[Linux-cluster] Re: GFS, what's remaining

[David Teigland]

On Sat, Sep 03, 2005 at 10:41:40PM -0700, Andrew Morton wrote:
> Joel Becker <Joel.Becker at oracle.com> wrote:
> >
> >  > What happens when we want to add some new primitive which has no
> >  > posix-file analog?
> > 
> >  	The point of dlmfs is not to express every primitive that the
> >  DLM has.  dlmfs cannot express the CR, CW, and PW levels of the VMS
> >  locking scheme.  Nor should it.  The point isn't to use a filesystem
> >  interface for programs that need all the flexibility and power of the
> >  VMS DLM.  The point is a simple system that programs needing the basic
> >  operations can use.  Even shell scripts.
> 
> Are you saying that the posix-file lookalike interface provides access to
> part of the functionality, but there are other APIs which are used to
> access the rest of the functionality?  If so, what is that interface, and
> why cannot that interface offer access to 100% of the functionality, thus
> making the posix-file tricks unnecessary?

We're using our dlm quite a bit in user space and require the full dlm
API.  It's difficult to export the full API through a pseudo fs like
dlmfs, so we've not found it a very practical approach.  That said, it's a
nice idea and I'd be happy if someone could map a more complete dlm API
onto it.

We export our full dlm API through read/write/poll on a misc device.  All
user space apps use the dlm through a library as you'd expect.  The
library communicates with the dlm_device kernel module through
read/write/poll and the dlm_device module talks with the actual dlm:
linux/drivers/dlm/device.c  If there's a better way to do this, via a
pseudo fs or not, we'd be pleased to try it.

Dave