Understanding Data Durability with the fsync System Call in Linux
By
RGBCube
10mo ago· 4 min readenInsight
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Summary
The article discusses the durability guarantees provided by the fsync system call in Linux, particularly focusing on the potential data loss in mass-market SSDs and HDDs due to volatile write cache. It questions the necessity of enterprise-grade drives with additional power loss protection for ensuring data persistence.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledMany mass-market SSDs and HDDs don't provide sufficient durability guarantees.
If you want any meaningful durability, you should go for enterprise-grade drives that have a battery/capacitor.
Let's check what POSIX.1-2017 specification says about fsync.
What kind of durability guarantees fsync system call provides in Linux? Let's find out.
