*BSD News Article 62514


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From: hpa@freya.yggdrasil.com (H. Peter Anvin)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.os.linux.development.system
Subject: Re: The better (more suitable)Unix?? FreeBSD or Linux
Date: 26 Feb 1996 21:01:50 GMT
Organization: linux.* maintainer
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Message-ID: <hpa.31321eee.I.use.Linux@freya.yggdrasil.com>
References: <4gejrb$ogj@floyd.sw.oz.au> <4gilab$97u@park.uvsc.edu> <4giqu8$aqk@park.uvsc.edu> <4gira2$a9d@park.uvsc.edu>
Reply-To: hpa@storm.net (H. Peter Anvin)
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Followup to:  <4gira2$a9d@park.uvsc.edu>
By author:    Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org>
In newsgroup: comp.os.linux.development.system
>
> mday@park.uvsc.edu (Matt Day) wrote:
> 
> [ ... ]
> 
> ] Synchronous metadata updates suck.
> 
> Absolutely *nothing* sucks worse than losing data.
> 
> Anything that works is better than anything that doesn't.
> 

The problem is, sync metadata updates do *not* help you avoid losing
data.  It helps you from losing *files*.  The two are not the same,
since sync metadata doesn't help you make sure there is anything
reasonable IN those files!

Hence, given your last criterion, async metadata is better.  It does
what it claims to (work quickly), whereas sync metadata does not (help
you avoid data loss).

	-hpa

-- 
PGP public key available - finger hpa@terminus.storm.net
"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."  --  Bahá'u'lláh
I don't work for Yggdrasil, but they sponsor the linux.* hierarchy.