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On 2011-09-03T18:13:44+00:00 Tristan Schmelcher wrote:

I am using LibreOffice 3.3.3 on Ubuntu 11.04 amd64 (distro-provided
packages). Recently I was working on a document in LibreOffice while my
battery was low and so I was frequently saving, which I thought would
help me if I lost power. However, when I eventually did lose power and
later rebooted, the document had become 0 bytes long. LibreOffice was
not able to restore the auto-saved copy either. As a result, I have lost
a whole week of notes for one of my courses.

After researching online, it seems that this is caused by the
application not calling fsync() (or fdatasync()) when saving files. Due
to delayed allocation in modern filesystems, there is no guarantee that
the new file's data has actually been written to disk unless the
application calls fsync. So if an app writes a new file and replaces the
old one with it without fsync'ing the new one first then there is a
window of opportunity during which a power failure will result in the
loss of BOTH versions of the file. In ext4 this window is also much
larger than in ext3.

Theodore Tso blogged about this at http://ldn.linuxfoundation.org/blog-
entry/delayed-allocation-and-zero-length-file-problem and
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/news-media/blogs/browse/2009/03/don%E2%80
%99t-fear-fsync. He strongly recommends to call fsync in this situation.

Please update LibreOffice to fsync() saved files so that other users do
not lose their data like I did.

Forwarding upstream from Ubuntu bug at
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libreoffice/+bug/817326

You can see evidence of more users encountering this at:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=11215058
http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=39666

Reply at: https://bugs.launchpad.net/df-
libreoffice/+bug/817326/comments/4

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On 2011-09-08T10:15:54+00:00 Davian818 wrote:

Since when filesystem issues are application concern?

Reply at: https://bugs.launchpad.net/df-
libreoffice/+bug/817326/comments/5

------------------------------------------------------------------------
On 2011-09-08T15:47:54+00:00 Tristan Schmelcher wrote:

This is not a filesystem issue, the filesystem is behaving correctly. In
order to persist data to disk (on _any_ filesystem), the application
must call fsync(). This is part of the POSIX spec. By not calling
fsync(), LibreOffice is basically _telling_ the filesystem that it is
not important to retain this file in the event of a power outage.

Reply at: https://bugs.launchpad.net/df-
libreoffice/+bug/817326/comments/6

------------------------------------------------------------------------
On 2011-09-23T09:42:37+00:00 Tristan Schmelcher wrote:

Here's a decent example of how to fsync() from Java: http://android-
developers.blogspot.com/2010/12/saving-data-safely.html.

Note that if using buffered I/O then you also need to flush the data
before the sync().

Reply at: https://bugs.launchpad.net/df-
libreoffice/+bug/817326/comments/9

------------------------------------------------------------------------
On 2011-10-27T11:32:32+00:00 John-iglar wrote:

I'm adding a "me too" here. Our school is using Ubuntu and LibreOffice
and we have had many students lose work due to this bug.

Repeat Tristan's comment - not a filesystem issue, but application. 
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/317781/comments/45

Reply at: https://bugs.launchpad.net/df-
libreoffice/+bug/817326/comments/10

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/817326

Title:
  [Upstream] Previously-saved LibreOffice document lost by power outage
  (became 0 bytes long) - LibreOffice should call fsync

Status in LibreOffice Productivity Suite:
  Confirmed
Status in “libreoffice” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  I was working on a document in LibreOffice today while my battery was
  low and so I was frequently saving, which I thought would help me if I
  lost power. However, when I eventually did lose power and later
  rebooted, the document had become 0 bytes long. LibreOffice was not
  able to restore the auto-saved copy either. As a result, I have lost a
  whole week of notes for one of my courses.

  After researching online, it seems that this is caused by the
  application not calling fsync() (or fdatasync()) when saving files.
  Due to delayed allocation in modern filesystems, there is no guarantee
  that the new file's data has actually been written to disk unless the
  application calls fsync. So if an app writes a new file and replaces
  the old one with it without fsync'ing the new one first then there is
  a window of opportunity during which a power failure will result in
  the loss of BOTH versions of the file. In ext4 this window is also
  much larger than in ext3.

  Theodore Tso blogged about this at http://ldn.linuxfoundation.org
  /blog-entry/delayed-allocation-and-zero-length-file-problem and
  http://www.linuxfoundation.org/news-
  media/blogs/browse/2009/03/don%E2%80%99t-fear-fsync. He strongly
  recommends to call fsync in this situation.

  Please update LibreOffice to fsync() saved files so that other users
  do not lose their data like I did.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
  Package: libreoffice-core 1:3.3.2-1ubuntu5
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic 2.6.38.2
  Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic x86_64
  Architecture: amd64
  Date: Wed Jul 27 21:37:02 2011
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100429)
  ProcEnviron:
   LANGUAGE=en_US:en
   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  SourcePackage: libreoffice
  UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to natty on 2011-04-29 (89 days ago)

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