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Full Discussion: Is `mv dir dir2` atomic ?
Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers Is `mv dir dir2` atomic ? Post 302170830 by Perderabo on Tuesday 26th of February 2008 10:42:52 PM
Old 02-26-2008
I'm really only familiar with the HP-UX version, but I'm guessing that Linux version must be similar. HP's mvdir is confined to operating in a filesystem...never between filesystems. To understand it, consider the first unix implemention of it... If you have /parent/A which has a lot of files in it and you move it to /parent/B, the original version would invoke the link system call and link A to B. At this point, both A and B exist and they are just two names to the same directory. Then, as soon as possible, it would unlink A. This would leave just B. The operation took two very quick system calls. This was NOT atomic. Between the system calls, the filesystem was in an illegal state. A and B should not be links to the same directory even for a millisecond. Today, instead of two system calls, we use just one...and rename(). This is absolutely atomic. For all intents and purposes A just morphs into B. A and B must be in the same filesystem, but not necessarily have the same exact parent as I have indicated here.
 

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xfs_freeze(8)						      System Manager's Manual						     xfs_freeze(8)

NAME
xfs_freeze - suspend access to an XFS filesystem SYNOPSIS
xfs_freeze -f | -u mount-point DESCRIPTION
xfs_freeze suspends and resumes access to an XFS filesystem (see xfs(5)). xfs_freeze halts new access to the filesystem and creates a stable image on disk. xfs_freeze is intended to be used with volume managers and hardware RAID devices that support the creation of snapshots. The mount-point argument is the pathname of the directory where the filesystem is mounted. The filesystem must be mounted to be frozen (see mount(8)). The -f flag requests the specified XFS filesystem to be frozen from new modifications. When this is selected, all ongoing transactions in the filesystem are allowed to complete, new write system calls are halted, other calls which modify the filesystem are halted, and all dirty data, metadata, and log information are written to disk. Any process attempting to write to the frozen filesystem will block waiting for the filesystem to be unfrozen. Note that even after freezing, the on-disk filesystem can contain information on files that are still in the process of unlinking. These files will not be unlinked until the filesystem is unfrozen or a clean mount of the snapshot is complete. The -u flag is used to un-freeze the filesystem and allow operations to continue. Any filesystem modifications that were blocked by the freeze are unblocked and allowed to complete. One of -f or -u must be supplied to xfs_freeze. NOTES
A copy of a frozen XFS filesystem will usually have the same universally unique identifier (UUID) as the original, and thus may be pre- vented from being mounted. The XFS nouuid mount option can be used to circumvent this issue. In Linux kernel version 2.6.29, the interface which XFS uses to freeze and unfreeze was elevated to the VFS, so that this tool can now be used on many other Linux filesystems. SEE ALSO
xfs(5), lvm(8), mount(8). xfs_freeze(8)
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