[PATCH] NFS server subtree_check returns dubious value

[PATCH] NFS server subtree_check returns dubious value

Address a problem found when a Linux NFS server uses the "subtree_check"
export option.

The "subtree_check" NFS export option was designed to prohibit a client
from using a file handle for which it should not have permission.  The
algorithm used is to ensure that the entire path to the file being
referenced is accessible to the user attempting to use the file handle.  If
some part of the path is not accessible, then the operation is aborted and
the appropriate version of ESTALE is returned to the NFS client.

The error, ESTALE, is unfortunate in that it causes NFS clients to make
certain assumptions about the continued existence of the file.  They assume
that the file no longer exists and refuse to attempt to access it again.
In this case, the file really does exist, but access was denied by the
server for a particular user.

A better error to return would be an EACCES sort of error.  This would
inform the client that the particular operation that it was attempting was
not allowed, without the nasty side effects of the ESTALE error.

Signed-off-by: Peter Staubach <staubach@redhat.com>
Acked-By: NeilBrown <neilb@suse.de>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>