PolicyKit confusion

[Da Rock]

On 12/24/11 22:21, Roland Smith wrote:
> On Sat, Dec 24, 2011 at 12:03:30PM +1000, Da Rock wrote:
>>> might render the application performing it unresponsive during that time.
>> Bingo! Thats exactly the issue. Taking a look at FUSE I can see there
>> are calls that FUSE_FSYNC which I would say is the closest to what is
>> needed. The question is are they implemented in say fuse_msdosfs (I may
>> have just barfed that, but you get the idea) and maybe some others?
> Use the source, Luke! ;-)
Believe me, I'm checking now. A lot of code though, if someone already 
knows the answer :)
>> That way the filesystem is treated as normal, the app writes and can return
>> happily, and FUSE takes the responsibility to ensure the data continues
>> to write until finished instead of holding it in buffer for an
>> indeterminate period leaving the user thinking alls well (ergo, the
>> light continues flashing).
> I'm not sure how long the defaults waits are. Normally the systems tries to
> cluster writes sequenstially for improved throughput. But I'm guessing we're
> talking about fractions of seconds at most. Again, browsing the source might
> be useful. Also chapter 6 of "The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD
> operating system" might provide insight.
I'm basing my logic on experience and not theory at this point, although 
I have read through most of the developer docs and studied OS design. I 
think it waits until it reckons it has enough to fill a sector or 
something, buffer full; at any rate it will halt and not do a damned 
thing until you tell it umount and then it goes crazy- up to a minute 
sometimes. This is my point about the led: a user could easily mistake 
this for the write to be finished and yank it when there is no file 
there (the one they want anyway)- then end up with a "dirty" filesystem. 
Its very misleading.
>> Failing that, how does one ensure data is synced manually? Is there a
>> call that could be run periodically at a shorter, more regular intervals?
> The sync(1) program flushes the system's write cache.
Yeeeeahh... that is supposed to be before the system halts- right? So 
how would it be used here? Nothing in the man says how it is used, and 
if it is used its system wide and not focused to a particular 
filesystem, whatever.