NFS Stale File Handle error and solution

In linux machine we have NFS mounted directories sometimes contain stale file handles. If you run command such as ls or vi you will see an error

# ls

.: Stale File Handle

Before moving to fix this issue first we need to understand the concept of Stale File Handle.

A filehandle becomes stale whenever the file or directory referenced by the handle is removed by another host.

while your client still holds an active reference to the object. A typical example occurs when the current directory of a process, running on your client, is removed on the server (either by a process running on the server or on another client).

So this can occur if the directory is modified on the NFS server, but the directories modification time is not updated.

To fixed this issue, the best solution is to remount directory from the NFS client using mount command.

# umount -f /test

# mount -t nfs nfsserver:/path/to/share /test