write/close (was Re: Trojan Horses)

[Malcolm Weir]

In article <35111 at cup.portal.com> ts at cup.portal.com (Tim W Smith) writes:
>
>In summary, this behaviour of a file system is not acceptable.
>
As I understand it, under bog standard *nix System V, and 4.2 for that matter,
running on disk-rich workstations (i.e. without NFS), it is perfectly possible
for data to be lost long after the write(2) has occurred, the close(2) has
been performed, and the process itself having retired to a little cottage in
the country to end its days in comfort, with each operation gleefully reporting
success and basically life to be wonderful.

Consider what happens when your machine is informed that the disk has a BAD
SECTOR, or worse, that someone has emptied their morning coffee into your
drive cabinet and the drives have quit in protest...

Error returns? Luxury. They may be too late to do anything, but its better
than *not* telling you!


Malc.

P.s. How about a "Call for Votes" on whether "comp.unix.internals" should be
renamed and re-chartered as "comp.whining.wingeing.noisy.bastards"? 
":-)" Intentionally left out.