freebsd-dev/share/man/man4/syncer.4

.\" Copyright (c) 2000 Sheldon Hearn <sheldonh@FreeBSD.org>
.\" All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
.\"
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
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.\" $FreeBSD$
.\"
.Dd July 14, 2000
.Dt SYNCER 4
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm syncer
.Nd file system synchronizer kernel process
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
kernel process helps protect the integrity of disk volumes
by flushing volatile cached file system data to disk.
.Pp
The kernel places all
.Xr vnode 9 Ns 's
in a number of queues.
The
.Nm
process works through the queues
in a round-robin fashion,
usually processing one queue per second.
For each
.Xr vnode 9
on that queue,
the
.Nm
process forces a write out to disk of its dirty buffers.
.Pp
The usual delay between the time buffers are dirtied
and the time they are synced
is controlled by the following
.Xr sysctl 8
tunable variables:
.Bl -column "filedelayXXXX" "DefaultXX" "DescriptionXX"
.It Em Variable Ta Em Default Ta Em Description
.It Va kern.filedelay Ta 30 Ta "time to delay syncing files"
.It Va kern.dirdelay Ta 29 Ta "time to delay syncing directories"
.It Va kern.metadelay Ta 28 Ta "time to delay syncing metadata"
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr sync 2 ,
.Xr fsck 8 ,
.Xr sync 8 ,
.Xr sysctl 8
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
process is a descendant of the
.Sq update
command, which appeared in
.At v6 ,
and was usually started by
.Pa /etc/rc
when the system went multi-user.
A kernel initiated
.Sq update
process first appeared in
.Fx 2.0 .
.Sh BUGS
It is possible on some systems that a
.Xr sync 2
occurring simultaneously with a crash may cause
file system damage.
See
.Xr fsck 8 .
Replace the obsolete update(4) manual page with syncer(4). I was not abble to solicit review from <freebsd-hackers>. 2000-07-19 07:15:32 +00:00			`.\" Copyright (c) 2000 Sheldon Hearn <sheldonh@FreeBSD.org>`
			`.\" All rights reserved.`
Added a update(4) man page to describe the kernel initiated update process and changed all of the old references to update(8) to update(4). 1996-02-12 00:45:47 +00:00			`.\"`
			`.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without`
			`.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions`
			`.\" are met:`
			`.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright`
			`.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.`
			`.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright`
			`.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the`
			`.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.`
			`.\"`
			.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
			`.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE`
			`.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE`
			`.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE`
			`.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL`
			`.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS`
			`.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)`
			`.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT`
			`.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY`
			`.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF`
			`.\" SUCH DAMAGE.`
			`.\"`
$Id$ -> $FreeBSD$ 1999-08-28 00:22:10 +00:00			`.\" $FreeBSD$`
add missing cvs Id lines. 1997-03-07 02:50:01 +00:00			`.\"`
Replace the obsolete update(4) manual page with syncer(4). I was not abble to solicit review from <freebsd-hackers>. 2000-07-19 07:15:32 +00:00			`.Dd July 14, 2000`
			`.Dt SYNCER 4`
			`.Os`
Added a update(4) man page to describe the kernel initiated update process and changed all of the old references to update(8) to update(4). 1996-02-12 00:45:47 +00:00			`.Sh NAME`
Replace the obsolete update(4) manual page with syncer(4). I was not abble to solicit review from <freebsd-hackers>. 2000-07-19 07:15:32 +00:00			`.Nm syncer`
Uniformly refer to a file system as "file system". Approved by: re 2002-12-12 17:26:04 +00:00			`.Nd file system synchronizer kernel process`
Added a update(4) man page to describe the kernel initiated update process and changed all of the old references to update(8) to update(4). 1996-02-12 00:45:47 +00:00			`.Sh SYNOPSIS`
mdoc(7) police: use the new features of the Nm macro. 2000-11-20 18:41:33 +00:00			`.Nm`
Added a update(4) man page to describe the kernel initiated update process and changed all of the old references to update(8) to update(4). 1996-02-12 00:45:47 +00:00			`.Sh DESCRIPTION`
			`The`
Replace the obsolete update(4) manual page with syncer(4). I was not abble to solicit review from <freebsd-hackers>. 2000-07-19 07:15:32 +00:00			`.Nm`
Added a update(4) man page to describe the kernel initiated update process and changed all of the old references to update(8) to update(4). 1996-02-12 00:45:47 +00:00			`kernel process helps protect the integrity of disk volumes`
Uniformly refer to a file system as "file system". Approved by: re 2002-12-12 17:26:04 +00:00			`by flushing volatile cached file system data to disk.`
Replace the obsolete update(4) manual page with syncer(4). I was not abble to solicit review from <freebsd-hackers>. 2000-07-19 07:15:32 +00:00			`.Pp`
			`The kernel places all`
			`.Xr vnode 9 Ns 's`
Remove mention of SYNCER_MAXDELAY and "thirty seconds", using more general terms instead. This follows a discussion with alfred, in which it became clear that I had misunderstood sched_sync(). 2000-07-19 11:47:16 +00:00			`in a number of queues.`
Replace the obsolete update(4) manual page with syncer(4). I was not abble to solicit review from <freebsd-hackers>. 2000-07-19 07:15:32 +00:00			`The`
			`.Nm`
			`process works through the queues`
			`in a round-robin fashion,`
			`usually processing one queue per second.`
			`For each`
			`.Xr vnode 9`
Remove mention of SYNCER_MAXDELAY and "thirty seconds", using more general terms instead. This follows a discussion with alfred, in which it became clear that I had misunderstood sched_sync(). 2000-07-19 11:47:16 +00:00			`on that queue,`
Removed whitespace at end-of-line; no content changes. I simply did cd src/share; find man[1-9] -type f\|xargs perl -pi -e 's/[ \t]+$//' BTW, what editors are the culprits? I'm using vim and it shows me whitespace at EOL in troff files with a thick blue block... Reviewed by: Silence from cvs diff -b MFC after: 7 days 2001-07-14 19:41:16 +00:00			`the`
Replace the obsolete update(4) manual page with syncer(4). I was not abble to solicit review from <freebsd-hackers>. 2000-07-19 07:15:32 +00:00			`.Nm`
			`process forces a write out to disk of its dirty buffers.`
Include a comment explaining the usual delay between writes and syncs. 2000-07-20 07:31:52 +00:00			`.Pp`
Describe the syncer(4)-related sysctls kern.filedelay, kern.dirdelay and kern.metadelay, thanks to mckusick's feedback. 2000-07-26 08:51:58 +00:00			`The usual delay between the time buffers are dirtied`
			`and the time they are synced`
			`is controlled by the following`
			`.Xr sysctl 8`
			`tunable variables:`
			`.Bl -column "filedelayXXXX" "DefaultXX" "DescriptionXX"`
			`.It Em Variable Ta Em Default Ta Em Description`
			`.It Va kern.filedelay Ta 30 Ta "time to delay syncing files"`
			`.It Va kern.dirdelay Ta 29 Ta "time to delay syncing directories"`
			`.It Va kern.metadelay Ta 28 Ta "time to delay syncing metadata"`
			`.El`
Added a update(4) man page to describe the kernel initiated update process and changed all of the old references to update(8) to update(4). 1996-02-12 00:45:47 +00:00			`.Sh SEE ALSO`
			`.Xr sync 2 ,`
			`.Xr fsck 8 ,`
Describe the syncer(4)-related sysctls kern.filedelay, kern.dirdelay and kern.metadelay, thanks to mckusick's feedback. 2000-07-26 08:51:58 +00:00			`.Xr sync 8 ,`
			`.Xr sysctl 8`
Added a update(4) man page to describe the kernel initiated update process and changed all of the old references to update(8) to update(4). 1996-02-12 00:45:47 +00:00			`.Sh HISTORY`
Replace the obsolete update(4) manual page with syncer(4). I was not abble to solicit review from <freebsd-hackers>. 2000-07-19 07:15:32 +00:00			`The`
			`.Nm`
			`process is a descendant of the`
			`.Sq update`
Fix a typo and mark ``update'' up consistently in the HISTORY section. Reported by: des 2000-07-20 13:05:41 +00:00			`command, which appeared in`
Added a update(4) man page to describe the kernel initiated update process and changed all of the old references to update(8) to update(4). 1996-02-12 00:45:47 +00:00			`.At v6 ,`
mdoc(7)'fy 1999-10-30 15:12:25 +00:00			`and was usually started by`
			`.Pa /etc/rc`
			`when the system went multi-user.`
Document the new ".Fx" macro in the mdoc man pages. I also changed the update(4) man page to use this new macro just to have something to test it on. 1996-02-12 19:27:32 +00:00			`A kernel initiated`
Fix a typo and mark ``update'' up consistently in the HISTORY section. Reported by: des 2000-07-20 13:05:41 +00:00			`.Sq update`
Document the new ".Fx" macro in the mdoc man pages. I also changed the update(4) man page to use this new macro just to have something to test it on. 1996-02-12 19:27:32 +00:00			`process first appeared in`
			`.Fx 2.0 .`
Remove mention of SYNCER_MAXDELAY and "thirty seconds", using more general terms instead. This follows a discussion with alfred, in which it became clear that I had misunderstood sched_sync(). 2000-07-19 11:47:16 +00:00			`.Sh BUGS`
			`It is possible on some systems that a`
			`.Xr sync 2`
			`occurring simultaneously with a crash may cause`
Hiten's patchset for section four manpages, slightly edited by me. 2003-06-28 23:53:39 +00:00			`file system damage.`
			`See`
Remove mention of SYNCER_MAXDELAY and "thirty seconds", using more general terms instead. This follows a discussion with alfred, in which it became clear that I had misunderstood sched_sync(). 2000-07-19 11:47:16 +00:00			`.Xr fsck 8 .`