Add umount2(). umount() is now a macro that just calls umount2() with flags = 0.

1 files changed, 53 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/nuttx/TODO b/nuttx/TODO
index a2b3df9f0..c526a7d15 100644
--- a/nuttx/TODO
+++ b/nuttx/TODO
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-NuttX TODO List (Last updated March 10, 2015)
+NuttX TODO List (Last updated March 14, 2015)
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 
 This file summarizes known NuttX bugs, limitations, inconsistencies with
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ nuttx/
  (12)  Network (net/, drivers/net)
   (4)  USB (drivers/usbdev, drivers/usbhost)
  (11)  Libraries (libc/, libm/)
- (11)  File system/Generic drivers (fs/, drivers/)
+ (12)  File system/Generic drivers (fs/, drivers/)
   (9)  Graphics subystem (graphics/)
   (1)  Pascal add-on (pcode/)
   (1)  Documentation (Documentation/)
@@ -1303,6 +1303,57 @@ o File system / Generic drivers (fs/, drivers/)
   Status:      Open
   Priority:    Medium
 
+  Title:       UNMOUNT WITH OPEN FILES
+  Description: What is the policy for umounting files that have open file
+               references?  Currently, umount() does the unmount
+               unconditionally and this has been noted to cause crashes in
+               some subsequent FAT file system operations.  umount() is not
+               a standard OS interface and so have no specification.  Here
+               are some possible behaviors or unmount() with open files:
+
+               1. Refuse to unmount() the file system if there are open
+                  references to files on the file system (i.e., the file
+                  system unbind() method returns a failure).
+               2. The file system knows that it has open references and so
+                  does not unbind() immediately, but defers until the last
+                  file is closed.
+               3. The file system performs the unbind() immediately, but
+                  returns an error for an any subsequent operations on the
+                  file system using one of the stale file handles.
+               4. In your application, do not un-mount until you have closed
+                  all references to files or directories in the file system.
+                  This would probably be a good practice anyway.
+
+               I lieu of any real specifications, I often just do what Linux
+               does.  Here is now Linux does things:
+               http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/umount.2.html .
+               Linux has have a umount2() that takes flags that control these
+               behaviors.  They have a couple of other options as well.
+
+               It is not explicitly stated in the manpage, but it looks like
+               the Linux umount() does the first option:  It should return
+               EBUSY meaning that the "target could not be unmounted because
+               it is busy."  That one is pretty easy to implement within the
+               filesystem unbind() method.
+
+               I now think for an embedded system with mostly removable
+               storage devices, the option 3 is probably the most usable. For
+               example, NuttX has a little automounter at nuttx/fs/mount/fs_automount.c
+               That will automatically mount and unmount SD cards as they are
+               inserted or removed.  I think that is a desire-able feature on
+               an embedded device.  And I think it demands option 3 where the
+               umount occurs immediately, but then subsequent operations on
+               the volume fail.
+
+               The true lazy umount could also cause issues if the file is
+               never closed.  Of course if the media is gone, I would hope
+               that the file access also fail in that case.  But what if the
+               media is inserted and removed many times.  Seems like the lazy
+               unmount could cause some problems and won't really buy you
+               anything anyway (because the file I/O will fail anyway).
+  Status:      Open
+  Priority:    Medium-High
+
 o Graphics subsystem (graphics/)
   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^