> On Fri, Dec 25, 1998 at 11:42:57AM -0500, Mirian Crzig Lennox wrote:
> > [ ... ] Although the file system consistency check would
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> > ensure that the file system is consistent, the lack of ordering on
> > operations can lead to confused applications or, even worse, [... ]
> > _Practical File System Design_, Dominic Giampaolo, p. 36
>
> Nonsense!
Not nonsense.
> The ext2fs uses write cacheing, like any powerful filesystem does.
> This cannot confuse any program.
Not the highlighted portion of the sentence. This clearly implies
that the author is talking about what happens *if the system
crashes*. Let me quote the proceeding sentence:
> [ ... ] Because ext2 makes no
> guarantee about the order of operations and when they are flushed to
> disk, it is conceivable (although unlikely) that later modifications
> to the file system would be recorded on disk but earlier operations
> would not be. [ ... ]
Really, I don't know what to add to this sentence. Without
implementing partially ordered writes, this is a problem. Now, even
the author admits that this is "unlikely" to happen, and practical
experience says that it is at best extremely rare. Still, nothing
that the author said appears to be FUD or incorrect from what I know.
> I noted the name of the author in my ignore list ... obviuosly he did not
> understand anything!
I guess that is your loss.
-wayne
-- Wayne Schlitt can not assert the truth of all statements in this article and still be consistent.- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/