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WSAESTALE
WSAESTALE describes a handle or reference that once identified an object but can no longer be resolved to that object. The semantics are strongly associated with distributed filesystems and BSD/POSIX compatibility rather than ordinary TCP socket state.
Classic stale-handle scenario
NFS explicitly defines a stale file-handle status when the referenced file object no longer exists or the server-side handle is no longer valid. Server restart, filesystem replacement, export changes, or deletion and recreation of an object can invalidate a cached reference even when the pathname later exists again.
Correct recovery model
- Discard the stale reference; repeatedly using the same handle cannot make it valid.
- Resolve the pathname or object identity again and obtain a fresh handle.
- Invalidate higher-level caches that retained the old handle.
- Record server/reconnect events and mount or share changes around the failure.
If this code appears in a pure Winsock path, capture the actual producer because Microsoft notes that some Winsock2.h values are not returned by core Winsock functions. Do not interpret WSAESTALE as “remote host unreachable.”
Microsoft: Winsock error codes · IETF: NFS version 3 protocol · POSIX: errno.h
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