"full_page_writes" makes no difference?

Hi guys,

No matter I turn on or turn off the "full_page_writes", I always
observe 8192-byte writes of log data for simple write operations
(write/update).

But according to the document, when this is off, it could speed up
operations but may cause problems during recovery. So, I guess this is
because it writes less when the option is turned off. However, this
contradicts my observations ....

If I am not missing anything, I find that the writes of log data go
through function "XLogWrite" in source file
"backend/access/transam/xlog.c".

In this file, log data are written with the following code:

from = XLogCtl->pages + startidx * (Size) XLOG_BLCKSZ;
nbytes = npages * (Size) XLOG_BLCKSZ;
if (write(openLogFile, from, nbytes) != nbytes)
{...
}

So, "nbytes" should always be multiples of XLOG_BLCKSZ, which in the
default case, is 8192.

My question is, if it always writes full pages no matter
"full_page_writes" is on or off, what is the difference?

Thanks!

Regards,
- Tian