Does the Linux NFS client support SET_TO_CLIENT_TIME?

[Trond Myklebust]

On Thu, 2007-05-10 at 20:38 +0000, David Wuertele wrote:
> Peter Staubach <staubach <at> redhat.com> writes:
> 
> > SET_TO_CLIENT_TIME is used for system calls like utime() and utimes()
> > and is only applicable to SETATTR calls.
> > 
> > Otherwise, all file times are maintained by the server.
> 
> I read in
> http://www.time-travellers.org/shane/papers/NFS_considered_harmful.html that
> "The NFS protocol version 3 does have support for the client specifying the time
> when updating a file, but this is not widely implemented."  So my question is,
> is this support implemented in the Linux nfs client?

It is implemented for things like utime() and utimes() when the user
specifies a time. Otherwise, the general client convention is to use the
server time. That also ensures that the atime/mtime and the ctime are in
sync, since the protocol does not ever allow the client to set the
ctime.

If you need better synchronisation, then it is up to you to use ntp or
some similar protocol.

Trond