From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jun 14 14:45:54 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (unknown [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 25353106564A for ; Thu, 14 Jun 2012 14:45:54 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mx01.qsc.de (mx01.qsc.de [213.148.129.14]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D674B8FC0A for ; Thu, 14 Jun 2012 14:45:53 +0000 (UTC) Received: from r56.edvax.de (port-92-195-40-10.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.40.10]) by mx01.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id 584D83D46C; Thu, 14 Jun 2012 16:45:47 +0200 (CEST) Received: from r56.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r56.edvax.de (8.14.5/8.14.5) with SMTP id q5EEjk3g003404; Thu, 14 Jun 2012 16:45:46 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2012 16:45:46 +0200 From: Polytropon To: Daniel Feenberg Message-Id: <20120614164546.6e83bb12.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: References: <4FD967E8.60305@dreamchaser.org> <20120614080511.0d855639.freebsd@edvax.de> <201206141437.52763.jmc-freebsd2@milibyte.co.uk> Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 3.1.1 (GTK+ 2.24.5; i386-portbld-freebsd8.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Mike Clarke , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: USB device activity when not mounted X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: Polytropon List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2012 14:45:54 -0000 On Thu, 14 Jun 2012 09:49:00 -0400 (EDT), Daniel Feenberg wrote: > Is it possible that there is volitile memory buffering in the stick that > may not have been written to flash when umount thinks it is complete, and > the flashing light is an indication that power is still required to > complete the write to non-volitile memory? That is possible, but then, the light should be silent after a finite amount of time. > Futhermore, are we sure that umount even waits for a sync? There is no > mention of that in the man page and I don't recall any long waits for > umount to return. If I remember correctly, the umount command instructs the kernel to write all pending file buffers and then detach the device from the file system hierarchy. When the device has been detached (doesn't appear anymore in mount output), everything should have been written. However, as you said it might be possible that _inside_ the USB stick there is still an action that needs to be performed and therefore requires power. But I doubt this takes several seconds to complete... -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...