Why can't we just refrain from doing the stat at mount time, and do it
on demand when it is actually needed, with a variable to record
whether the stat info is valid (or time of last stat, if we want to
avoid calling more than once a second and get fancier).

I can't explain why, but it strikes me that having to fork for the
mount call is at least somewhat bletcherous.  Other processes blocking
on calls to venus is one thing, but venus shouldn't be in that boat in
the first place.

        Greg Troxel <gdt_at_ir.bbn.com>