*BSD News Article 91854


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From: j@ida.interface-business.de (J Wunsch)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.misc,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: Linux vs BSD
Date: 24 Mar 1997 11:31:57 GMT
Organization: interface business GmbH, Dresden
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Reply-To: joerg_wunsch@interface-business.de (Joerg Wunsch)
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Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.misc:2876 comp.os.linux.misc:166220

dps96r@ecs.soton.ac.uk (Duncan Simpson) wrote:

> >>This might be because Linux doesn't have the concept of a `raw device'
> >>at all.  I always wondered why they diminished this idea, and the
> >>problem described looks like what you get from blasting an entire
> >>disk's contents through the buffer cache.
> 
> >I think, that *is* a problem.
> 
> If you want to avoid this problem, open the device with O_WSYNC. This
> flag will cause syncronous writes (and a *big* performance  hit).

It shouldn't be a performance hit for the typical sequential write as
it is e.g. done by tar if you create a tar floppy (at least not if you
account for the time you had to wait anyway before you can remove the
floppy).

Also, how do you open the device with O_WSYNC (sheesh, a non-standard
option!) for example in cat(1), tar(1) etc.?  Are you going to hack
every utility with another incompatible option for this?

-- 
J"org Wunsch					       Unix support engineer
joerg_wunsch@interface-business.de       http://www.interface-business.de/~j