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IRP_MJ_FLUSH_BUFFERS (FS and filter drivers)

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When Sent

The I/O Manager, other operating system components, and other kernel-mode drivers send IRP_MJ_FLUSH_BUFFERS requests when buffered data needs to be flushed to disk. It can be sent, for example, when a user-mode application has called a Win32 function such as FlushFileBuffers. (For file system drivers and file system filter drivers, calling CcFlushCache is preferable to sending an IRP.)

All file system and filter drivers that maintain internal buffers for data must handle this IRP so that changes to file data or metadata can be preserved across system shutdowns.

Operation: File System Drivers

The file system driver should flush to disk any important data or metadata associated with the file object and complete the IRP. For more information about how to handle this IRP, study the FASTFAT sample.

Operation: Legacy File System Filter Drivers

The filter driver should flush to disk any important data or metadata associated with the file object and pass this IRP down to the next-lower driver on the stack.

Parameters

A file system or filter driver calls IoGetCurrentIrpStackLocation with the given IRP to get a pointer to its own stack location in the IRP, shown in the following list as IrpSp. (The IRP is shown as Irp.) The driver can use the information that is set in the following members of the IRP and the IRP stack location in processing a flush buffers request:

  • DeviceObject is a pointer to the target device object.

  • Irp->IoStatus points to an IO_STATUS_BLOCK structure that receives the final completion status and information about the requested operation.

  • IrpSp->FileObject points to the file object that is associated with DeviceObject.

    The IrpSp->FileObject parameter contains a pointer to the RelatedFileObject field, which is also a FILE_OBJECT structure. The RelatedFileObject field of the FILE_OBJECT structure isn't valid during the processing of IRP_MJ_FLUSH_BUFFERS and shouldn't be used.

  • IrpSp->MajorFunction is set to IRP_MJ_FLUSH_BUFFERS.

See also

CcFlushCache

IO_STACK_LOCATION

IO_STATUS_BLOCK

IoGetCurrentIrpStackLocation

IRP

IRP_MJ_FLUSH_BUFFERS (WDK Kernel Reference)