linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v3] introduce sys_syncfs to sync a single file system

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Message-ID: <20110312021001.GA16833@elie>
Date:	Fri, 11 Mar 2011 20:10:01 -0600
From:	Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@...il.com>
To:	Indan Zupancic <indan@....nu>
Cc:	Arnd Bergmann <arnd@...db.de>, Sage Weil <sage@...dream.net>,
	linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	"Aneesh Kumar K. V" <aneesh.kumar@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>,
	akpm@...ux-foundation.org, linux-api@...r.kernel.org,
	mtk.manpages@...il.com, viro@...iv.linux.org.uk, hch@....de,
	l@...per.es
Subject: Re: [PATCH v3] introduce sys_syncfs to sync a single file system

Indan Zupancic wrote:

> I'm not pushing for any official convention, just what seems good taste.

In cases like this, conventions (consistency and best practices) are
very important.

> Less code added, less bloat. Architecture independent, no need to update
> all system call tables everywhere (all archs, libc versions and strace).
> Two files changed, instead of 7 (which only hooks up x86).

Thanks for explaining.  Those do seem like good reasons to use a ioctl
instead of a new syscall.

> In this case it's just a performance improvement over sync(2). It doesn't
> add a new feature. Main argument given for the performance problem seems
> to be "NFS can be slow". Anything else?

Huh?  It is not just the speed of the sync --- unnecessary writeback
will cause wear on your thumbdrive, eat up your laptop battery, and
kill I/O performance in other tasks running at the same time.

I'm afraid I don't understand what you're saying here at all.  Would
you say that fsync is superfluous, too?

Jonathan
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