sync(2) - f37

1SYNC(2)                    Linux Programmer's Manual                   SYNC(2)
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NAME

6       sync, syncfs - commit filesystem caches to disk
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SYNOPSIS

9       #include <unistd.h>
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11       void sync(void);
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13       int syncfs(int fd);
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15   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):
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17       sync():
18           _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500
19               || /* Since glibc 2.19: */ _DEFAULT_SOURCE
20               || /* Glibc <= 2.19: */ _BSD_SOURCE
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22       syncfs():
23           _GNU_SOURCE
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DESCRIPTION

26       sync()  causes  all  pending  modifications  to filesystem metadata and
27       cached file data to be written to the underlying filesystems.
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29       syncfs() is like sync(), but synchronizes just the filesystem  contain‐
30       ing file referred to by the open file descriptor fd.
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RETURN VALUE

33       syncfs()  returns  0 on success; on error, it returns -1 and sets errno
34       to indicate the error.
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ERRORS

37       sync() is always successful.
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39       syncfs() can fail for at least the following reasons:
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41       EBADF  fd is not a valid file descriptor.
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43       EIO    An error occurred during synchronization.  This error may relate
44              to  data  written  to any file on the filesystem, or on metadata
45              related to the filesystem itself.
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47       ENOSPC Disk space was exhausted while synchronizing.
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49       ENOSPC, EDQUOT
50              Data was written to a file on NFS or  another  filesystem  which
51              does  not  allocate space at the time of a write(2) system call,
52              and some previous  write  failed  due  to  insufficient  storage
53              space.
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VERSIONS

56       syncfs()  first  appeared in Linux 2.6.39; library support was added to
57       glibc in version 2.14.
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CONFORMING TO

60       sync(): POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008, SVr4, 4.3BSD.
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62       syncfs() is Linux-specific.
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NOTES

65       Since glibc 2.2.2, the Linux prototype for sync() is as  listed  above,
66       following  the  various  standards.  In glibc 2.2.1 and earlier, it was
67       "int sync(void)", and sync() always returned 0.
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69       According to the standard specification  (e.g.,  POSIX.1-2001),  sync()
70       schedules the writes, but may return before the actual writing is done.
71       However Linux waits for I/O completions, and thus  sync()  or  syncfs()
72       provide the same guarantees as fsync() called on every file in the sys‐
73       tem or filesystem respectively.
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75       In mainline kernel versions prior to 5.8, syncfs() will fail only  when
76       passed  a  bad file descriptor (EBADF).  Since Linux 5.8, syncfs() will
77       also report an error if one or more inodes failed to  be  written  back
78       since the last syncfs() call.
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BUGS

81       Before version 1.3.20 Linux did not wait for I/O to complete before re‐
82       turning.
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COLOPHON

88       This page is part of release 5.13 of the Linux  man-pages  project.   A
89       description  of  the project, information about reporting bugs, and the
90       latest    version    of    this    page,    can     be     found     at
91       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
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95Linux                             2021-03-22                           SYNC(2)