FSYNC(2)                            Linux Programmer's Manual                            FSYNC(2)



NAME
       fsync, fdatasync - synchronize a file's in-core state with storage device

SYNOPSIS
       #include <unistd.h>

       int fsync(int fd);

       int fdatasync(int fd);

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

       fsync(): _BSD_SOURCE || _XOPEN_SOURCE
                || /* since glibc 2.8: */ _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L
       fdatasync(): _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 199309L || _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500

DESCRIPTION
       fsync()  transfers  ("flushes")  all modified in-core data of (i.e., modified buffer cache
       pages for) the file referred to by the file descriptor fd to the  disk  device  (or  other
       permanent  storage device) so that all changed information can be retrieved even after the
       system crashed or was rebooted.  This includes writing through or flushing a disk cache if
       present.   The  call  blocks until the device reports that the transfer has completed.  It
       also flushes metadata information associated with the file (see stat(2)).

       Calling fsync() does not necessarily ensure that the entry in the directory containing the
       file  has  also  reached  disk.  For that an explicit fsync() on a file descriptor for the
       directory is also needed.

       fdatasync() is similar to fsync(), but does not flush modified metadata unless that  meta‐
       data is needed in order to allow a subsequent data retrieval to be correctly handled.  For
       example, changes to st_atime or st_mtime (respectively, time of last access  and  time  of
       last modification; see stat(2)) do not require flushing because they are not necessary for
       a subsequent data read to be handled correctly.  On the other hand, a change to  the  file
       size (st_size, as made by say ftruncate(2)), would require a metadata flush.

       The aim of fdatasync() is to reduce disk activity for applications that do not require all
       metadata to be synchronized with the disk.

RETURN VALUE
       On success, these system calls return zero.  On error, -1 is returned, and  errno  is  set
       appropriately.

ERRORS
       EBADF  fd is not a valid open file descriptor.

       EIO    An error occurred during synchronization.

       EROFS, EINVAL
              fd is bound to a special file which does not support synchronization.

CONFORMING TO
       4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001.

AVAILABILITY
       On  POSIX  systems on which fdatasync() is available, _POSIX_SYNCHRONIZED_IO is defined in
       <unistd.h> to a value greater than 0.  (See also sysconf(3).)

NOTES
       On some UNIX systems (but not Linux), fd must be a writable file descriptor.

       In Linux 2.2 and earlier, fdatasync() is equivalent to fsync(), and so has no  performance
       advantage.

       The fsync() implementations in older kernels and lesser used filesystems does not know how
       to flush disk caches.  In these cases disk caches need to be disabled using  hdparm(8)  or
       sdparm(8) to guarantee safe operation.

SEE ALSO
       bdflush(2), open(2), sync(2), sync_file_range(2), hdparm(8), mount(8), sync(1)

COLOPHON
       This  page  is  part of release 3.74 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/.



Linux                                       2014-08-19                                   FSYNC(2)