Re: All the problems with 2.2.8/2.3.x and bdflush/update
Zack Weinberg (zack@rabi.columbia.edu)
Tue, 18 May 1999 08:12:45 -0400
On Sun, 16 May 1999 20:29:18 +0200, Pavel Machek wrote:
>> >The stability of the VM system is enforced by bdflush/kswapd and not
>> >from uptime.
>>
>> Here's a scenario for you: I do some operation which generates a lot
>> of dirty buffers, but not enough to trigger bdflush due to low
>> memory. The machine then sits completely idle for several hours. If
>> update is not running, will those dirty buffers be written back?
>
>No, they will not.
>
>And that is _feature_. It has been there from day 0.
Boot with init=/bin/sh to do manual filesystem repairs, reboot immediately
afterward, discover that NONE of the writes hit the disk, and then tell me
this is a feature.
fsck has been fixed since this happened to me, but that's irrelevant.
Wishlist: reboot(2) should unmount all partitions and sync first. All other
UNIXes since 1989 or so do this. (If you think we do, please test it.)
zw
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