Re: binary NULL errors

[David Chinner <dgc@sgi.com>]

On Mon, Jan 14, 2008 at 07:05:49PM +0100, Christoph Anton Mitterer wrote:
> In the FAQ at http://oss.sgi.com/projects/xfs/faq.html it says:
> Update: This issue has been addressed with a CVS fix on the 29th March
> 2007 and merged into mainline on 8th May 2007 for 2.6.22-rc1.
> 
> What does this exactly mean and what has been fixed/addressed?

It means exactly what it says - that the problem has been fixed if
you use 2.6.22 or more recent.  If you want details, start looking
here:

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=ba87ea699ebd9dd577bf055ebc4a98200e337542

> Is XFS now similar to ext3 and I won't see those binary NULLs stuff
> again?

Yes, It will behave the same as ext3 - either you'll have a good
file or you'll see a zero length file (because the application
doesn't overwrite safely).

> What happens now in case of a powerloss?

Same thing as always happens on power loss - you lose whatever
is in memory. We're just more careful about how we update stuff
on disk now.

> Does XFS still make heavy use
> of caching techniques?

Yes, just like every other linux filesystem ;)

Cheers,

Dave.
-- 
Dave Chinner
Principal Engineer
SGI Australian Software Group