diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/config.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/config.sgml
index ea9192625cc..ecee5507c26 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/config.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/config.sgml
@@ -1347,12 +1347,12 @@ SET ENABLE_SEQSCAN TO OFF;
         </listitem>
         <listitem>
         <para>
-         <literal>fsync_writethrough</> (call <function>fsync()</> at each commit, forcing write-through of any disk write cache)
+         <literal>fsync</> (call <function>fsync()</> at each commit)
         </para>
         </listitem>
         <listitem>
         <para>
-         <literal>fsync</> (call <function>fsync()</> at each commit)
+         <literal>fsync_writethrough</> (call <function>fsync()</> at each commit, forcing write-through of any disk write cache)
         </para>
         </listitem>
         <listitem>
@@ -1363,7 +1363,9 @@ SET ENABLE_SEQSCAN TO OFF;
        </itemizedlist>
        <para>
         Not all of these choices are available on all platforms.
-        The default is the first method in the above list that is supported.
+        The default is the first method in the above list that is supported
+        by the platform, except that <literal>fdatasync</> is the default on
+        Linux.
         This option can be set at server start or in the
         <filename>postgresql.conf</filename> file.
        </para>
diff --git a/src/backend/access/transam/xlog.c b/src/backend/access/transam/xlog.c
index a8fdf407809..c3097a28a50 100644
--- a/src/backend/access/transam/xlog.c
+++ b/src/backend/access/transam/xlog.c
@@ -92,7 +92,11 @@
 #endif
 #endif
 
-#if defined(OPEN_DATASYNC_FLAG)
+#if defined(PLATFORM_DEFAULT_SYNC_METHOD)
+#define DEFAULT_SYNC_METHOD_STR	PLATFORM_DEFAULT_SYNC_METHOD_STR
+#define DEFAULT_SYNC_METHOD		PLATFORM_DEFAULT_SYNC_METHOD
+#define DEFAULT_SYNC_FLAGBIT	PLATFORM_DEFAULT_SYNC_FLAGBIT
+#elif defined(OPEN_DATASYNC_FLAG)
 #define DEFAULT_SYNC_METHOD_STR "open_datasync"
 #define DEFAULT_SYNC_METHOD		SYNC_METHOD_OPEN
 #define DEFAULT_SYNC_FLAGBIT	OPEN_DATASYNC_FLAG
@@ -100,10 +104,6 @@
 #define DEFAULT_SYNC_METHOD_STR "fdatasync"
 #define DEFAULT_SYNC_METHOD		SYNC_METHOD_FDATASYNC
 #define DEFAULT_SYNC_FLAGBIT	0
-#elif defined(HAVE_FSYNC_WRITETHROUGH_ONLY)
-#define DEFAULT_SYNC_METHOD_STR "fsync_writethrough"
-#define DEFAULT_SYNC_METHOD		SYNC_METHOD_FSYNC_WRITETHROUGH
-#define DEFAULT_SYNC_FLAGBIT	0
 #else
 #define DEFAULT_SYNC_METHOD_STR "fsync"
 #define DEFAULT_SYNC_METHOD		SYNC_METHOD_FSYNC
diff --git a/src/backend/storage/file/fd.c b/src/backend/storage/file/fd.c
index 3e3932b861e..87b6865ee67 100644
--- a/src/backend/storage/file/fd.c
+++ b/src/backend/storage/file/fd.c
@@ -237,12 +237,13 @@ static void RemovePgTempFilesInDir(const char *tmpdirname);
 int
 pg_fsync(int fd)
 {
-#ifndef HAVE_FSYNC_WRITETHROUGH_ONLY
-	if (sync_method != SYNC_METHOD_FSYNC_WRITETHROUGH)
-		return pg_fsync_no_writethrough(fd);
+	/* #if is to skip the sync_method test if there's no need for it */
+#if defined(HAVE_FSYNC_WRITETHROUGH) && !defined(FSYNC_WRITETHROUGH_IS_FSYNC)
+	if (sync_method == SYNC_METHOD_FSYNC_WRITETHROUGH)
+		return pg_fsync_writethrough(fd);
 	else
 #endif
-		return pg_fsync_writethrough(fd);
+		return pg_fsync_no_writethrough(fd);
 }
 
 
diff --git a/src/backend/utils/misc/postgresql.conf.sample b/src/backend/utils/misc/postgresql.conf.sample
index 29d7c078524..df62b67830c 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/misc/postgresql.conf.sample
+++ b/src/backend/utils/misc/postgresql.conf.sample
@@ -138,7 +138,7 @@
 #wal_sync_method = fsync		# the default is the first option 
 					# supported by the operating system:
 					#   open_datasync
-					#   fdatasync
+					#   fdatasync (default on Linux)
 					#   fsync
 					#   fsync_writethrough
 					#   open_sync
diff --git a/src/include/port/linux.h b/src/include/port/linux.h
index 6feb22e1d5c..562b5fbf045 100644
--- a/src/include/port/linux.h
+++ b/src/include/port/linux.h
@@ -10,3 +10,13 @@
  * to have a kernel version test here.
  */
 #define HAVE_LINUX_EIDRM_BUG
+
+/*
+ * Set the default wal_sync_method to fdatasync.  With recent Linux versions,
+ * xlogdefs.h's normal rules will prefer open_datasync, which (a) doesn't
+ * perform better and (b) causes outright failures on ext4 data=journal
+ * filesystems, because those don't support O_DIRECT.
+ */
+#define PLATFORM_DEFAULT_SYNC_METHOD_STR "fdatasync"
+#define PLATFORM_DEFAULT_SYNC_METHOD	SYNC_METHOD_FDATASYNC
+#define PLATFORM_DEFAULT_SYNC_FLAGBIT	0
diff --git a/src/include/port/win32.h b/src/include/port/win32.h
index 93d6e2a74c3..cefafd0bd98 100644
--- a/src/include/port/win32.h
+++ b/src/include/port/win32.h
@@ -16,15 +16,19 @@
 #define mkdir(a,b)	mkdir(a)
 
 
-#define HAVE_FSYNC_WRITETHROUGH
-#define HAVE_FSYNC_WRITETHROUGH_ONLY
 #define ftruncate(a,b)	chsize(a,b)
-/*
- *	Even though we don't support 'fsync' as a wal_sync_method,
- *	we do fsync() a few other places where _commit() is just fine.
- */
+
+/* Windows doesn't have fsync() as such, use _commit() */
 #define fsync(fd) _commit(fd)
 
+/*
+ * For historical reasons, we allow setting wal_sync_method to
+ * fsync_writethrough on Windows, even though it's really identical to fsync
+ * (both code paths wind up at _commit()).
+ */
+#define HAVE_FSYNC_WRITETHROUGH
+#define FSYNC_WRITETHROUGH_IS_FSYNC
+
 #define USES_WINSOCK
 
 /* defines for dynamic linking on Win32 platform */