; Samba Technical <samba-
> technical at lists.samba.org>
> Subject: Re: Directory cache and SMB2
> 
> On Fri, Mar 30, 2018 at 01:24:10PM +0000, Tom Talpey wrote:
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: samba-technical <samba-technical-bounces at lists.samba.org> On
> Behalf
> > > Of Jeremy Allison via samba-technical
> > > Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2018 5:23 PM
> > > To: Ralph Böhme <slow at samba.org>
> > > Cc: Samba Technical <samba-technical at lists.samba.org>
> > > Subject: Re: Directory cache and SMB2
> > >
> > > On Thu, Mar 29, 2018 at 07:47:01PM +0200, Ralph Böhme wrote:
> > > > On Thu, Mar 29, 2018 at 10:12:42AM -0700, Jeremy Allison wrote:
> > > > > On Thu, Mar 29, 2018 at 03:43:07PM +0200, Ralph Böhme wrote:
> > > > > > Hi!
> > > > > >
> > > > > > It seems for SMB2 we still populate the directory cache, but we never
> use
> > > it. Am
> > > > > > I missing something?
> > > > > >
> > > > > > It gets populated via smbd_smb2_query_directory_send ->
> > > > > > smbd_dirptr_lanman2_entry -> smbd_dirptr_get_entry ->
> DirCacheAdd
> > > for SMB2.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > But the only point where it's used is via call_trans2findnext ->
> > > dptr_SearchDir
> > > > > > -> SearchDir which is SMB1 only.
> > > > >
> > > > > Yes, that's completely correct. That's because SMB1 uses a name
> > > > > to resume from, wheras SMB2 always continues from the next position
> > > > > (unless it's told to restart or close-and-reopen the listing).
> > > > >
> > > > > We could make DirCacheAdd a noop for SMB2. Wanna do a patch ?
> > > >
> > > > yup, I just needed the confirmation before jumping at it. :) Thanks!
> > >
> > > Interesting. I just dug a little deeper, and there is indeed
> > > a uint32_t SMB2_QUERY_DIRECTORY index value sent that is supposed
> > > to be consulted if the SMB2_INDEX_SPECIFIED flag is sent, however
> > > there's a Windows behavior note attached that says Windows servers
> > > ignore this value - so this means no one will *ever* implement
> > > this (might as well remove it from the spec. :-) :-).
> >
> > Yeah, not all filesystems support the FileIndex argument, so historically, the
> protocol can't force it. The flag is, however, technically legal.
> >
> > MS-FSA has this - note, "(optional)".
> >
> > 2.1.5.5	Server Requests Querying a Directory
> > The server provides:
> > §	Open: An Open of a DirectoryStream.
> > §	FileInformationClass: The type of information being queried, as
> specified in [MS-FSCC] section 2.4.
> > §	OutputBufferSize: The maximum number of bytes to return in
> OutputBuffer.
> > §	RestartScan: A Boolean value which, if TRUE, indicates that
> enumeration is restarted from the beginning of the directory. If FALSE,
> enumeration continues from the last position.
> > §	ReturnSingleEntry: A Boolean value which, if TRUE, indicates that at
> most one entry MUST be returned. If FALSE, a variable count of entries could be
> returned, not to exceed OutputBufferSize bytes.
> > §	FileIndex: An index number from which to resume the enumeration if
> the object store supports it (optional).
> 
> Yes, but as Windows servers don't support it, that means
> Windows clients don't use it, which means "optional" is
> the wrong word. "Unusable" is the right word :-).
> 
> On a meta-note, a 32-bit directory cookie is useless
> these days on modern filesystems. You end up having
> to keep a mapping between the real (64bit+) directory
> cookie and the returned 32-bit value (I had to do
> this for the old DOS SMB1 protocol level, which heavily
> used this). When you have 1,000,000 file directories
> that gets pretty wasteful.
> 
> The whole concept of a seekable directory cookie is
> A BAD IDEA anyway (yes I know POSIX demands it) because
> of race conditions - no applications can depend on
> it being valid to enumerate everything in a dirctory
> or even to not see entries twice or not at all. Most
> filesystems internally are btrees or something more
> complex.

For the record, I disagree with none of this. :-)

Tom.



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