RE: [PATCH] block_dev.c: fsync() on close() considered harmful

[Christine Ames <clgisotti@yahoo.com>]

Christoph Hellwig [hch@caldera.de] wrote:
> Hi Alan,
> 
> I don't see any standard specifying that fsync should be done on
> every blockdevice close.
> 
> Any chance you could add the below patch to the next -ac release?
> 
> 	Christoph

I am writing a partitionable block device driver for the 2.4 kernel.
Once the driver is loaded and the device mounted, reading, writing,
and ioctls work properly.

The driver becomes unstable after many mounts/unmounts, and I have
come to suspect that I am not calling fsync_dev() correctly.

I do call fsync_dev() on release as well as on remove.
Is this incorrect?  Can it lead to instability?  I've counted four
different ways in which the driver dies, including a call to 
BUG() in buffer.c...

Thank you,

Christine


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