From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Jonathan Nieder Subject: Re: [PATCH v3] introduce sys_syncfs to sync a single file system Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2011 20:10:01 -0600 Message-ID: <20110312021001.GA16833@elie> References: <201103111255.44979.arnd@arndb.de> <20110311235607.GB15853@elie> <9446ab1a2315c0d2476c30f8315a0503.squirrel@webmail.greenhost.nl> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Cc: Arnd Bergmann , Sage Weil , linux-fsdevel-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA@public.gmane.org, linux-kernel-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA@public.gmane.org, "Aneesh Kumar K. V" , akpm-de/tnXTf+JLsfHDXvbKv3WD2FQJk+8+b@public.gmane.org, linux-api-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA@public.gmane.org, mtk.manpages-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org, viro-RmSDqhL/yNMiFSDQTTA3OLVCufUGDwFn@public.gmane.org, hch-jcswGhMUV9g@public.gmane.org, l@jasper.es To: Indan Zupancic Return-path: Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <9446ab1a2315c0d2476c30f8315a0503.squirrel-2RFepEojUI3wYrDfM2ltn5vKXLoBo5SK@public.gmane.org> Sender: linux-api-owner-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA@public.gmane.org List-Id: linux-fsdevel.vger.kernel.org Indan Zupancic wrote: > I'm not pushing for any official convention, just what seems good taste. In cases like this, conventions (consistency and best practices) are very important. > Less code added, less bloat. Architecture independent, no need to update > all system call tables everywhere (all archs, libc versions and strace). > Two files changed, instead of 7 (which only hooks up x86). Thanks for explaining. Those do seem like good reasons to use a ioctl instead of a new syscall. > In this case it's just a performance improvement over sync(2). It doesn't > add a new feature. Main argument given for the performance problem seems > to be "NFS can be slow". Anything else? Huh? It is not just the speed of the sync --- unnecessary writeback will cause wear on your thumbdrive, eat up your laptop battery, and kill I/O performance in other tasks running at the same time. I'm afraid I don't understand what you're saying here at all. Would you say that fsync is superfluous, too? Jonathan