Message-id: <176898948697.16766.1729756714812778707@noble.neil.brown.name>
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2026 20:58:06 +1100
From: NeilBrown <neilb@...mail.net>
To: "Jeff Layton" <jlayton@...nel.org>
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Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 01/31] Documentation: document EXPORT_OP_NOLOCKS

On Wed, 21 Jan 2026, Jeff Layton wrote:
> On Tue, 2026-01-20 at 09:12 -0500, Jeff Layton wrote:
> > On Tue, 2026-01-20 at 08:20 -0500, Jeff Layton wrote:
> > > On Mon, 2026-01-19 at 23:44 -0800, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> > > > On Mon, Jan 19, 2026 at 11:26:18AM -0500, Jeff Layton wrote:
> > > > > +  EXPORT_OP_NOLOCKS - Disable file locking on this filesystem. Some
> > > > > +    filesystems cannot properly support file locking as implemented by
> > > > > +    nfsd. A case in point is reexport of NFS itself, which can't be done
> > > > > +    safely without coordinating the grace period handling. Other clustered
> > > > > +    and networked filesystems can be problematic here as well.
> > > > 
> > > > I'm not sure this is very useful.  It really needs to document what
> > > > locking semantics nfs expects, because otherwise no reader will know
> > > > if they set this or not.
> > > 
> > > Fair point. I'll see if I can draft something better. Suggestions
> > > welcome.
> > 
> > How about this?
> > 
> > +  EXPORT_OP_NOLOCKS - Disable file locking on this filesystem. Filesystems
> > +    that want to support locking over NFS must support POSIX file locking
> > +    semantics and must handle lock recovery requests from clients after a
> > +    reboot. Most local disk, RAM, or pseudo-filesystems use the generic POSIX
> > +    locking support in the kernel and naturally provide this capability. Network
> > +    or clustered filesystems usually need special handling to do this properly.
> 
> Even better, I think?
> 
> +
> +  EXPORT_OP_NOLOCKS - Disable file locking on this filesystem. Filesystems
> +    that want to support locking over NFS must support POSIX file locking
> +    semantics. When the server reboots, the clients will issue requests to
> +    recover their locks, which nfsd will issue to the filesystem as new lock
> +    requests. Those must succeed in order for lock recovery to work. Most
> +    local disk, RAM, or pseudo-filesystems use the generic POSIX locking
> +    support in the kernel and naturally provide this capability. Network or
> +    clustered filesystems usually need special handling to do this properly.
> +    Set this flag on filesystems that can't guarantee the proper semantics
> +    (e.g. reexported NFS).

I think this is quite thorough, which it good ...  maybe too good :-) It
reminds me that for true NFS compatibility the fs shouldn't allow local
locks (or file opens!) until the grace period has passed.  I don't think
any local filesystems enforce that - it would have to be locks.c that
does I expect.  I doubt there would be much appetite for doing that
though.

Reviewed-by: NeilBrown <neil@...wn.name>

Thanks,
NeilBrown

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