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

[Paul Eggert]

Albert Chin <address@hidden> writes:

> shred from coreutils-5.2.1 on an AIX 5.2 system. /dev/lv00 is a JFS volume:
> ...
>   /tmp/gshred: /dev/lv00: fsync: A system call received a parameter that is 
> not valid.
> ...
>               if (fdatasync (fd) < 0 && fsync (fd) < 0)
>
> fdatasync(fd) is giving the error.

>From the code, it appears that fdatasync and fsync are both failing,
and that the error message is coming from fsync.  EINVAL means
that fd "does not refer to a file on which this operation is possible".
So I guess that AIX 5.2 JFS volumes don't support fsync.

If JFS is hostile to shredding, can't you shred the underlying disks
instead?  With 'shred', you're better off the closer you get to the
actual device.