Re: [Bug-tar] Re: [patch] O_NOATIME support

[Ian Turner]

> Well, the interface itself does not seem to be well designed.

Maybe not, but it's what we got. This feature was contraversial enough to the 
kernel folks that there is zero chance of introducing a new interface at this 
time.

> How do you like to be sure if you are on a Linux version that just ignores
> O_NOATIME and thus never returns EINVAL? This does not look to be a good
> idea unless the O_NOATIME flag would have been implemented this way from
> the very beginning.

Well, right now all kernels work that way. In future, you'll probably have to 
guess based on some heuristic. I basically view the non-use at present of 
EINVAL as a kernel bug, which will be fixed, and not a change in the 
interface.

--Ian