Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Re: All the problems with 2.2.8/2.3.x and bdflush/update | Date | Tue, 18 May 1999 08:12:45 -0400 | From | Zack Weinberg <> |
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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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