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From: Christoph Hellwig <hch-jcswGhMUV9g@public.gmane.org>
To: mtk.manpages-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org
Cc: linux-man-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA@public.gmane.org
Subject: sync_file_range.2:  add some big WARNINGS
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:01:16 +0200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20090827180116.GB31605@lst.de> (raw)

This system call is by design completely unsuitable for any data
integrity operations.  Make that very clear in the manpage.


Signed-off-by: Christoph Hellwig <hch-jcswGhMUV9g@public.gmane.org>

Index: man-pages/man2/sync_file_range.2
===================================================================
--- man-pages.orig/man2/sync_file_range.2	2009-08-27 14:51:51.373360594 -0300
+++ man-pages/man2/sync_file_range.2	2009-08-27 14:57:35.213854927 -0300
@@ -80,11 +80,22 @@ after performing any write.
 Specifying
 .I flags
 as 0 is permitted, as a no-op.
-.SS Some details
-None of these operations write out the file's metadata.
+.SS WARNING
+This system call is extremly dangerous and should not be used in portable
+programs.  None of these operations write out the file's metadata.
 Therefore, unless the application is strictly performing overwrites of
-already-instantiated disk blocks,
-there are no guarantees that the data will be available after a crash.
+already-instantiated disk blocks, there are no guarantees that the data will
+be available after a crash.  There is no user interface to know if a
+write is purely an overwrite. On filesystem using copy on write semantics
+like
+.IR btrfs
+an over write of existing allocated blocks is impossible.  Writing into
+pre-allocated space many filesystems also require calls into the block
+allocator which this system call does not sync out to disk.
+This system call does not flush disk write caches and thus does not provide
+any data integrity on systems with volatile disk write caches.
+
+.SS Some details
 
 .B SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE
 and
--
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             reply	other threads:[~2009-08-27 18:01 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 10+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2009-08-27 18:01 Christoph Hellwig [this message]
     [not found] ` <20090827180116.GB31605-jcswGhMUV9g@public.gmane.org>
2009-09-20  5:34   ` sync_file_range.2: add some big WARNINGS Michael Kerrisk
     [not found]     ` <cfd18e0f0909192234l57ad4ec0rda34dcb83e355c5e-JsoAwUIsXosN+BqQ9rBEUg@public.gmane.org>
2009-09-21 20:15       ` Andrew Morton
     [not found]         ` <20090921131519.875b4608.akpm-de/tnXTf+JLsfHDXvbKv3WD2FQJk+8+b@public.gmane.org>
2009-09-22 11:40           ` Christoph Hellwig
     [not found]             ` <20090922114052.GA1521-jcswGhMUV9g@public.gmane.org>
2009-09-22 18:47               ` Andrew Morton
2009-09-30 15:47               ` Christoph Hellwig
2009-12-04 15:25   ` Christoph Hellwig
2010-01-09 14:49   ` Christoph Hellwig
     [not found]     ` <20100109144910.GA30167-jcswGhMUV9g@public.gmane.org>
2010-01-17  5:48       ` Michael Kerrisk
     [not found]         ` <cfd18e0f1001162148w78c3ebe8u9d54fdeb7dac8892-JsoAwUIsXosN+BqQ9rBEUg@public.gmane.org>
2010-01-17  9:58           ` Christoph Hellwig

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