[Bug 700958] Re: tail -f gives misleading error message when inotify limit is reached

[A. Bram Neijt]

No problem in core-utils 8.13:
$ sudo sh -c 'echo 10 > /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches'
$ touch /tmp/hello
$ tail -f /tmp/hello 
tail: inotify resources exhausted
tail: inotify cannot be used, reverting to polling

** Changed in: coreutils
       Status: New => Fix Released

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Title:
  tail -f gives misleading error message when inotify limit is reached

Status in The Gnu Core Utilities:
  Fix Released
Status in “coreutils” package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released

Bug description:
  Binary package hint: coreutils

  When tail -f has inotify enabled and hits the max_user_watches limit
  of inotify, the resulting error message is very misleading.

  To reproduce:
  1) Make sure you will hit the limit if you try another inotify request
      sudo sh -c 'echo 10 > /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches'
  2) Create a file:
      touch /tmp/hello
  3) Follow it:
      tail -f /tmp/hello

  Result:
  tail: cannot watch `/tmp/hello': No space left on device

  Expected result:
  tail: cannot watch '/tmp/hello' because inotify reported: No space left on device

  It can be verified by using strace tail -f /tmp/hello:
  inotify_add_watch(4, "/tmp/hello", IN_MODIFY|IN_ATTRIB|IN_DELETE_SELF|IN_MOVE_SELF) = -1 ENOSPC (No space left on device)
  --- 
  Architecture: amd64
  CheckboxSubmission: c61c47905a08381ec5d89e05cd06d034
  CheckboxSystem: d00f84de8a555815fa1c4660280da308
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Beta amd64 (20100901.1)
  NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
  Package: coreutils 8.5-1ubuntu3
  PackageArchitecture: amd64
  ProcEnviron:
   PATH=(custom, user)
   LANG=en_US.utf8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-24.42-generic 2.6.35.8
  Tags: maverick
  Uname: Linux 2.6.35-24-generic x86_64
  UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare

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