linux/include
Andrew Morton ebcf28e1c7 [PATCH] fadvise(): write commands
Add two new linux-specific fadvise extensions():

LINUX_FADV_ASYNC_WRITE: start async writeout of any dirty pages between file
offsets `offset' and `offset+len'.  Any pages which are currently under
writeout are skipped, whether or not they are dirty.

LINUX_FADV_WRITE_WAIT: wait upon writeout of any dirty pages between file
offsets `offset' and `offset+len'.

By combining these two operations the application may do several things:

LINUX_FADV_ASYNC_WRITE: push some or all of the dirty pages at the disk.

LINUX_FADV_WRITE_WAIT, LINUX_FADV_ASYNC_WRITE: push all of the currently dirty
pages at the disk.

LINUX_FADV_WRITE_WAIT, LINUX_FADV_ASYNC_WRITE, LINUX_FADV_WRITE_WAIT: push all
of the currently dirty pages at the disk, wait until they have been written.

It should be noted that none of these operations write out the file's
metadata.  So unless the application is strictly performing overwrites of
already-instantiated disk blocks, there are no guarantees here that the data
will be available after a crash.

To complete this suite of operations I guess we should have a "sync file
metadata only" operation.  This gives applications access to all the building
blocks needed for all sorts of sync operations.  But sync-metadata doesn't fit
well with the fadvise() interface.  Probably it should be a new syscall:
sys_fmetadatasync().

The patch also diddles with the meaning of `endbyte' in sys_fadvise64_64().
It is made to represent that last affected byte in the file (ie: it is
inclusive).  Generally, all these byterange and pagerange functions are
inclusive so we can easily represent EOF with -1.

As Ulrich notes, these two functions are somewhat abusive of the fadvise()
concept, which appears to be "set the future policy for this fd".

But these commands are a perfect fit with the fadvise() impementation, and
several of the existing fadvise() commands are synchronous and don't affect
future policy either.   I think we can live with the slight incongruity.

Cc: Michael Kerrisk <mtk-manpages@gmx.net>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-03-24 07:33:25 -08:00
..
acpi [PATCH] s/;;/;/g 2006-03-24 07:33:24 -08:00
asm-alpha [PATCH] remove ISA legacy functions: remove the helpers 2006-03-24 07:33:19 -08:00
asm-arm [PATCH] remove ISA legacy functions: remove the helpers 2006-03-24 07:33:19 -08:00
asm-arm26 [PATCH] add asm-generic/mman.h 2006-02-15 15:32:22 -08:00
asm-cris [PATCH] kill include/linux/platform.h, default_idle() cleanup 2006-03-24 07:33:21 -08:00
asm-frv [PATCH] add asm-generic/mman.h 2006-02-15 15:32:22 -08:00
asm-generic [PATCH] more for_each_cpu() conversions 2006-03-23 07:38:17 -08:00
asm-h8300 [PATCH] add asm-generic/mman.h 2006-02-15 15:32:22 -08:00
asm-i386 [PATCH] kill include/linux/platform.h, default_idle() cleanup 2006-03-24 07:33:21 -08:00
asm-ia64 [PATCH] abstract type/size specification for assembly 2006-03-24 07:33:25 -08:00
asm-m32r [PATCH] m32r: fix and update for gcc-4.0 2006-02-24 14:31:36 -08:00
asm-m68k [PATCH] atomic: add_unless cmpxchg optimise 2006-03-23 07:38:17 -08:00
asm-m68knommu [PATCH] m68knommu: hardirq.h needs definition of NR_IRQS 2006-02-07 16:16:54 -08:00
asm-mips [PATCH] abstract type/size specification for assembly 2006-03-24 07:33:25 -08:00
asm-parisc [PATCH] remove ISA legacy functions: remove the helpers 2006-03-24 07:33:19 -08:00
asm-powerpc [PATCH] more for_each_cpu() conversions 2006-03-23 07:38:17 -08:00
asm-ppc powerpc: Implement accurate task and CPU time accounting 2006-02-24 14:05:56 +11:00
asm-s390 [PATCH] s390: BUG() warnings 2006-03-24 07:33:16 -08:00
asm-sh [PATCH] remove ISA legacy functions: remove the helpers 2006-03-24 07:33:19 -08:00
asm-sh64 [PATCH] mm: remove set_pgdir leftovers 2006-03-22 07:53:56 -08:00
asm-sparc [SPARC]: Respect vm_page_prot in io_remap_page_range(). 2006-03-22 01:15:13 -08:00
asm-sparc64 [PATCH] more for_each_cpu() conversions 2006-03-23 07:38:17 -08:00
asm-um [PATCH] x86: SMP alternatives 2006-03-23 07:38:04 -08:00
asm-v850 [PATCH] abstract type/size specification for assembly 2006-03-24 07:33:25 -08:00
asm-x86_64 [PATCH] remove ISA legacy functions: remove the helpers 2006-03-24 07:33:19 -08:00
asm-xtensa [PATCH] add asm-generic/mman.h 2006-02-15 15:32:22 -08:00
keys
linux [PATCH] fadvise(): write commands 2006-03-24 07:33:25 -08:00
math-emu
media V4L/DVB (3513): Remove saa711x driver 2006-03-21 08:53:40 -08:00
mtd
net Merge branch 'upstream' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/linville/wireless-2.6 2006-03-23 17:15:41 -05:00
pcmcia [PATCH] pcmcia: Add macro to match PCMCIA cards by numeric ID and first vendor string 2006-03-01 11:11:26 +01:00
rdma IB/umad: Add support for large RMPP transfers 2006-03-20 10:08:23 -08:00
rxrpc
scsi Merge ../linux-2.6 2006-03-21 13:05:45 -06:00
sound [ALSA] version 1.0.11rc4 2006-03-22 14:37:15 +01:00
video [PATCH] neofb: avoid resetting display config on unblank (v2) 2006-02-15 15:32:21 -08:00