sync_file_range − sync a file segment with disk
#define
_GNU_SOURCE /* See feature_test_macros(7) */
#include <fcntl.h>
int
sync_file_range(int fd, off64_t
offset, off64_t nbytes,
unsigned int flags);
sync_file_range() permits fine control when synchronizing the open file referred to by the file descriptor fd with disk.
offset is the starting byte of the file range to be synchronized. nbytes specifies the length of the range to be synchronized, in bytes; if nbytes is zero, then all bytes from offset through to the end of file are synchronized. Synchronization is in units of the system page size: offset is rounded down to a page boundary; (offset+nbytes-1) is rounded up to a page boundary.
The
flags bit-mask argument can include any of the
following values:
SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE
Wait upon write-out of all pages in the specified range that have already been submitted to the device driver for write-out before performing any write.
SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE
Initiate write-out of all dirty pages in the specified range which are not presently submitted write-out. Note that even this may block if you attempt to write more than request queue size.
SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_AFTER
Wait upon write-out of all pages in the range after performing any write.
Specifying flags as 0 is permitted, as a no-op.
Warning
This system call is extremely dangerous and should not be
used in portable programs. None of these operations writes
out the file’s metadata. Therefore, unless the
application is strictly performing overwrites of
already-instantiated disk blocks, there are no guarantees
that the data will be available after a crash. There is no
user interface to know if a write is purely an overwrite. On
filesystems using copy-on-write semantics (e.g.,
btrfs) an overwrite of existing allocated blocks is
impossible. When writing into preallocated space, many
filesystems also require calls into the block allocator,
which this system call does not sync out to disk. This
system call does not flush disk write caches and thus does
not provide any data integrity on systems with volatile disk
write caches.
Some details
SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE and
SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_AFTER will detect any I/O errors
or ENOSPC conditions and will return these to the
caller.
Useful
combinations of the flags bits are:
SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE | SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE
Ensures that all pages in the specified range which were dirty when sync_file_range() was called are placed under write-out. This is a start-write-for-data-integrity operation.
SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE
Start write-out of all dirty pages in the specified range which are not presently under write-out. This is an asynchronous flush-to-disk operation. This is not suitable for data integrity operations.
SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE (or SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_AFTER)
Wait for completion of write-out of all pages in the specified range. This can be used after an earlier SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE | SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE operation to wait for completion of that operation, and obtain its result.
SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE
| SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE |
SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_AFTER
This is a write-for-data-integrity operation that will ensure that all pages in the specified range which were dirty when sync_file_range() was called are committed to disk.
On success, sync_file_range() returns 0; on failure −1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.
EBADF |
fd is not a valid file descriptor. | ||
EINVAL |
flags specifies an invalid bit; or offset or nbytes is invalid. | ||
EIO |
I/O error. | ||
ENOMEM |
Out of memory. | ||
ENOSPC |
Out of disk space. | ||
ESPIPE |
fd refers to something other than a regular file, a block device, a directory, or a symbolic link. |
sync_file_range() appeared on Linux in kernel 2.6.17.
This system call is Linux-specific, and should be avoided in portable programs.
Some architectures (e.g., PowerPC, ARM) need 64-bit arguments to be aligned in a suitable pair of registers. On such architectures, the call signature of sync_file_range() shown in the SYNOPSIS would force a register to be wasted as padding between the fd and offset arguments. (See syscall(2) for details.) Therefore, these architectures define a different system call that orders the arguments suitably:
int
sync_file_range2(int fd, unsigned int
flags,
off64_t offset, off64_t
nbytes);
The behavior of this system call is otherwise exactly the same as sync_file_range().
A system call with this signature first appeared on the ARM architecture in Linux 2.6.20, with the name arm_sync_file_range(). It was renamed in Linux 2.6.22, when the analogous system call was added for PowerPC. On architectures where glibc support is provided, glibc transparently wraps sync_file_range2() under the name sync_file_range().
fdatasync(2), fsync(2), msync(2), sync(2)
This page is part of release 3.69 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and the latest version of this page, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man−pages/.
Personal Opportunity - Free software gives you access to billions of dollars of software at no cost. Use this software for your business, personal use or to develop a profitable skill. Access to source code provides access to a level of capabilities/information that companies protect though copyrights. Open source is a core component of the Internet and it is available to you. Leverage the billions of dollars in resources and capabilities to build a career, establish a business or change the world. The potential is endless for those who understand the opportunity.
Business Opportunity - Goldman Sachs, IBM and countless large corporations are leveraging open source to reduce costs, develop products and increase their bottom lines. Learn what these companies know about open source and how open source can give you the advantage.
Free Software provides computer programs and capabilities at no cost but more importantly, it provides the freedom to run, edit, contribute to, and share the software. The importance of free software is a matter of access, not price. Software at no cost is a benefit but ownership rights to the software and source code is far more significant.
Free Office Software - The Libre Office suite provides top desktop productivity tools for free. This includes, a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation engine, drawing and flowcharting, database and math applications. Libre Office is available for Linux or Windows.
The Free Books Library is a collection of thousands of the most popular public domain books in an online readable format. The collection includes great classical literature and more recent works where the U.S. copyright has expired. These books are yours to read and use without restrictions.
Source Code - Want to change a program or know how it works? Open Source provides the source code for its programs so that anyone can use, modify or learn how to write those programs themselves. Visit the GNU source code repositories to download the source.
Study at Harvard, Stanford or MIT - Open edX provides free online courses from Harvard, MIT, Columbia, UC Berkeley and other top Universities. Hundreds of courses for almost all major subjects and course levels. Open edx also offers some paid courses and selected certifications.
Linux Manual Pages - A man or manual page is a form of software documentation found on Linux/Unix operating systems. Topics covered include computer programs (including library and system calls), formal standards and conventions, and even abstract concepts.