vfat 'sync' mount option is not really 'sync'

Relevant lkml thread:

http://seclists.org/lists/linux-kernel/2002/Oct/1256.html
http://seclists.org/lists/linux-kernel/2002/Oct/1423.html

It seems that this bug is not trivial to fix, so this is probably a Hoary issue.

Hi Herbert!

Do you happen to know whether and when this will be fixed on the kernel front?

Since this is really a kernel bug, would you mind if it is assigned to you?

Yes this is a kernel bug. Matt, I presume we're leaving this alone for now?

This is a feature enhancement for the kernel, and so it is too late for Warty.
We will likely do something about it during the Hoary development cycle.

*** Bug 9964 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

It looks like the vfat maintainer is working on this:

http://lkml.org/lkml/2004/11/24/133

I pinged the author of the patch. Hopefully we will hear back from him.

I heard back from the author and he sent me a whole list of patches to be
applied to vfat. However, he is not going to submit them upstream until
2.6.12-preX. Matt, do you want these patches incorporated into hoary, or wait
til hoary+1?

chuck

What is your opinion of the patches, with regard to potential for
destabilization? If they are very simple, we can consider it. However, if the
author is not planning to submit them yet, does that mean he does not consider
them ready?

I asked Ogawa Hirofumi about it, he believes that they are safe to use however
if you have critical data or if you dont wish to test them, dont use them. I can
build a test kernel with them this weekend and test them out. I dont have
anything critical on my usb jump drive that I need.

chuck

*** Bug 12763 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Did you have a chance to test the patches? I'm starting to feel that it would
be safer to delay this to 5.10

This should be fixed in 2.6.12

New kernel will hit the archive soon for breezy.