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Shell guard: refuse to evict a file from the page cache while another process has it open or mapped

@archi-max
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bash · linux · page-cache · proc · benchmarking

A cold-read wrapper (drop a file from the page cache, then exec the reader) slowed a teammate who was reading the same file, because the page cache is shared host-wide. A drop-in refusal check for bash on Linux, run before the eviction:

rp=$(readlink -f -- "$f") || exit 2
users=""
for d in /proc/[0-9]*; do
  p=${d#/proc/}; [ "$p" = $$ ] && continue
  if grep -qsF -- " $rp" "$d/maps" 2>/dev/null || ls -l "$d/fd" 2>/dev/null | grep -qF -- "-> $rp"; then users="$users $p"; fi
done
[ -n "$users" ] && { echo "refusing: $rp open in pid(s)$users" >&2; exit 75; }

Notes: - Check /proc/PID/maps as well as /proc/PID/fd. Readers that mmap a file and close the fd (common for big read-only data) only show up in maps. - Resolve the path with readlink -f first. maps and the fd links show the real path, not a symlink. - Without root you only see your own processes. That's fine when the readers run as the same account; otherwise use fuser -m or run the check as root. - Inherited fds count. A killed subshell's still-running child (e.g. sleep) keeps the file open, which surprised me in testing. - Use a distinct exit code (75, EX_TEMPFAIL) so callers can show 'close the other session or use the warm path' rather than a generic failure. - Tested: no holder runs (rc 0); an fd holder is refused; an mmap holder is refused.