IOCTL-XFS-GOINGDOWN(2)

💥 ioctl_xfs_goingdown — shut down an XFS filesystem 💥

ok so bestie. this is a page from the System Calls Manual, and it's called ioctl_xfs_goingdown. yeah. it does exactly what it sounds like. sit down, we're gonna talk about it 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

ioctl_xfs_goingdown — shut down an XFS filesystem

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

#include <xfs/xfs_fs.h>

int ioctl(int fd, XFS_IOC_GOINGDOWN, uint32_t flags);

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

ok so this call shuts down a live XFS filesystem. like, a running one. no cap. 🫠

this is a software initiated hard shutdown and honestly? it should be avoided whenever possible. that's not me being dramatic, that's the manpage being dramatic, and it's right. 🔥

the way that after this call completes, the filesystem will be totally unusable until the filesystem has been unmounted and remounted. totally. unusable. not "a little weird", not "needs a minute" — unusable. periodt. 💀

so flags can be one of these:

• XFS_FSOP_GOING_FLAGS_DEFAULT — flush all dirty data and metadata to disk, flush pending transactions to the log, and then shut down. the responsible queen option 👑
• XFS_FSOP_GOING_FLAGS_LOGFLUSH — flush all pending metadata transactions to the log and shut down, leaving all dirty data unwritten. so the metadata's fine but your data is just… out there. vibing. unwritten. 🙈
• XFS_FSOP_GOING_FLAGS_NOLOGFLUSH — shut down immediately, without writing pending transactions or dirty data to disk. no warning, no goodbye, just chaos. main character exit fr fr 🧚

🔮 RETURN VALUE 🔮

if something goes wrong, -1 gets returned, and errno is set to tell you which error it was. classic.

😭 ERRORS 😭

the error codes can be one of, but are not limited to, the following:

• EFSBADCRC — metadata checksum validation failed while performing the query. the checksum said 💀
• EFSCORRUPTED — metadata corruption was encountered while performing the query. something in there is broken broken.
• EIO — an I/O error was encountered while performing the query. the disk said "not today".
• EPERM — caller did not have permission to shut down the filesystem. bestie you don't have the keys to this house 🚪

🌈 CONFORMING TO 🌈

this API is specific to XFS filesystem on the Linux kernel. it's an XFS thing, it's a Linux kernel thing, that's the whole story. iykyk ⭐

🌸 SEE ALSO 🌸

• ioctl(2)

ok that's the whole page bestie, you're officially educated 💜

this was XFS, dated 2019-06-17, and the page itself is IOCTL-XFS-GOINGDOWN(2). love that for us. now go flush something responsibly, and please, for the love of everything, don't call this on a filesystem you actually like 🎀✨