Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!rutgers!cbmvax!jesup
From: jesup@cbmvax.commodore.com (Randell Jesup)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: HD validation error (possible cause?)
Message-ID: <17701@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 17 Jan 91 06:42:56 GMT
References: <1991Jan17.032930.18196@eecs.wsu.edu>
Reply-To: jesup@cbmvax.commodore.com (Randell Jesup)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 27

In article <1991Jan17.032930.18196@eecs.wsu.edu> rnelson@yoda.UUCP (Roger Nelson - Grad Student) writes:
>I suppose I have said enough based on a lot of speculation.
>I should try some experiments to see if multiple process attempting to
>write to a single file cause the read/write error and ultimately the
>validation error. (or is this a known problem?)

	Please do try some things (make sure you have a good backup or two
first!)  If you hit problems, send a report with a much info as possible
(ks/wb version, hardware config, lharc version, what you were doing, etc).

>However, suppose it is the case that this situation does indeed cause
>the read write error.  I contend that the file system should recover
>more gracefully than crashing the machine and requiring one to reformat
>the HD partition.

	Merely colliding writing to a file won't cause problems, but if
lharc didn't consider the possibility of it's temp file being corrupted, it
might (note: might) die, trashing the filesystem's bitmap or other important
things.  I don't know that this is the case, or it could be some other
sort of bug in lharc.  I will probably do some tests here as well.

-- 
Randell Jesup, Keeper of AmigaDos, Commodore Engineering.
{uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!jesup, jesup@cbmvax.commodore.com  BIX: rjesup  
The compiler runs
Like a swift-flowing river
I wait in silence.  (From "The Zen of Programming")  ;-)