On Sat, 21 Jan 2023 05:57:35 +0000 Yano Ray wrote: > Hi, > I tried to format a partition using mkfs.ext4 (e2fsprogs) but it failed with > an error. > > $ /usr/sbin/mkfs.ext4 /dev/sde1 > mke2fs 1.44.5 (15-Dec-2018) > Creating filesystem with 16384 1k blocks and 4096 inodes > Filesystem UUID: fb09cfbf-9f2a-4874-82f7-26c7cb853093 > Superblock backups stored on blocks: > 8193 > > Allocating group tables: done > Writing inode tables: done > Creating journal (1024 blocks): done > Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: mkfs.ext4: Invalid > argument while writing out and closing file system > $ > > This also seems to happen with mkfs.minix (linux-utils). > > $ /sbin/mkfs.minix /dev/sde1 > 5472 inodes > 16384 blocks > Firstdatazone=176 (176) > Zonesize=1024 > Maxsize=268966912 > > mkfs.minix: write failed: Invalid argument > $ > > I think it's because fsync is not implemented (causes InvalidArgument) for > block devices. > Why fsync is not implemented for block devices? > > /* test code */ > #include <unistd.h> > #include <fcntl.h> > #include <errno.h> > #include <stdio.h> > #include <string.h> > > int main(int argc, char** argv) { > int fd; > > if (argc != 2) { > puts("./program [file]"); > return -1; > } > > fd = open(argv[1], O_RDWR); > printf("open: %s\n", strerror(errno)); > if (errno) return -1; > > fsync(fd); > printf("fsync: %s\n", strerror(errno)); > if (errno) return -1; > } > > on Cygwin: > $ ./a.exe /dev/sde > open: No error > fsync: Invalid argument > $ ./a.exe /dev/sde1 > open: No error > fsync: Invalid argument > $ uname -a > CYGWIN_NT-10.0-22621 DESKTOP-5H6F7L3 3.4.5-1.x86_64 2023-01-19 19:09 UTC > x86_64 Cygwin > $ > > expected behaviour (on Arch Linux): > $ sudo ./a.out /dev/sda > $ sudo ./a.out /dev/sda > open: Success > fsync: Success > $ sudo ./a.out /dev/sda1 > open: Success > fsync: Success > $ uname -a > Linux arch 6.0.11-arch1-1 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Fri, 02 Dec 2022 17:25:31 > +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux > $
Thanks for the report. I looked into this problem and found this causes after the commit: commit af8a7c13b516c77c1e6092157e23ca26db44b1af Author: Takashi Yano <takashi.y...@nifty.ne.jp> Date: Sat Mar 12 06:19:53 2022 +0900 Cygwin: fsync: Return EINVAL for special files. - Unlike linux, fsync() calls FlushFileBuffers() even for special files. This causes the problem reported in: https://cygwin.com/pipermail/cygwin/2022-March/251022.html This patch fixes the issue. I will submit a patch for this issue. -- Takashi Yano <takashi.y...@nifty.ne.jp> -- Problem reports: https://cygwin.com/problems.html FAQ: https://cygwin.com/faq/ Documentation: https://cygwin.com/docs.html Unsubscribe info: https://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple