What does errno 70 (ESTALE) mean?

Status / error code:		Category:

Constant name:
Source:		Operating System:
Description: an NFS server invalidated a previously issued file handle, usually because the object or containing file system changed.

Could be also:
Constant	Type	OS
ERROR_SHARING_PAUSED	Win32 error	Windows
ECOMM	errno	Linux
ECOMM	errno	Solaris
DEREF_UNKNOWN_LOGON_SESSION	BugCheck Code	Windows

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ECOMM	ECOMM

ESTALE

ESTALE is Darwin’s NFS-specific errno. It concerns an opaque file handle that used to identify an object on the server but can no longer be used. This is different from a fresh pathname lookup that simply cannot find a name: the client already has a handle, and the server says that handle is no longer valid for the object or file system it once represented.

NFSv4 requires a server to return NFS4ERR_STALE when a persistent file handle refers to a deleted object. A handle can also become stale when the containing file system is no longer available, for example after an unmount, removal of backing media, or a namespace change on the server. The Darwin code identifies this class of NFS state problem; it does not, by itself, say that a local directory, ACL, or DNS name is wrong.

Useful evidence

Record the NFS server, exported path, mount point, NFS version, and the exact operation that failed. A log that only says “stale file handle” loses the information needed to distinguish a deleted object from an export or file-system change.
Check whether the object was replaced, the export was reconfigured, the file system was remounted, migrated, restored, or removed while clients still held handles.
Compare the server-side object and export with the client’s mount configuration. Recreating the local mount-point directory does not make an obsolete server-issued handle valid.
Coordinate recovery with applications that keep working directories or open objects below the mount. Remounting may restore later lookups but cannot make an already invalid handle refer to a newly created object with the same pathname.

Do not collapse these cases

ENOENT normally follows a pathname lookup that finds no entry.
ESTALE concerns the validity of a previously obtained NFS file handle.
A transport failure such as timeout or connection refusal occurs before a server can return an NFS status for the handle.

References

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