Fargusson.Alan wrote: > Unless this changed in 2.6 the block devices go through VFS, and the blocks > get cached by the VFS layer. > VFS only comes into play when a filesystem (on a block device) is mounted. If you access a block device directly (not via a path of the mountpoint) then VFS is not involved.
The block device is a direct entry to the device driver, you are dealing with blocks and not filesystems at this level. The buffer cache may be used, but this is not filesystem "aware", it just caches previously read/written blocks. The point remains that doing a dd of the /dev/dasdn while mounted can lead to a copy that is in a inconsistent state. mark ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
