[LSF/MM TOPIC] New APIs for supporting user-mode file service daemons

[LSF/MM TOPIC] New APIs for supporting user-mode file service daemons

[Jim Lieb]

This is a follow-up agenda topic to the similar topic for LSF-2013.  The goal 
if this agenda item is to discuss the current status and to coordinate future 
work in the area of kernel support for file servers such as Samba and NFS-
Ganesha.  There is work in process based on discussions at the last meeting 
that can be reported on.

These issues are very important for the NFS-Ganesha project that with its V2.0 
release is being used by IBM, Red Hat, Panasas and others as their pNFS 
server.  These topics do not require presentations other than 1 or 2 slides to 
keep discussion on topic.  The goal is to clean up the rough edges and issues 
of current work and focus on near term goals for work still to be done.

Specifics:

* New private locks to provide better semantics than Posix locks.  Jeff Layton 
has been working on this.

* An extension to inotify() to control event reporting where nfs-ganesha, 
samba, and local users/processes on the server access the same files.  Jim Lieb 
has been working on this and has submitted a patchset to the list.

* Credentials switching to extend nfsd_setuser semantics to user-mode so 
servers that need to do this operation can use it.  There is an implementation 
that in its current form still has some issues that need to be resolved based 
on feedback on the list.

* readdirplus.  This is a carryover from last year.  Status unknown but the 
need is still there.

* rich ACLs.  Some work has been done but this too needs decisions and work.  
This is especially important to NFSv4.1 and CIFS server projects.

* Discussions with samba developers on strategies/solutions for mapping 
credentials between NFSv4.x and SMB.

I am willing to combine these specific issues with someone else's agenda topic 
if it makes scheduling simpler.

Regards,

Jim Lieb
-- 
Jim Lieb
Linux Systems Engineer
Panasas Inc.

"If ease of use was the only requirement, we would all be riding tricycles"
- Douglas Engelbart 1925–2013
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-fsdevel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

Re: [LSF/MM TOPIC] New APIs for supporting user-mode file service daemons

[Jeremy Allison]

On Wed, Jan 22, 2014 at 03:08:55PM -0800, Jim Lieb wrote:
> This is a follow-up agenda topic to the similar topic for LSF-2013.  The goal 
> if this agenda item is to discuss the current status and to coordinate future 
> work in the area of kernel support for file servers such as Samba and NFS-
> Ganesha.  There is work in process based on discussions at the last meeting 
> that can be reported on.
> 
> These issues are very important for the NFS-Ganesha project that with its V2.0 
> release is being used by IBM, Red Hat, Panasas and others as their pNFS 
> server.  These topics do not require presentations other than 1 or 2 slides to 
> keep discussion on topic.  The goal is to clean up the rough edges and issues 
> of current work and focus on near term goals for work still to be done.
> 
> Specifics:
> 
> * New private locks to provide better semantics than Posix locks.  Jeff Layton 
> has been working on this.
> 
> * An extension to inotify() to control event reporting where nfs-ganesha, 
> samba, and local users/processes on the server access the same files.  Jim Lieb 
> has been working on this and has submitted a patchset to the list.
> 
> * Credentials switching to extend nfsd_setuser semantics to user-mode so 
> servers that need to do this operation can use it.  There is an implementation 
> that in its current form still has some issues that need to be resolved based 
> on feedback on the list.
> 
> * readdirplus.  This is a carryover from last year.  Status unknown but the 
> need is still there.
> 
> * rich ACLs.  Some work has been done but this too needs decisions and work.  
> This is especially important to NFSv4.1 and CIFS server projects.
> 
> * Discussions with samba developers on strategies/solutions for mapping 
> credentials between NFSv4.x and SMB.
> 
> I am willing to combine these specific issues with someone else's agenda topic 
> if it makes scheduling simpler.

Ah, if this is on the agenda I'd like to be there to
discuss Samba needs. We're already using pre-thread
creds in Samba, but there are changes it would be
very helpful to have.

Cheers,

	Jeremy.

Re: [LSF/MM TOPIC] New APIs for supporting user-mode file service daemons

[Sage Weil]

Hi Jim,

On Wed, 22 Jan 2014, Jim Lieb wrote:
> * readdirplus.  This is a carryover from last year.  Status unknown but the 
> need is still there.

I suspect the path forward here is still to focus on getting an xstat(2) 
interface in place first, and then build readdirplus(2) on top of the same 
building blocks.  There seems to be some general agreement about what this 
should look like (it comes up every year), but we are lacking someone with 
the time to do the patches.

Perhaps what would be useful for this upcoming summit is (at a minimum) a 
proposed xstat(2) (and possibly readdirplus(2)) interface out on the list 
so that any final rock-throwing discussion can happen and some consensus 
can be reached...

sage

Re: [LSF/MM TOPIC] New APIs for supporting user-mode file service daemons

[Andreas Dilger]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1489 bytes --]

On Jan 22, 2014, at 5:22 PM, Sage Weil <sage@inktank.com> wrote:
> Hi Jim,
> 
> On Wed, 22 Jan 2014, Jim Lieb wrote:
>> * readdirplus.  This is a carryover from last year.  Status unknown
>> but the need is still there.
> 
> I suspect the path forward here is still to focus on getting an xstat(2) 
> interface in place first, and then build readdirplus(2) on top of the same 
> building blocks.  There seems to be some general agreement about what this 
> should look like (it comes up every year), but we are lacking someone with 
> the time to do the patches.

There ARE xstat() patches, but every time they get posted to linux-fsdevel
(most recently http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-cifs/msg08860.html)
they get bogged down in arguments about minor details (type and encoding
of attribute flags, which attributes to include, etc) and then sleep for
another year.

I'm personally very keen on seeing this in the kernel, and am happy with
the current proposal, but it is always simultaneously not flexible enough
for some people, and too much baggage for others.

> Perhaps what would be useful for this upcoming summit is (at a minimum) a 
> proposed xstat(2) (and possibly readdirplus(2)) interface out on the list 
> so that any final rock-throwing discussion can happen and some consensus 
> can be reached...

Plenty of rock throwing and shed painting for the existing patches
already.  Just need to iron out the final details and they would be
ready to go.

Cheers, Andreas






[-- Attachment #2: Message signed with OpenPGP using GPGMail --]
[-- Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 833 bytes --]