[tobias3]

ZFSOnLinux just ignores the O_DIRECT flag if I remember correctly. Granted, this is what btrfs should do by default as well since there is an ugly issue where software can modify the O_DIRECT buffer after it was submitted causing btrfs checksum errors even though nothing was corrupted (and there is nothing to be done about it except disabling O_DIRECT or creating a buffer copy).

[tomatocracy]

Yes (and as you mention this is the right thing to do) but I think it means that the Linux kernel will bypass the page cache which is still useful.