Computer Engineering Commons^™

Oversubscribing Inotify On Embedded Platforms, Donald Percivalle, Scott Vanderlind

Computer Engineering

For most computers running the popular Linux operating system, the inte- grated kernel component inotify provides adequate functionality for monitor- ing changes to files present on the filesystem. However, for certain embedded platforms where resources are very limited and filesystems are very populated (like network attached storage (NAS) devices), inotify may not have enough resources to provide watchers for every file. This results in applications missing change notifications for files they have watched. This paper explores methods for using inotify most effectively on embedded systems by leveraging more la- tent storage. Benefits of this include a reduction in dropped notifications …