Firefox is known to fsync its sqlite database aggressively; in a few short seconds' runtime, witness: # stap -g eatmydata.stp -c 'firefox' Redirecting f*sync by pid 10526 to fd -1 Redirected f*sync by pid 10526 to fd -1, success 19 times, failed 0 times. Preserved f*sync by other processes 0 times.