Uses for access time, stuff in inodes

[Karl Kleinpaste]

daveb at llama.rtech.UUCP says...
   It would be nice if there were some way for
   O_SYNCed files to avoid [2 writes/call]: maybe just defer the
   access/mod time write until the file is closed.

I would disagree.  If data blocks are updated but the inode is left
in-core-only, what value have I gained by using O_SYNC?  If the system
crashes right now, with half a megabyte of data written, but no record
of the changes to the inode yet out to disc, O_SYNC has become
useless.

I tend to think that O_SYNC is specifically intended for those folks
who are explicitly willing to put up with the performance hit of 2
physical writes/call.

--Karl