Re: [PATCH 0/3] Extended file stat functions

[David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com>]

Trond Myklebust <trond.myklebust@fys.uio.no> wrote:

> There has been a lot of interest in allowing the user to specify exactly
> which fields they want the filesystem to return, and whether or not the
> kernel can use cached data or not. The main use is to allow
> specification of a 'stat light' that could help speed up
> "readdir()+multiple stat()" type queries. At last year's Filesystem and
> Storage Workshop, Mark Fasheh actually came up with an initial design:
> 
>    http://www.kerneltrap.com/mailarchive/linux-fsdevel/2009/4/7/5427274
> 
> If we're going to add in a whole new syscall for stat, should we perhaps
> revisit this discussion?

I could certainly absorb that patch.

One further consideration following on from what you said: Is it worth having
an extended getdents() that can return stat data too?  That might be useful
for NFS.

David