news-daemon@optical.bms.com writes:

quoted text
> Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
> Path: synapse.bms.com!jvnc.net!darwin.sura.net!Sirius.dfn.de!Urmel.Informatik
> From: michael@gandalf.moria (Michael Haardt)
> Subject: Re: File system issues!
> Message-ID: <9207131634@gandalf.moria>
> Lines: 17
> Sender: news@Urmel.Informatik.RWTH-Aachen.DE (Newsfiles Owner)
> Nntp-Posting-Host: messua
> Reply-To: u31b3hs@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de (Michael Haardt)
> Organization: Moria
> References: <1992Jul9.164916.17415@athena.mit.edu>
> Date: Mon, 13 Jul 92 23:32:20 +0100
> Lines: 17
> 
> >From article <1992Jul9.164916.17415@athena.mit.edu>, by arybicki.lax1b@xerox
> > Has anyone used the newest SMARTDRV.EXE that comes with Windows 3.1? (now, 
> > am sorry that I am bringing the subject of MS-DOG world, but...)  Someone a
> > MS had actually a pretty good idea and with this revision SMARTDRV traps 
> > CTRL-ALT-DEL to check whether its write buffers have been written to the 
> > disk, and it writes them if necessary, waits half a second or so, and then 
> > reboots.  I think that this approach could be easily implemented in Linux, 
> > right?
> 
> True.  That's why Linus did it already.  Linux can send SIGINT to
> process 1, if M-C-? :-)) [ok, control-alt-delete] was pressed.  If I
> ever finish with news today *and* I am not too tired then, then I will
> make a fitting powerfail entry in /etc/inittab to shutdown the system
> instantly.  If not, perhaps the next days I will plus cleaning up my rc
> files for using /etc/fastboot and that stuff.
> 
> Michael

Let me get this straight.  You're proposing detecting powerfail and doing a
sync as the lights go out?  How reliable is this in clearing a full deferred
write buffer?  Won't the drive already be unreliable as the power supply's
last ergs go though the machine?

Don't misunderstand me.  If your proposed patch flies reliably, I'd accept
tt as one way of coping with fearing for the filesystem when the lights go
out.

Rick

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