On 1999-Oct-08 08:13:12 +1000, David O'Brien wrote:
>> >mount(8):
>> > sync All I/O to the file system should be done synchronously.
>>
>> How detailed should the man page be? If it stated "all file data will
>> be written synchronously, but inodes where the only update is atime
>> and free block bitmaps are written asynchronously", would that be any
>> clearer to a user who didn't have a detailed understanding of UFS?
>
>Yes. I know the difference between sync/async and data/metadata.
My point was that the average user probably doesn't. I agree that
the current description glosses over the difference (and probably
shouldn't). We need to strike a balance between providing enough
detail for the knowledgeable user (who wants to know exactly what
a sync mount does to different types of writes within the FS) and
the novice user (who doesn't understand the details of UFS and
is more likely to become confused).
IMHO, `sync' does behave in a reasonable manner. I'm not sure how I'd
go about explaining its behaviour to someone who didn't understand the
UFS though.
> Guess I go off editing mount(8) again.
I was going to suggest that the relationship between the sync option
in mount(2,8) and O_FSYNC in open(2) be noted. Only problem is that
O_FSYNC isn't documented :-(.
Peter
--
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