NAME

fsync − synchronize a file’s in-core state with that on disk

SYNOPSIS

int fsync(fd)

int fd;

DESCRIPTION

fsync() moves all modified data and attributes of fd to a permanent storage device: all in-core modified copies of buffers for the associated file have been written to a disk when the call returns.  Note: this is different than sync(2) which schedules disk I/O for all files (as though an fsync() had been done on all files) but returns before the I/O completes. 

fsync() should be used by programs which require a file to be in a known state; for example, a program which contains a simple transaction facility might use it to ensure that all modifications to a file or files caused by a transaction were recorded on disk. 

RETURN VALUES

fsync() returns:

0 on success. 

−1 on failure and sets errno to indicate the error. 

ERRORS

EBADF fd is not a valid descriptor. 

EINVAL fd refers to a socket, not a file. 

EIO An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system. 

SEE ALSO

cron(8), sync(2)

Solbourne Computer, Inc.  —  12 Dec 1990