FLUSH(5)FLUSH(5)
NAME
flush – abort a message
SYNOPSIS
size[4]
Tflush
tag[2]
oldtag[2]
size[4]
Rflush
tag[2]
DESCRIPTION
When the response to a request is no longer needed, such as when
a user interrupts a process doing a
read(2),
a
Tflush
request is sent to the server to purge the pending response.
The message being flushed is identified by
oldtag.
The semantics of
flush
depends on messages arriving in order.
The server should answer the
flush
message immediately.
If it recognizes
oldtag
as the tag of a pending transaction, it should abort any pending response
and discard that tag.
In either case, it should respond with an
Rflush
echoing the
tag
(not
oldtag)
of the
Tflush
message.
A
Tflush
can never be responded to by an
Rerror
message.
The server may respond to the pending request before
responding to the
Tflush.
It is possible for a client to send multiple
Tflush
messages for a particular pending request. Each
subsequent
Tflush
must contain as
oldtag
the tag of the pending request (not a previous
Tflush).
Should multiple
Tflushes
be received for a pending request, they must be answered in
order. A
Rflush
for any of the multiple
Tflushes
implies an answer for all previous ones. Therefore, should
a server receive a request and then multiple flushes for that
request, it need respond only to the last flush.
When the client sends a
Tflush,
it must wait to receive the corresponding
Rflush
before reusing
oldtag
for subsequent messages.
If a response to the flushed request is received before the
Rflush,
the client must honor the response
as if it had not been flushed,
since the completed request may signify a state change in the server.
For instance,
Tcreate
may have created a file and
Twalk
may have allocated a fid.
If no response is received before the
Rflush,
the flushed transaction is considered to have been canceled,
and should be treated as though it had never been sent.
Several exceptional conditions are handled correctly by the above specification:
sending multiple flushes for a single tag,
flushing after a transaction is completed,
flushing a
Tflush,
and flushing an invalid tag.