Re: Making fsync() optional

[Romain Francoise]

"Richard M. Stallman" <address@hidden> writes:

> Will the drive finish writing the blocks even if the computer crashes?

If it's a software crash, probably.  The write caching feature is very
manufacturer dependent so it's hard to tell, there isn't much
documentation about it.

> It has been many years since I had a desktop machine; are IDE disks
> commonly used on them?

Yes, almost all desktop machines use IDE/SATA disks nowadays.

> It seems really dumb if there is no way for the CPU to tell the disk,
> "Write these blocks now, and tell me when you're done."

There is a way, but when the drive reports that it has written the
blocks it may just have stored them in its write cache.

-- 
Romain Francoise <address@hidden> | The world is a fine place,
it's a miracle -- http://orebokech.com/ | and worth fighting for.
                                        | --Ernest Hemingway