On Mon, Jun 27, 2011 at 02:00:54PM -0400, Paul Koning wrote: > > Sure it is fair. The fact that some operating systems had extremely > simple/primitive file systems without any caching means that those systems > were capable of surviving file device pulls. But it isn't reasonable to > consider that a feature. RT-11 was in fact an unusual example in its days; > few if any operating systems of that era had a "just yank it" property.
I would consider it very reasonable for an OS to survive file device pulls. Expecting the on-disk data to be consistent if you yank the device w/o telling the OS to flush its cache is another issue entirely, but having the OS hold on to the data (like Erik Fair wrote in a separate email) and be able to flush it when/if the device is reconnected sounds pretty "reasonable" too. Combine that w/ the ability notice that all cached data has been written and the device has been idle for a bit (perhaps 10 seconds?) and perform a behind-the-scenes unmount + automatic remount if it's accessed again, and I'd call that call that a pretty great feature. eric