Re: service directory on NFS-mounted filesystem

From: Laurent Bercot <ska-supervision_at_skarnet.org>
Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2013 18:04:09 +0100

> A FIFO special file (a named pipe) is similar to a pipe, except
> that it is accessed as part of the file system. It can be opened
> by multiple processes for reading or writing. When processes are
> exchanging data via the FIFO, the kernel passes all data inter‐
> nally without writing it to the file system. Thus, the FIFO spe‐
> cial file has no contents on the file system; the file system
> entry merely serves as a reference point so that processes can
> access the pipe using a name in the file system.

  That means you aren't storing any data into the filesystem. The metadata,
however, still needs to be accessed. When you're resolving
/mnt/nfs/fifo, you're still performing a NFS query, and if the NFS server
happens to be down at that moment, whoopsie-boopsie.
  Once your file descriptors are open, though, you're probably safe.

-- 
  Laurent
Received on Tue Sep 17 2013 - 17:04:09 UTC

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