Re: [PATCH 10/21] block: Add fops atomic write support

Bart Van Assche
2023-10-05T23:08:46Z

On 10/5/23 15:36, Dave Chinner wrote:
> $ lspci |grep -i nvme
> 03:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd NVMe SSD Controller SM981/PM981/PM983
> 06:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd NVMe SSD Controller SM981/PM981/PM983
> $ cat /sys/block/nvme*n1/queue/write_cache
> write back
> write back
> $
>
> That they have volatile writeback caches....

It seems like what I wrote has been misunderstood completely. With
"handling a power failure cleanly" I meant that power cycling a block device
does not result in read errors nor in reading data that has never been written.
Although it is hard to find information about this topic, here is what I found
online:
* About certain SSDs with power loss protection:
https://us.transcend-info.com/embedded/technology/power-loss-protection-plp
* About another class of SSDs with power loss protection:
https://www.kingston.com/en/blog/servers-and-data-centers/ssd-power-loss-protection
* About yet another class of SSDs with power loss protection:
https://phisonblog.com/avoiding-ssd-data-loss-with-phisons-power-loss-protection-2/

So far I haven't found any information about hard disks and power failure
handling. What I found is that most current hard disks protect data with ECC.
The ECC mechanism should provide good protection against reading data that
has never been written. If a power failure occurs while a hard disk is writing
a physical block, can this result in a read error after power is restored? If
so, is this behavior allowed by storage standards?

Bart.