inotify: notify IN_DELETE_SELF when file is deleted or inode deleted ?

inotify: notify IN_DELETE_SELF when file is deleted or inode deleted ?

[Pierre PEIFFER]

Hi,

By playing with inotify (on user side) to know whether the file I'm 
using is deleted by someone else,  I have noted that I do not receive 
the IN_DELETE_SELF event, exactly because I'm using it. By checking into 
kernel area, I see that at unlink(), an IN_ATTRIB event is sent, but 
IN_DELETE_SELF is, indeed, sent only when the inode is deleted.

But such IN_ATTRIB event doesn't tell to the user what has changed among 
permissions, timestamps, link count, etc...
So it doesn't much help. Of course, I have noted that I can monitor the 
parent directory for IN_DELETE and then check which file has been 
deleted; few more stuff to do but it works, no pb.

But I'm still wondering after reading in the man.:
            IN_DELETE_SELF    Watched file/directory was itself deleted.
Is this really the expected behavior ? Shouldn't the kernel trig such 
event at unlink() ? Or is inotify clearly inode oriented ?

Thanks,

Pierre

PS: keep me in cc, I'm not subscribed to the list.

Re: inotify: notify IN_DELETE_SELF when file is deleted or inode deleted ?

[Eric Paris]

It is inode oriented.  Makes it a pain to work with, but that's how it
is.  Sorry!

On Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 10:06 AM, Pierre PEIFFER
<pierre.peiffer@stericsson.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> By playing with inotify (on user side) to know whether the file I'm using is
> deleted by someone else,  I have noted that I do not receive the
> IN_DELETE_SELF event, exactly because I'm using it. By checking into kernel
> area, I see that at unlink(), an IN_ATTRIB event is sent, but IN_DELETE_SELF
> is, indeed, sent only when the inode is deleted.
>
> But such IN_ATTRIB event doesn't tell to the user what has changed among
> permissions, timestamps, link count, etc...
> So it doesn't much help. Of course, I have noted that I can monitor the
> parent directory for IN_DELETE and then check which file has been deleted;
> few more stuff to do but it works, no pb.
>
> But I'm still wondering after reading in the man.:
>            IN_DELETE_SELF    Watched file/directory was itself deleted.
> Is this really the expected behavior ? Shouldn't the kernel trig such event
> at unlink() ? Or is inotify clearly inode oriented ?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Pierre
>
> PS: keep me in cc, I'm not subscribed to the list.
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