Here comes a generic question which affects probably all network
filesystems. If I let users access an smbfs share via ftp, problems arise
when the network connection dies for whatever reason. What happens is a
user tries an ls on a connection that is down, and in.ftpd goes into an
uninterruptable sleep (shows as "D" in ps). Now this can cause a REAL
problem when many users do it, and keep logging in and repeatedly doing
it. Only solution is to reboot.
Is this a known problem? Is it considered even a problem at all? I have
my reasons for wanting to access network mounts instead of having the
users just connect to the machine directly.. Namely the machines involved
are not connected directly to the internet, and I want a single ftp server
to be able to access various network shares in the one convenient place.
How about code which detects timeouts, and either tries to remount, or
gives up completely and unmounts the share. Or perhaps both, after the
remount attempt fails.
Any discussion, or ideas or anything would be much appreciated.. Even just
a "yeah I have that problem", or a "yeah i'm looking at it, its being
fixed".. :)
As far as I'm concerned, anything that results in a task going into an
uninterruptable sleep, is a bug. Or at least a design flaw. :)
Anyway, that might give someone something to think about..
Cheers,
Dave.