Re: fdatasync() error in shred from coreutils-5.2.1 on AIX 5.2

[Jim Meyering]

Paul Eggert <address@hidden> wrote:

> Albert Chin <address@hidden> writes:
>
>> According to the man page ...
>>   The fsync subroutine is unsuccessful if one or more of the following
>>   are true:
>>   ...
>>   EINVAL The file is not a regular file.
>
> Thanks for reporting that.  I looked through "shred" and found some
> related problems too, while I was at it.  Here's a proposed patch,
> relative to CVS coreutils.
>
> 2004-05-15  Paul Eggert  <address@hidden>
>
>       In shred, check for errors from fdatasync more carefully.  If
>       fdatasync fails with errno==EINVAL, it means this implementation
>       does not support synchronized I/O for this file.  Do not report
>       this as an error, as (for example) AIX 5.2 fdatasync reports it
>       for raw disk devices.  Problem reported by Albert Chin in
>       <http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnu-utils/2004-05/msg00028.html>.
>
>       Check for write errors, though: the old code ignored them.
>       Improve error checking in a few other cases, too (e.g., close of a
>       directory).
>
>       Also, change several 'int' values to 'bool', so that the error
>       checking is a bit clearer.  Similarly, change unsigned values
>       to size_t where appropriate.
>
>       * src/shred.c: Include "dirname.h".
>       (datasync) [!HAVE_FDATASYNC]: Remove.
>       (dosync): New function.
>       (dopass): Use it.  Return 1 on write error, -1 on other error.
>       All callers changed.  Report write error if dosync does.
>       (do_wipefd, wipefd, wipename, wipefile): Return bool (true/false),
>       not int (0/-1).  All callers changed.  Return false if there's a
>       write error.
>       (incname): Return bool (true/false), not int (0/1).  Accept
>       size_t length, not unsigned.  All callers changed.  Do not
>       bother checking for non-digits; it can't happen.  Replace
>       recursion with iteration.
>       (wipename): Use dir_name, base_name, etc. instead of assuming
>       Unix file names.  Use size_t for length, not unsigned.
>       Report error if unlink or close fails.
>       (wipename, main): Use bool for booleans.
>
>       (names): Use only digits and uppercase letters, for greater
>       portability.

Thanks.  I've applied that.