[OpenAFS-devel] Re: [OpenAFS] namei interface lockf buggy on Solaris (and probably HP-UX and AIX)

[Ken Hornstein]

>>> Since we cannot eliminate the non-atomic nature of our metadata
>>> updates, and we can't easily tack on a metadata journal, I think there
>>> is an argument worth considering that doing batch updates during
>>> volume operations actually reduces our risk of data corruption (by
>>> reducing the total number of physical writes to media).
>>
>> That is, I believe a larger project than what other people have been
>> talking about (just removing the fsync() calls).  Not that I think it's
>> a bad idea, mind you :-)
>
>Hm?  I'm pretty sure Tom is proposing suppressing all calls to fsync() 
>during a volume operation until the operation is complete.

I interpreted Tom's comments about "batch updates" as not wanting to
suppress calls to fsync() (well, I imagine that's part of it), but to
actually batch up calls to write().  If I'm wrong, then my apologies.
I agree that turning off fsync for volume operations should be relatively
straightforward.

---Ken