Generation number in NFS V2

[p***@syr.edu]

Hi,
How's generation number gets created in NFS V2? I know I read
somewhere that earlier NFS starts with 1 and increment but not sure
that's for NFS V2 or Sun testing NFS V1 (not available to use). Is NFS
V2's generation number like NFS V3+ (ramdon number)? I tried to run
ethereal to capture packet but unlikely NFS V3 packets, it has no info
about filehandles (in terms fsID, inode, and generation number).

Thanks!

[bcwalrus]

Post by p***@syr.edu
Hi,
How's generation number gets created in NFS V2? I know I read
somewhere that earlier NFS starts with 1 and increment but not sure
that's for NFS V2 or Sun testing NFS V1 (not available to use). Is NFS
V2's generation number like NFS V3+ (ramdon number)? I tried to run
ethereal to capture packet but unlikely NFS V3 packets, it has no info
about filehandles (in terms fsID, inode, and generation number).
Thanks!

Generation number is not created by NFS at all. The generation number
is in the filehandle, and the filehandle is created by either the VFS
or the specific file system implementation. It is totally up to the
underlying file system to decide what the generation number is. And in
some cases, the file system may not use any generation number (Windows
SFU).

NFS filehandles are opaque. So ethereal can only do so much. They can
parse Linux and a few other open formats. Since there's no fixed
format, you'll eventually have to do some reverse engineering.

Cheers,
bc