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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!feed1.news.erols.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!EU.net!Germany.EU.net!Dortmund.Germany.EU.net!interface-business.de!usenet From: j@ida.interface-business.de (J Wunsch) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.misc,comp.os.linux.misc Subject: Re: Linux vs BSD Date: 24 Mar 1997 11:31:57 GMT Organization: interface business GmbH, Dresden Lines: 25 Message-ID: <5h5ond$6qn@innocence.interface-business.de> References: <32DFFEAB.7704@usa.net> <5d9p55$t1h@news.ox.ac.uk> <5dadfr$cnu@web.nmti.com> <n4stf5.tq2.ln@zen> <E6sIEF.1qE@truffula.sj.ca.us> <prlfg5.bs.ln@zen> <Pine.NEB.3.95.970316102739.709D-100000@sphynx.fdn.fr> <5gjsc9$2cm@innocence.interface-business.de> <5gmk83$c9j@rzstud2.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de> <5gp01k$qb9@wapping.ecs.soton.ac.uk> Reply-To: joerg_wunsch@interface-business.de (Joerg Wunsch) NNTP-Posting-Host: ida.interface-business.de X-Newsreader: knews 0.9.6 X-Phone: +49-351-31809-14 X-Fax: +49-351-3361187 X-PGP-Fingerprint: DC 47 E6 E4 FF A6 E9 8F 93 21 E0 7D F9 12 D6 4E Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.misc:2876 comp.os.linux.misc:166220 dps96r@ecs.soton.ac.uk (Duncan Simpson) wrote: > >>This might be because Linux doesn't have the concept of a `raw device' > >>at all. I always wondered why they diminished this idea, and the > >>problem described looks like what you get from blasting an entire > >>disk's contents through the buffer cache. > > >I think, that *is* a problem. > > If you want to avoid this problem, open the device with O_WSYNC. This > flag will cause syncronous writes (and a *big* performance hit). It shouldn't be a performance hit for the typical sequential write as it is e.g. done by tar if you create a tar floppy (at least not if you account for the time you had to wait anyway before you can remove the floppy). Also, how do you open the device with O_WSYNC (sheesh, a non-standard option!) for example in cat(1), tar(1) etc.? Are you going to hack every utility with another incompatible option for this? -- J"org Wunsch Unix support engineer joerg_wunsch@interface-business.de http://www.interface-business.de/~j