Attribute caching attr-timeout question

[cberni (Cristiano Albiero Berni)]

question about the attr-timeout.

rclone v1.55.1
ubuntu 20.04 lts server
google cloud storage

rclone mount with parameters:
--cache-dir /var/cache/test
--vfs-cache-mode full
--vfs-cache-max-age off
--vfs-cache-max-size 1024G
--vfs-cache-poll-interval 24h
--vfs-write-back 12h
--dir-cache-time 12h
--poll-interval 6h

This case is just one instance of rclone mount and there is no data modification directly on the storage backend.

Is this attr-timeout the time the kernel (ubuntu server) call rclone, right?

What problems could I have if set it a greater value? like 1h?

If run out of server power and after restarting, am I at risk of losing data?

[Animosity022]

@cberni

Is this attr-timeout the time the kernel (ubuntu server) call rclone, right?

Cloud providers have no concept of attributes on a file so it's only a kernel call as it's retrieving the information from the directory/file cache.

It's written up here:

https://rclone.org/commands/rclone_mount/#attribute-caching

@cberni

What problems could I have if set it a greater value? like 1h?

That's written up here:
https://rclone.org/commands/rclone_mount/#attribute-caching

@cberni

If run out of server power and after restarting, am I at risk of losing data?

Attribute timeout has nothing to do with data loss as it's documented here on corruption cases if things change:

https://rclone.org/commands/rclone_mount/#attribute-caching

If your server powers off and you have in flight things, there is always risk of losing data if it's an unclean shutdown.