mkdir() returns EEXISTS, stat() returns ENOENT in vboxsf

[zyga]

This occurred on Ubuntu 13.04 with VirtualBox 4.1.22 from the Ubuntu archive.

In essence, in certain non-root directory of a vboxsf mounted directory, mkdir() returns EEXIST while stat() returns ENOENT, as shown by this strace snippet below:

mkdir("plainbox.egg-info", 0777)        = -1 EEXIST (File exists)
stat64("plainbox.egg-info", 0xbfd696fc) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
write(2, "error: could not create 'plainbo"..., 57error: could not create 'plainbox.egg-info': File exists

I wrote a minimal program that reproduces the issue: ​https://gist.github.com/zyga/5110513

Feel free to ask for more information

[zyga]

This can be only reproduced with host kernel 3.8.0-8 (from ubuntu raring), 3.8.0-10 seems to work okay

[zyga]

Comment 1 is incorrect. The bug still exists on -10 and -11 kernels.

I've published a long blog post about it: ​http://blog.suxx.pl/2013/03/post-mortem-chasing-elusive-bugs.html

As stated in one of the latter comments the suspected sequence of actions that trigger the bug is:

1) [host] start a VM 2) [host] share a folder 3) [guest] create directory in shared folder 4) [host] remove the directory in shared folder 5) [guest] observe the bug

[zyga]

Reproduced on virtualbox 4.2.8

[galitsyn]

I am currently unable to reproduce the issue. You mentioned that you use VBox from the Ubuntu archive. Have you tried to reproduce it with VBox and Additions downloaded from virtualbox.org? If not, could you please do that?

[galitsyn]

Closed due to absence of reporter response.