unionfs issues

[David Schultz]

On Thu, Jun 03, 2004, Eirik Oeverby wrote:
> Recently (3 days ago) I upgraded my main server with 5.2.1, and then
> cvsupped to latest current in order to solve some problems in 5.2.1.
> Among those was the fact that unionfs was non-functional in the release.
>  After cvsupping it seemed to work, but when doing some heavy file
> copying operations inside a mountpoint the box paniced.
> 
> Problem is - the box is headless, 1000kms away, and with no serial
> access. So I'll just ask if this is expected behaviour at the current
> state of source, or if those in the know can say anything more about why
> this happened and if it has already been fixed.
> 
> I apologise for the vague description of this problem - I know I'm
> probably reaching for straws here.

There are some things that are known to panic unionfs.  For
instance, certain types of unionfs-on-unionfs layering, FIFOs, and
other special files cause panics.  Beyond that, all I can say is
that unionfs is in need of a maintainer and has a very small
userbase, so the problem you face could also be due to bitrot.
You're welcome to report any problems you come across, but it
would be *much* *much* better if they included patches.  In any
case, here are some existing PRs you might want to look at first:

	50833
	51001
	51742
	51743
	52745
	54534
	55993
	56381
	66066
	66152