VFS_LOCK_FILE(9)						   The Linux VFS						  VFS_LOCK_FILE(9)

NAME

       vfs_lock_file - file byte range lock

SYNOPSIS

       int vfs_lock_file(struct file * filp, unsigned int cmd, struct file_lock * fl, struct file_lock * conf);

ARGUMENTS

       filp
	   The file to apply the lock to

       cmd
	   type of locking operation (F_SETLK, F_GETLK, etc.)

       fl
	   The lock to be applied

       conf
	   Place to return a copy of the conflicting lock, if found.

DESCRIPTION

       A caller that doesn't care about the conflicting lock may pass NULL as the final argument.

       If the filesystem defines a private ->lock method, then conf will be left unchanged; so a caller that cares should initialize it to some
       acceptable default.

       To avoid blocking kernel daemons, such as lockd, that need to acquire POSIX locks, the ->lock interface may return asynchronously, before
       the lock has been granted or denied by the underlying filesystem, if (and only if) fl_grant is set. Callers expecting ->lock to return
       asynchronously will only use F_SETLK, not F_SETLKW; they will set FL_SLEEP if (and only if) the request is for a blocking lock. When ->lock
       does return asynchronously, it must return FILE_LOCK_DEFERRED, and call ->fl_grant when the lock request completes. If the request is for
       non-blocking lock the file system should return FILE_LOCK_DEFERRED then try to get the lock and call the callback routine with the result.
       If the request timed out the callback routine will return a nonzero return code and the file system should release the lock. The file
       system is also responsible to keep a corresponding posix lock when it grants a lock so the VFS can find out which locks are locally held
       and do the correct lock cleanup when required. The underlying filesystem must not drop the kernel lock or call ->fl_grant before returning
       to the caller with a FILE_LOCK_DEFERRED return code.

COPYRIGHT

Kernel Hackers Manual 2.6.					     July 2010							  VFS_LOCK_FILE(9)