{
  "slug": "writeback-error",
  "term": "Writeback error",
  "aliases": [],
  "definition": "A writeback error is a failure encountered while transferring modified cached data to its backing storage.",
  "note": "Linux's generic tracking can report an error to every file description open at the time of failure, not just the writer responsible for particular bytes. An error report does not identify a complete damaged-byte range. Preserve the first failure when deciding whether an application transaction is durable.",
  "status": "shipping",
  "advantages": [],
  "limitations": [],
  "related": [
    "fsync",
    "errseq-t",
    "write-back-cache"
  ],
  "supersedes": [],
  "supersededBy": [],
  "firstSeen": null,
  "lastSeen": null,
  "citations": [
    {
      "id": "linux-vfs",
      "title": "Linux VFS: Handling errors during writeback",
      "url": "https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/filesystems/vfs.html#handling-errors-during-writeback",
      "accessed": "2026-10-10"
    },
    {
      "id": "hesela-fsync",
      "title": "Hesela: Why retrying a failed fsync does not prove durability",
      "url": "https://hesela.com/analyses/fsync-failure-retry-durability/",
      "accessed": "2026-10-10"
    }
  ],
  "updated": "2026-10-10"
}