[Twisted-Python] Re: plus mode was Re: how winnt fileops work and what to do about it

Cory Dodt corydodt at twistedmatrix.com
Sat Dec 31 13:46:51 EST 2005


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Paul, flush fixes one kind of insanity and seek fixes another:

One ===========
$ echo abcdef > foo
$ python
>>> f = file('foo', 'r+b')
>>> f.write('ghi')
>>> f.flush()
>>> f.read()
'def\n'
>>> # hooray!


Two ===========
$ echo abcdef > foo
$ python
>>> f = file('foo','r+b')
>>> f.read()
'abcdef\n'
>>> f.seek(7, 0)
>>> f.write('xyz')
>>> ^D
$ cat foo
abcdef
xyz
$ # hooray

Paul - Do you still think this is a Python bug?  Does anyone know if
this has already been discussed on pyml?

C



Paul G wrote:
> 
> ok, i can actually chime in here because i've done filesystems work on
> windows (don't ask ;). now, it's been a while, but i should remember
> things reasonably accurately (i hope). see below for comments:
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- From: Moof
> To: twisted-python at twistedmatrix.com
> Sent: Saturday, December 31, 2005 2:15 AM
> Subject: Re: [Twisted-Python] Twisted windows hackers - help the tests
> to pass!
> 
> 
>> It's not so much a misconfiguration, as an issue with the fact that
>> trial on Window s is failing to rename its _trial_temp folder,
>> because there are files inside it that are open. I've opened a bug on
>> it over on < http://twistedmatrix.com/bugs/issue1387>.
> 
> 
> it is incorrect to state that file deletion will always fail when the
> file is open. let me explain how nt/ntfs/win32 does this, because it's
> highly 'strange' to folks from a posix background. this may be way more
> info than you were looking for, but i'm going to type it out anyway so
> that someone can then make the call on how to deal with the issue.
> 
> for functionality implemented in the kernel, such as ntfs, windows has 2
> api layers: win32 (you see CreateFile() here) and the native nt api.
> win32 is implemented in usermode, while the native api is implemented as
> a kernel service, which is exposed to userspace code with the Zw prefix
> (ie ZwCreateFile()). sometimes the win32 api calls map directly,
> sometimes they are multiplexed (ie one win32 api call may use multiple
> native api calls to do the work). what happens here is undocumented (at
> least officially and without an nda). what is important is that some
> calls allow you to do things which win32 does not expose; most popular
> ones deal with io completion (this is how you cancel async i/o on
> windows nt).
> 
> now, on to the meat: the win32 CreateFile() is actually a
> jack-of-all-trades call (horrible design), used for file creation,
> opening *and authorization*. we're not interested in ACLs in this case,
> but we are interested in locks - locks in nt are compulsory (as opposed
> to purely advisory in posix) and violating one will result in an auth
> failure. now, disregarding the ability to take out range locks (locks on
> a byterange within a file), CreateFile() takes out certain locks based
> on the sharemode (iirc, not sure) parameter. the rules here are funky,
> iirc, but the one we care about is FILE_SHARE_DELETE. *unless* this flag
> is set in sharemode passed to CreateFile(), all attempts to open this
> file for deletion (see, authorization) going forward will fail.
> 
> it will fail when the file is opened exclusively. CreateFile takes a
> parameter called sharemode, iirc, which can be a combination of
> FILE_SHARE_READ, FILE_SHARE_WRITE, and FILE_SHARE_DELETE. *unless*
> FILE_SHARE_DELETE is set in the flag parameter, a lock preventing
> deletion gets taken out and you get to enjoy all the wonders of
> compulsory locking you are hitting.
> 
> here's why i think this happens: win32 DeleteFile() does *not* actually
> use ZwDeleteFile() native call to delete a file. instead, it does a
> CreateFile() (or ZwCreateFile(), could be either) to open the file (and
> get a handle to it), telling it the desired access is DELETE. then it
> does a ZwSetFileInformation(), which it tells it wants to set
> 'disposition' and passes in the appropriate disposition info struct with
> the DELETE disposition set. you can't cheat this, because
> ZwSetInformation() will fail if the handle doesn't have DELETE rights,
> and you won't get them if the file isn't opened with FILE_SHARE_DELETE.
> bummer. the reason this is all so roundabout is that the file whose
> disposition is set to DELETE doesn't actually get deleted until the last
> handle is ZwClose()'d - this is where the deletion takes place. now,
> this is from memory, so don't hold me to it exactly, but the jist of it
> should be correct.
> 
> the interesting, albeit non-obvious, question is: what does
> ZwDeleteFile() do? it takes either a handle *or a path* and deletes it
> *right away*, without waiting for handles to be closed. now, i don't
> know whether it bypasses the ZwCreateFile() and hence the DELETE check,
> but there's a chance that it is the call ZwClose() makes internally when
> it does a delete based on the disposition (this guess would be supported
> by the fact that ZwCreateFile() and a few other fs calls are documented
> in msdn/ddk, but ZwDeleteFile() is not) and hence doesn't hit this
> check. what is even more interesting is that, in win32, the only way to
> remove a directory is using RemoveDirectory(), which requires the
> directory to be empty. you have to recursively delete all contents,
> either by hand or using SHFileOperation, iirc. this is the op that hits
> your open files problem. i remember seeing code (this part i didn't work
> on, but did read brielfy) which deleted directories with ZwDeleteFile()
> and there was no resurive content deletion code, so i suspect that you
> could delete a non-empty directory this way. neither of this is valid
> ntfs usage, so doing it may not be kosher.
> 
> whatever the case may be, those two options are available if you can
> stomach them.
> 
>> It's
>> going to need a rethink on how _trial_temp works, because my instant
>> thought on how to solve was "symlinks" and python
>> doesn't support them on windows, mostly because windows' own support
>> of them is a tad on the "dont' ask, don't tell" side of
>> things, and NTFS-only anyway.
> 
> 
> NTFS and DFS, but yeah, no FAT (if anyone cares). symlinks in ntfs can
> be implemented using what's called 'reparse points'. these are actually
> quite powerful - you can attach either a static transformation or code
> (you need a driver for this, iirc) to a certain dentry  these symlinks
> are called 'junctions', but they work only for directories. currently,
> all of this is extremely hairy to use. there are also hardlinks, which
> you can actually create with the win32 api, but they are only for files 
> moreover, none of this behaves like symlinks and hardlinks in terms of
> finer semantics (ie unlinking). junctions are most closely related to
> mount --bind, rather than symlinks, for example.
> 
> 
> with all of the above said, you've basically got these choices (in no
> particular order) to deal with the issue at hand:
> 
> 1. change the offending code not to do this rename
> 2. instead of a rename, create a new directory, do a recursive copy into
> it from the original and retry removing the original directory
> asynchronously until it succeeds. obviously, the file handles which are
> open at that point will be referencing a different copy of the files
> from the ones which will be opened subsequently.
> 3. test whether the zwDeleteFile() behaves in the way i conjrectured it
> to (wrt files or directories). if so, cause it to be implemented in the
> pywin32 extension and use it to perform the delete.
> 4. test whether you can either use ZwSetFileInformation() to rename
> directories by changing the FILE_NAME attr in the appropriate info
> structure or use it to move by renaming files which are open, again
> using the appropriate (but different) structure.
> if so, implement this or cause this to be implemented in pywin32. it is
> unclear (to me) whether this would result in the pre-move file handles
> being dead, stale or correct.
> 5. instead of opening the files as normal, open them with pywin32's
> implementation of CreateFile(), specifying the appropriate sharemode.
> this will allow the rename (move really) to go through, but it is
> unclear what happens to the preexisting filehandles.
> 6. implement, or cause to be implemented, CreateHardlink() in pywin32.
> create a new directory and recursively hardlink contents of the original
> into the new directory. asynchronously retry recursive deletion of the
> original one.
> 
> that's all i can think of anyway.
> 
>> MFen tracked down an error involving "r+b" mode. Seems windows
>> handling of it is insane. See
>> ><http://twistedmatrix.com/bugs/issue1386>. This could well be a
>> python bug, or a feature of windows.
> 
> 
> i'm not sure how python does file opens and i/o on windows. with that
> said, assuming that it uses fopen() from the visual studio c runtime
> library, there is a quirk in the implementation that might be causing
> this. if you use any of the + modes, ie a+, r+ or w+. when you switch
> between reading and writing you need to do an fflush() or fsetpos()
> (possibly some others like fseek() could work too, don't remember). try
> doing a file.flush() on your file object somewhere in there and see if
> that fixes things for you. if it does, this should probably be reported
> as a python stdlib bug.
> 
> it's really late, so pardon the wordiness and possible inaccuracies due
> to memory lapses.
> 
> hth,
> -p
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Twisted-Python mailing list
> Twisted-Python at twistedmatrix.com
> http://twistedmatrix.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/twisted-python
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (MingW32)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

iD8DBQFDttEp3A5SrXAiHQcRAq4gAJ4pZQS+vFSlKqS8RvJe8ialmzANEgCfe4BL
G4OrBEocHxEcB3LD3tpr1OY=
=XA5K
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----




More information about the Twisted-Python mailing list