O_NONBLOCK, read(), select(), NFS, Ext2, etc.

[Michael Rothwell]

The man pages for open, read and write say that if a file is opened
using the O_NONBLOCK flag, then read() and write() will always return
immediately and not block the calling process. This does not appear to
be true; but perhaps I am doing something wrong. If I open() a file (on
2.2.18) from a floppy or NFS mount (to test in a slow environment) with
O_NONBLOCK|O_RDONLY, read() will still block. If I try to select() on
the file descriptor, select() always returns 0.

Is there a way to make open(), read() and write() live up to their
manpages?

-M