filesystem information

[Jim]

> Just a thought, but in normal circumstances files *are* written to,
> even when they are just being read: the access time is updated (unless
> you mount the fs with the noatime flag).
>

quite true, but isn't that file metadata and not the actual file? I
thought most filesystems had a file-entry section, with all the
metadata, permissions, etc, and a file data section, which contains
the information of the actual file.

I guess I wouldn't be surprised if the metadata being edited were
corrupted, but to corrupt the file data/location seems odd to me.
Especially with soft updates; unless I'm mistaken, that's what it is
supposed to minimise.
-Jim