From: Jan Kara Subject: [RFC PATCH 0/3] Stop clearing uptodate flag on write IO error Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2012 15:40:04 +0100 Message-ID: <1325774407-28531-1-git-send-email-jack@suse.cz> Cc: linux-ext4@vger.kernel.org, Andrew Morton , Christoph Hellwig , Al Viro , LKML , Edward Shishkin To: linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org Return-path: Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: linux-ext4.vger.kernel.org Hello, for mostly historical reasons we still clear buffer_uptodate flag on write IO errors. This is not only semantically wrong (buffer still has correct data in it) but it also triggers warnings in mark_buffer_dirty when buffer is written again which scares lots of users (as they tend to unplug USB sticks too early). This patch series is an attempt to start solving the problem by allowing filesystem to tell whether it wishes buffer_uptodate flag cleared on write IO error. Ext2 is converted to use this as an example. Eventually when all filesystems are converted, we can remove the condition. Do people think this is a desirable way to go? Honza