NFSv4 is stateful, and while it's true that the server has to support stateless reads for bad clients, most clients are ok with keeping the state ids that are r

NFSv4 is stateful, and while it's true that the server has to support stateless reads for bad clients, most clients are ok with keeping the state ids that are returned after an open. Whether you have to step through the object byte-by-byte isn't inherent to the protocol, it depends on how you've stored the data.