Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1751523AbWB0XWS (ORCPT ); Mon, 27 Feb 2006 18:22:18 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1750719AbWB0XWS (ORCPT ); Mon, 27 Feb 2006 18:22:18 -0500 Received: from 26.mail-out.ovh.net ([213.186.42.179]:16531 "EHLO 26.mail-out.ovh.net") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751504AbWB0XWR (ORCPT ); Mon, 27 Feb 2006 18:22:17 -0500 Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 00:21:53 +0100 From: col-pepper@piments.com To: "linux-os (Dick Johnson)" Subject: Re: o_sync in vfat driver Cc: "linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org" References: <20060227132848.GA27601@csclub.uwaterloo.ca> <1141048228.2992.106.camel@laptopd505.fenrus.org> <1141049176.18855.4.camel@imp.csi.cam.ac.uk> <1141050437.2992.111.camel@laptopd505.fenrus.org> <1141051305.18855.21.camel@imp.csi.cam.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed delsp=yes MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Message-ID: In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Opera M2/8.52 (Linux, build 1631) X-Ovh-Remote: 80.170.101.26 (d80-170-101-26.cust.tele2.fr) X-Ovh-Local: 213.186.33.20 (ns0.ovh.net) X-Spam-Check: fait|type 1&3|0.3|H 0.5 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1078 Lines: 28 On Mon, 27 Feb 2006 22:32:07 +0100, linux-os (Dick Johnson) wrote: > Flash does not get zeroed to be written! It gets erased, which sets all > the bits to '1', i.e., all bytes to 0xff. Thanks for the correction, but that does not change the discussion. > Further, the designers of > flash disks are not stupid as you assume. The direct access occurs > to static RAM (read/write stuff). I'm not assuming anything . Some hardware has been killed by this issue. http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/5/13/144 It seems that it's you making the assumption that all of these devices are manufactured the same way. The constant dirtying of the buffer will still cause excessive use of the flash block hosting the FAT. Clearly not all devices use a load spreading mechanism and this can lead to premature failure. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/