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 lose 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