"The attached patch adds a generic intermediary (FS-Cache) by which filesystems may call on local caching capabilities, and by which local caching backends may make caches available," explained David Howells describing his "generic filesystem caching facility" patch. In his patchset he also provided a patch to make NFS utilize the generic caching facility. David went on to detail thirteen facilities provided by the patch, including:

"(1) Caches can be added / removed at any time, even whilst in use; (2) Adds a facility by which tags can be used to refer to caches, even if they're not mounted yet; (3) More than one cache can be used at once. Caches can be selected explicitly by use of tags; (4) The netfs is provided with an interface that allows either party to withdraw caching facilities from a file (required for (1)); (5) A netfs may annotate cache objects that belongs to it; (6) Cache objects can be pinned and reservations made; (7) The interface to the netfs returns as few errors as possible, preferring rather to let the netfs remain oblivious."

From: David Howells <dhowells@...>
Subject: [PATCH 08/22] FS-Cache: Generic filesystem caching facility
Date: Sep 21, 10:47 am 2007