Filesystem bug? "sync" hangs...
Kernel 2.4.7-pre3 on alpha.
The initial phase of an RPM build is unpacking a tarball and applying patches, which is a bunch of writes followed by a update of read/write updates. A lot of write activity, basically. RPM build is running at normal priority as a normal user.
In another xterm, su'd in a shell that is renice'd to -14, I run "sync" during all this write activity. It hangs for 17 seconds before I get impatient, stop counting, and suspend the RPM build process. sync continues to block, not returning to the command prompt. I run dmesg (generated read activity?), and sync finally returns.
The RPM build process continues unpacking/writing files without appearing to slow in window 1 while sync blocks in window 2.
I have not seen this behavior before, but I do not recall trying 'sync' specifically during heavy write activity before. This behavior is reproducible.
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