Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Mon, 5 Aug 2002 14:45:48 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Mon, 5 Aug 2002 14:45:46 -0400 Received: from unthought.net ([212.97.129.24]:10423 "EHLO mail.unthought.net") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Mon, 5 Aug 2002 14:45:45 -0400 Date: Mon, 5 Aug 2002 20:49:21 +0200 From: Jakob Oestergaard To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Disk (block) write strangeness Message-ID: <20020805184921.GC2671@unthought.net> Mail-Followup-To: Jakob Oestergaard , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.28i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2470 Lines: 66 Hello all, While investigating how various disks handle power-loss during writes, I came across something *very* strange. It seems that *) Either the disk writes backwards (no I don't believe that) *) Or the kernel is writing 256 B blocks (AFAIK it can't) *) The disk has some internal magic that cause a power-loss during a full block write to leave the first half of the block intact with old data, and update the second half of a block correctly with new data. (And I don't believe that either). The scenario is: I wrote a program that will write a 50 MB block with O_SYNC to /dev/hdc. The block is full of 32-bit integers, initialized to 0. For every full block write (the block is written with one single write() call), the integers are incremented once. So first I have 50 MB of 0's. Then 50 MB of 1's. etc. During this write cycle, I pull the power cable. I get the machine back online and I dump the 50 MB block. What I found was a 50 MB block holding: 11668992 times "0x00000002" 231168 times "0x00000003" 1174528 times "0x00000002" 32512 times "0x00000003" Please note that 32512 is *not* a multiple of 512. And please note that the 3's are written *after* the 2's, so actually there is a 512 byte block on the disk which contains 2's in the first half, and 3's in the second half! How on earth could that happen ? Why does the kernel not write from beginning to end ? Or why doesn't the disk ? And does the elevator cause the writes to be shuffled around like that - I would have expected the kernel to write from beginning to end every single time... The kernel is 2.4.18 on some i686 box The disk is a Quantum Fireball 1GB IDE (from way back then ;) The IDE chipset is an I820 Camino 2 I can submit the test program or do further tests, if anyone is interested. Thank you, -- ................................................................ : jakob@unthought.net : And I see the elder races, : :.........................: putrid forms of man : : Jakob ?stergaard : See him rise and claim the earth, : : OZ9ABN : his downfall is at hand. : :.........................:............{Konkhra}...............: - 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/