Provided by: nfs-kernel-server_1.3.4-2.5ubuntu3.6_amd64 bug

NAME

       nfsd - special filesystem for controlling Linux NFS server

SYNPOSIS

       mount -t nfsd nfsd /proc/fs/nfsd

DESCRIPTION

       The nfsd filesystem is a special filesystem which provides access to the Linux NFS server.
       The filesystem consists of a single directory which contains a  number  of  files.   These
       files  are  actually gateways into the NFS server.  Writing to them can affect the server.
       Reading from them can provide information about the server.

       This file system is only available in Linux 2.6 and later series kernels (and in the later
       parts  of  the 2.5 development series leading up to 2.6).  This man page does not apply to
       2.4 and earlier.

       As well as this filesystem, there are a collection  of  files  in  the  procfs  filesystem
       (normally  mounted  at  /proc) which are used to control the NFS server.  This manual page
       describes all of these files.

       The exportfs and mountd programs (part of the  nfs-utils  package)  expect  to  find  this
       filesystem  mounted  at  /proc/fs/nfsd  or  /proc/fs/nfs.  If it is not mounted, they will
       fall-back on 2.4 style functionality.  This  involves  accessing  the  NFS  server  via  a
       systemcall.  This systemcall is scheduled to be removed after the 2.6 kernel series.

DETAILS

       The three files in the nfsd filesystem are:

       exports
              This  file  contains  a list of filesystems that are currently exported and clients
              that each filesystem is exported to, together with a list  of  export  options  for
              that  client/filesystem  pair.  This is similar to the /proc/fs/nfs/exports file in
              2.4.  One difference is that a client doesn't necessarily correspond  to  just  one
              host.   It  can  respond  to  a  large  collection  of hosts that are being treated
              identically.

              Each line of the file contains a path name, a client name, and a number of  options
              in  parentheses.   Any space, tab, newline or back-slash character in the path name
              or client name will be replaced by a backslash followed by the octal ASCII code for
              that character.

       threads
              This  file represents the number of nfsd thread currently running.  Reading it will
              show the number of threads.  Writing an ASCII decimal number will cause the  number
              of  threads  to  be  changed  (increased or decreased as necessary) to achieve that
              number.

       filehandle
              This is a somewhat unusual file  in that what is read from it depends on  what  was
              just written to it.  It provides a transactional interface where a program can open
              the file, write a request, and read a response.  If  two  separate  programs  open,
              write, and read at the same time, their requests will not be mixed up.

              The  request  written  to  filehandle  should  be a client name, a path name, and a
              number of bytes.  This should be followed by a newline, with white-space separating
              the fields, and octal quoting of special characters.

              On  writing  this, the program will be able to read back a filehandle for that path
              as exported to the given client.  The filehandle's  length  will  be  at  most  the
              number of bytes given.

              The filehandle will be represented in hex with a leading '\x'.

       The  directory  /proc/net/rpc  in  the  procfs  filesystem  contains a number of files and
       directories.  The files contain statistics that can be display using the nfsstat  program.
       The  directories contain information about various caches that the NFS server maintains to
       keep track of access permissions that different clients have  for  different  filesystems.
       The caches are:

       auth.domain
              This  cache  maps  the  name of a client (or domain) to an internal data structure.
              The only access that is possible is to flush the cache.

       auth.unix.ip
              This cache contains a mapping from IP address to the  name  of  the  authentication
              domain that the ipaddress should be treated as part of.

       nfsd.export
              This cache contains a mapping from directory and domain to export options.

       nfsd.fh
              This  cache  contains  a  mapping  from  domain  and  a  filesystem identifier to a
              directory.   The filesystem identifier is stored in the filehandles and consists of
              a number indicating the type of identifier and a number of hex bytes indicating the
              content of the identifier.

       Each directory representing a cache can hold from 1 to 3 files.  They are:

       flush  When a number of seconds since epoch (1 Jan 1970) is  written  to  this  file,  all
              entries in the cache that were last updated before that file become invalidated and
              will be flushed out.  Writing 1 will flush everything.  This is the only file  that
              will always be present.

       content
              This  file,  if  present,  contains  a  textual representation of ever entry in the
              cache, one per line.  If an entry is still in the cache  (because  it  is  actively
              being  used)  but  has  expired  or is otherwise invalid, it will be presented as a
              comment (with a leading hash character).

       channel
              This file, if present, acts a channel for request from the kernel-based nfs  server
              to be passed to a user-space program for handling.

              When  the  kernel  needs some information which isn't in the cache, it makes a line
              appear in the channel file giving  the  key  for  the  information.   A  user-space
              program  should read this, find the answer, and write a line containing the key, an
              expiry time, and the content.  For example the kernel might make
                   nfsd 127.0.0.1
              appear in the auth.unix.ip/content file.  The user-space program might then write
                   nfsd 127.0.0.1 1057206953 localhost
              to indicate that 127.0.0.1 should map to localhost, at least for now.

              If the program uses select(2) or poll(2) to  discover  if  it  can  read  from  the
              channel  then  it  will  never  see and end-of-file but when all requests have been
              answered, it will block until another request appears.

       In the /proc filesystem there are 4 files that can be used to  enabled  extra  tracing  of
       nfsd and related code.  They are:
            /proc/sys/sunrpc/nfs_debug
            /proc/sys/sunrpc/nfsd_debug
            /proc/sys/sunrpc/nlm_debug
            /proc/sys/sunrpc/rpc_debug
       They  control tracing for the NFS client, the NFS server, the Network Lock Manager (lockd)
       and the underlying RPC layer respectively.  Decimal numbers can be read from or written to
       these  files.   Each number represents a bit-pattern where bits that are set cause certain
       classes of tracing to be enabled.  Consult the kernel header files to find out what number
       correspond to what tracing.

SEE ALSO

       nfsd(8), rpc.nfsd(8), exports(5), nfsstat(8), mountd(8) exportfs(8).

AUTHOR

       NeilBrown

                                           3 July 2003                                    nfsd(7)