SYNC

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: February 2026
Index Return to Main Contents

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NAME

sync - Synchronize cached writes to persistent storage  

SYNOPSIS

sync [,OPTION/] [,FILE/]...  

DESCRIPTION

Synchronize cached writes to persistent storage

If one or more files are specified, sync only them, or their containing file systems.

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#syn-d'-d, --dataX'tty: link'

sync only file data, no unneeded metadata

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#syn-f'-f, --file-systemX'tty: link'

sync the file systems that contain the files

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/sync#syn-help'--helpX'tty: link'

display this help and exit

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/sync#syn-version'--versionX'tty: link'

output version information and exit

 

BUGS

Persistence guarantees vary per system. See the system calls below for more details.  

AUTHOR

Written by Jim Meyering and Giuseppe Scrivano.  

REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to: bug-coreutils@gnu.org

Report Gentoo bugs to: https://bugs.gentoo.org/
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>  

SEE ALSO

fdatasync(2), fsync(2), sync(2), syncfs(2)

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/sync>
or available locally via: info aq(coreutils) sync invocationaq

Packaged by Gentoo (9.10 (p0))
Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

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Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

BUGS

AUTHOR

REPORTING BUGS

SEE ALSO