[Pvfs2-developers] Batch create in sys-symlink.sm

[Nicholas Mills]

When I say new create code I'm referring to the changes to the server's
create.sm and the corresponding changes to the client's sys-create.sm since
2.7.1 (almost all of the changes come from the small file branch).

It used to be that both sys-symlink and sys-create used the server "create"
request to create their objects. But now that create only makes regular
files the sys-symlink code has been modified to use batch-create with a size
of one. This approach works, but it seems to me to be a misuse of an
operation designed for the creation of multiple handles between *servers*.

As you know, David and I are working on eliminating the security holes
present in the current version of PVFS. I would really rather not give
client code the ability to create up to 8192 handles (source:
pvfs2-req-proto.h) with a single request.

Is there any obstacle to moving the symlink creation code to the server side
in the same way that regular file creation was moved to the server side? I
realize it would involve adding yet another request (and state machine), but
I believe in the interest of security that regular clients should not have
access to the functionality provided by batch-create.

Thanks for your response,

Nick

On Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 2:03 PM, Sam Lang <slang at mcs.anl.gov> wrote:

>
> On Jun 24, 2009, at 9:22 AM, Nicholas Mills wrote:
>
> Hey all,
>
> Can someone quickly explain to me why sys-symlink.sm (in the client code)
> now uses batch create with a fixed size of one? What prevents us from using
> the new create code? This change was merged in by phil with the small files
> branch.
>
>
>
> What "new create code" do you refer to?  The batch create code is the new create path.
> -sam
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Nick
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