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From: dave@westmark.UUCP (Dave Levenson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: UNIX more fragile than MS-DOS files?
Message-ID: <174@westmark.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 20-Sep-87 10:57:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: westmark.174
Posted: Sun Sep 20 10:57:24 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 20-Sep-87 21:36:11 EDT
Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA
Lines: 19

UNIX files may sit in kernel buffers long after the process who last
touched the file has terminated.  The sync command flushes the
buffers, but unless you're planning to shut down, who uses it?

MS-DOS, also, buffers files, but flushes the buffers associated with
any given file when the file is closed.  If you shutdown without
exiting the application, MS-DOS files get trashed, too. The apparent
robustness of MS-DOS files comes, I think, from the user's tendency
to exit the application, even if he doesn't shut down the system,
before powering down.  MS-DOS has no shutdown command, so no need to
learn to use it.

Some versions of UNIX run a daemon which syncs the filesystem
periodically.
-- 
Dave Levenson
Westmark, Inc.		A node for news.
Warren, NJ USA
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