Messages in this thread | | | Date | Sat, 19 May 2001 20:18:18 -0400 (EDT) | From | Alexander Viro <> | Subject | Re: Why side-effects on open(2) are evil. (was Re: [RFD w/info-PATCH]device arguments from lookup) |
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On Sun, 20 May 2001, Edgar Toernig wrote:
> That assumption is totally bogus. Even for regular files you have side > effects (atime); for anything else they're unpredictable.
That means only one thing: safe backups are possible only in single-user mode. For values of safe being "not triggering these side effects on arbitrary files outside of the area you are trying to backup". You can't pin an object down until you open it. You can check that it's the same object you think it is, but that will require fstat(). I.e. opening the thing.
If all effects of open() either disappear on close() or are something you don't care about - fine. Otherwise you have a problem. On any UNIX.
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