usbmount (0.0.17) unstable; urgency=low

  * Starting with version 0.0.17, usbmount *WILL* recognize and
    automount devices with the vfat filesystem, as those are supported
    by the Linux kernel with the "sync" mount option since Linux
    2.6.12. [0]

  * Users should be aware that independently of the filesystem used by
    the mass storage device, *ANY* filesystem that resides in flash
    memory will become unreadable after some time. This unfortunate
    situation is intrinsic to the storage medium and better quality
    flash drives perform a "wear levelling" operation, distributing the
    load of operations across the whole device.

    Filesystems using flash memory and mounted with the sync option can
    degrade earlier due to the fact that the sync mount option forces
    the operating system to write data more frequently to the device
    than if it were mounted without the sync option.

    So, why mount filesystems with the sync option then? The reason is
    to keep the written data on the drive reflecting what the user
    thinks is on the flash drive, and, more importantly, to avoid the
    problem of the user unplugging the device before it is finished
    receiving data that the kernel has on the memory of the computer and
    that is meant to be written to the device.

    If you don't like the sync option with your filesystems, then you
    can remove it from the configuration file of usbmount and use your
    devices with better performance and longer life time. *BUT* you
    should always make sure that you use the "sync" command (on a shell)
    to ensure that there is no writes pending for the device in
    question, so that you don't loose any data when you unplug the
    device from the computer.

  [0] http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/old-2.6-bkcvs.git;a=commit;h=3e261a474262b622709d4851a1f26123e61ab13c

 -- Rogério Brito <rbrito@ime.usp.br>  Thu, 30 Apr 2009 20:01:29 -0300
