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what is stat-prefetch?
======================
It is a translator which caches the dentries read in readdir. This dentry
list is stored in the context of fd. Later when lookup happens on 
[parent-inode, basename (path)] combination, this list is searched for the
basename. The dentry thus searched is used to fill up the stat corresponding
to path being looked upon, thereby short-cutting lookup calls. This cache is
preserved till closedir is called on the fd. The purpose of this translator 
is to optimize operations like 'ls -l', where a readdir is followed by 
lookup (stat) calls on each directory entry.

1. stat-prefetch harnesses the efficiency of short lookup calls 
   (saves network roundtrip time for lookup calls from being accounted to 
   the stat call).
2. To maintain the correctness, it does lookup-behind - lookup is winded to 
   underlying translators after it is unwound to upper translators. 
   A lookup-behind is necessary as inode gets populated in server inode table
   only in lookup-cbk. Also various translators store their contexts in inode
   contexts during lookup calls.

fops to be implemented:
======================
* lookup
  Check the dentry cache stored in context of fds opened by the same process 
  on parent inode for basename. If found unwind with cached stat, else wind
  the lookup call to underlying translators. We also store the stat path in 
  context of inode if the path being looked upon happens to be directory. 
  This stat will be used to fill postparent stat when lookup happens on any of
  the directory contents.

* readdir
  1. Cache the direntries returned in readdir_cbk in the context of fd.
  2. If the readdir is happening on non-expected offsets (means a seekdir/rewinddir 
     has happened), cache has to be flushed.
  3. Delete the entry corresponding to basename of path on which fd is opened 
     from cache stored in parent.

* chmod/fchmod
  Delete the entry corresponding to basename from cache stored in context of
  fds opened on parent inode, since these calls change st_mode and ctime of 
  stat.
 
* chown/fchown
  Delete the entry corresponding to basename from cache stored in context of 
  fds opened on parent inode, since these calls change st_uid/st_gid and 
  st_ctime of stat.

* truncate/ftruncate
  Delete the entry corresponding to basename from cache stored in context of 
  fds opened on parent inode, since these calls change st_size/st_mtime of stat.

* utimens
  Delete the entry corresponding to basename from cache stored in context of 
  fds opened on parent inode, since this call changes st_atime/st_mtime of stat.

* readlink
  Delete the entry corresponding to basename from cache stored in context of fds
  opened on parent inode, since this call changes st_atime of stat.
 
* unlink
  1. Delete the entry corresponding to basename from cache stored in context of 
     fds opened on parent directory containing file being unlinked.
  2. Delete the entry corresponding to basename of parent directory from cache
     of its parent directory.

* rmdir
  1. Delete the entry corresponding to basename from cache stored in context of
     fds opened on parent inode.
  2. Remove the entire cache from all fds opened on inode corresponding to 
     directory being removed.
  3. Delete the entry correspondig to basename of parent from cache stored in
     grand-parent.

* readv
  Delete the entry corresponding to basename from cache stored in context of fds
  opened on parent inode, since readv changes st_atime of file. 

* writev
  Delete the entry corresponding to basename from cache stored in context of fds
  opened on parent inode, since writev can possibly change st_size and definitely
  changes st_mtime of file.

* fsync
  There is a confusion here as to whether fsync updates mtime/ctimes. Disk based
  filesystems (atleast ext2) just writes the times stored in inode to disk 
  during fsync and not the time at which fsync is being done. But in glusterfs, 
  a translator like write-behind actually sends writes during fsync which will 
  change mtime/ctime. Hence stat-prefetch implements fsync to delete the entry 
  corresponding to basename from cache stored in context of fds opened on parent
  inode.
 
* rename
  1. remove entry corresponding to oldname from cache stored in fd contexts of 
     oldparent.
  2. remove entry corresponding to newname from cache stored in fd contexts of
     newparent. 
  3. remove entry corresponding to oldparent from cache stored in 
     old-grand-parent.
  4. remove entry corresponding to newparent from cache stored in 
     new-grand-parent.
  5. if oldname happens to be a directory, remove entire cache from all fds 
     opened on it.


* create/mknod/mkdir/symlink/link
  Delete entry corresponding to basename of directory in which these operations 
  are happening, from cache stored in context of fds of parent directory. Note
  that the parent directory containing the cahce is of the directory in which 
  these operations are happening.

* setxattr/removexattr
  Delete the entry corresponding to basename from cache stored in context of fds
  opened on parent inode, since setxattr changes st_ctime of file.

* setdents
  1. remove entry corresponding to basename of path on which fd is opened from
     cache stored in parent.
  2. for each of the entry in the direntry list, delete from cache stored in 
     context of fd, the entry corresponding to basename of path being passed.

* getdents/checksum/xattrop/fxattrop
  These calls modify various times of stat structure, hence appropriate entries
  have to be removed from the cache. I am leaving these calls unimplemented in 
  stat-prefetch for timebeing. Once we have a working translator, these five fops
  will be implemented.

callbacks to be implemented:
=======================
* releasedir
  Flush the stat-prefetch cache.

* forget
  Free the stat if the inode corresponds to a directory.

limitations:
============
* since a readdir does not return extended attributes of file, if need_xattr is
  set, short-cutting of lookup does not happen and lookup is passed to 
  underlying translators.

* posix_readdir does not check whether the dentries are spanning across multiple
  mount points. Hence it is not transforming inode numbers in stat buffers if 
  posix is configured to allow export directory spanning on multiple mountpoints.
  This is a bug which needs to be fixed. posix_readdir should treat dentries the 
  same way as if lookup is happening on dentries.