Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!purdue!umd5!mimsy!chris
From: chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: 4.3 BSD VAX 11/750 does not seem to sync its disks.
Message-ID: <10948@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: 6 Apr 88 02:20:03 GMT
References: <271@usfvax1.UUCP> <10900@mimsy.UUCP> <1967@quacky.mips.COM> <1237@valhalla.ee.rochester.edu>
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 28

In article <1237@valhalla.ee.rochester.edu> deke@socrates.ee.rochester.edu
(Deke Kassabian) writes:
>Sync may not guarentee anything, but the -n [fsck] option does.
>What's the problem here?

None, really, except that any error report is misleading:

>worst thats happened so far is a couple of reports of file system problems
>that were clearly the result of an "active" system.  If they "go away" the
>next time fsck is run (at 4am) then I don't worry.  If they hang around for
>a few days, its probably a legitimate problem and I'll deal with it then.
>And there have been a few, and I've caught them quickly this way.

We do not run nightly checks, although we do run checks after crashes
and before each level 0 single-user dump (biweekly).  Only after
crashes, which nearly always are the result of power failures, have we
had anything that needed fixing.  The 4.3BSD file system code is
just plain stable.

(Of course, we have one kernel development machine which is sometimes
more down than up....)

In summary, if you are willing to put up with bogus error reports,
the nightly `fsck -n's may be worthwhile.  We have not found this to
be the case here.
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris@mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris