This occurs on an NFS client machine when you try and access a file that no longer exists on the server. Since NFS is a stateless protocol, the server cannot tell if a client has a file open, so when it is unlink(2)'d and a NFS client has recently used the file it appears as .nfsXXXXXXX for a short time, after which it is expired and removed from the disk. Any further attempts to access this file from a NFS client will result in "Stale NFS Handle".
See Also NFSNotes
No page links to ESTALE.
