Re: [PATCH] eCryptfs: Delay writing 0's after llseek until write

Michael Halcrow
2007-05-22T14:52:09Z

On Mon, May 21, 2007 at 09:07:08PM -0700, Andrew Morton wrote:
> On Mon, 21 May 2007 18:00:21 -0500 Michael Halcrow <mhalcrow@us.ibm.com> wrote:
>
> > Delay writing 0's out in eCryptfs after a seek past the end of the
> > file until data is actually written.
>
> a) why?

http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/lseek.html

``The lseek() function shall not, by itself, extend the size of a
file.''

> b) what is the impact upon a user of them not having this patch?

Applications that lseek() past the end of the file without writing
will experience unexpected behavior.

Mike