* KIND Type Parameters::
* Internal representation of LOGICAL variables::
* Thread-safety of the runtime library::
+* Data consistency and durability::
@end menu
further functionality might not be thread-safe. For details, please
consult the documentation for your operating system.
+
+@node Data consistency and durability
+@section Data consistency and durability
+@cindex consistency, durability
+
+This section contains a brief overview of data and metadata
+consistency and durability issues when doing I/O.
+
+With respect to durability, GNU Fortran makes no effort to ensure that
+data is committed to stable storage. If this is required, the GNU
+Fortran programmer can use the intrinsic @code{FNUM} to retrieve the
+low level file descriptor corresponding to an open Fortran unit. Then,
+using e.g. the @code{ISO_C_BINDING} feature, one can call the
+underlying system call to flush dirty data to stable storage, such as
+@code{fsync} on POSIX, @code{_commit} on MingW, or @code{fcntl(fd,
+F_FULLSYNC, 0)} on Mac OS X. The following example shows how to call
+fsync:
+
+@smallexample
+ ! Declare the interface for POSIX fsync function
+ interface
+ function fsync (fd) bind(c,name="fsync")
+ use iso_c_binding, only: c_int
+ integer(c_int), value :: fd
+ integer(c_int) :: fsync
+ end function fsync
+ end interface
+
+ ! Variable declaration
+ integer :: ret
+
+ ! Opening unit 10
+ open (10,file="foo")
+
+ ! ...
+ ! Perform I/O on unit 10
+ ! ...
+
+ ! Flush and sync
+ flush(10)
+ ret = fsync(fnum(10))
+
+ ! Handle possible error
+ if (ret /= 0) stop "Error calling FSYNC"
+@end smallexample
+
+With respect to consistency, for regular files GNU Fortran uses
+buffered I/O in order to improve performance. This buffer is flushed
+automatically when full and in some other situations, e.g. when
+closing a unit. It can also be explicitly flushed with the
+@code{FLUSH} statement. Also, the buffering can be turned off with the
+@code{GFORTRAN_UNBUFFERED_ALL} and
+@code{GFORTRAN_UNBUFFERED_PRECONNECTED} environment variables. Special
+files, such as terminals and pipes, are always unbuffered. Sometimes,
+however, further things may need to be done in order to allow other
+processes to see data that GNU Fortran has written, as follows.
+
+The Windows platform supports a relaxed metadata consistency model,
+where file metadata is written to the directory lazily. This means
+that, for instance, the @code{dir} command can show a stale size for a
+file. One can force a directory metadata update by closing the unit,
+or by calling @code{_commit} on the file descriptor. Note, though,
+that @code{_commit} will force all dirty data to stable storage, which
+is often a very slow operation.
+
+The Network File System (NFS) implements a relaxed consistency model
+called open-to-close consistency. Closing a file forces dirty data and
+metadata to be flushed to the server, and opening a file forces the
+client to contact the server in order to revalidate cached
+data. @code{fsync} will also force a flush of dirty data and metadata
+to the server. Similar to @code{open} and @code{close}, acquiring and
+releasing @code{fcntl} file locks, if the server supports them, will
+also force cache validation and flushing dirty data and metadata.
+
+
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