On Tue, Jun 20, 2000 at 04:08:49PM +0100, Al O'Connor mentioned:
> "sync - force completion of pending disk writes (flush cache)" - man page
>> I spotted this command recently, and a question appeared. Why is this
> a user command? Surely it can be used for Bad Purposes like "while(1)
> sync;" or something... Is there any really important reason why mere
> mortals should be allowed to use it? or is it just risk-free and so ok
> for general consumption.
It's risk free. Only time I've ever used it was when I had a floppy
mounted, and wanted to force it to write a load of stuff to it before
unmounting. Though I suppose umount /mnt/floppy would have done the job
too.
It's usually run as the "sync" user on older systems, I think, like SCO,
so maybe it *had* to be runnable by normal users...
Kate
--
The words of the unwary are apt to cause needless pain and bloody violence.
- Zen Master Greg
Maintained by the ILUG website team. The aim of Linux.ie is to
support and help commercial and private users of Linux in Ireland. You can
display ILUG news in your own webpages, read backend
information to find out how. Networking services kindly provided by HEAnet, server kindly donated by
Dell. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds,
used with permission. No penguins were harmed in the production or maintenance
of this highly praised website. Looking for the
Indian Linux Users' Group? Try here. If you've read all this and aren't a lawyer: you should be!
