Re: [PATCH 10/21] block: Add fops atomic write support

From: Bart Van Assche
Date: Thu Oct 05 2023 - 13:19:10 EST


On 10/4/23 11:17, Martin K. Petersen wrote:

Hi Bart!

In other words, also for the above example it is guaranteed that writes of a single logical block (512 bytes) are atomic, no matter
what value is reported as the ATOMIC TRANSFER LENGTH GRANULARITY.

There is no formal guarantee that a disk drive sector read-modify-write operation results in a readable sector after a power failure. We have definitely seen blocks being mangled in the field.

Aren't block devices expected to use a capacitor that provides enough
power to handle power failures cleanly?

How about blacklisting block devices that mangle blocks if a power
failure occurs? I think such block devices are not compatible with
journaling filesystems nor with log-structured filesystems.

Thanks,

Bart.