linux-ext4 - [PATCH 02/10] libext2fs: always fsync the device when flushing the cache

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Message-ID: <175798161361.390072.7133982571354091080.stgit@frogsfrogsfrogs>
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2025 17:56:38 -0700
From: "Darrick J. Wong" <djwong@...nel.org>
To: tytso@....edu
Cc: miklos@...redi.hu, neal@...pa.dev, linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org,
 linux-ext4@...r.kernel.org, John@...ves.net, bernd@...ernd.com,
 joannelkoong@...il.com
Subject: [PATCH 02/10] libext2fs: always fsync the device when flushing the
 cache

From: Darrick J. Wong <djwong@...nel.org>

When we're flushing the unix IO manager's buffer cache, we should always
fsync the block device, because something could have written to the
block device -- either the buffer cache itself, or a direct write.
Regardless, the callers all want all dirtied regions to be persisted to
stable media.

Signed-off-by: "Darrick J. Wong" <djwong@...nel.org>
---
 lib/ext2fs/unix_io.c |    3 ++-
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/lib/ext2fs/unix_io.c b/lib/ext2fs/unix_io.c
index a540572a840d17..f716de35cf5cb1 100644
--- a/lib/ext2fs/unix_io.c
+++ b/lib/ext2fs/unix_io.c
@@ -1462,7 +1462,8 @@ static errcode_t unix_flush(io_channel channel)
 	retval = flush_cached_blocks(channel, data, 0);
 #endif
 #ifdef HAVE_FSYNC
-	if (!retval && fsync(data->dev) != 0)
+	/* always fsync the device, even if flushing our own cache failed */
+	if (fsync(data->dev) != 0 && !retval)
 		return errno;
 #endif
 	return retval;