diff --git a/block.c b/block.c
index dbef3ae..4186a2f 100644
--- a/block.c
+++ b/block.c
@@ -448,6 +448,8 @@
 
     if (!strcmp(mode, "off") || !strcmp(mode, "none")) {
         *flags |= BDRV_O_NOCACHE | BDRV_O_CACHE_WB;
+    } else if (!strcmp(mode, "directsync")) {
+        *flags |= BDRV_O_NOCACHE;
     } else if (!strcmp(mode, "writeback")) {
         *flags |= BDRV_O_CACHE_WB;
     } else if (!strcmp(mode, "unsafe")) {
@@ -1188,8 +1190,8 @@
         return ret;
     }
 
-    /* No flush needed for cache=writethrough, it uses O_DSYNC */
-    if ((bs->open_flags & BDRV_O_CACHE_MASK) != 0) {
+    /* No flush needed for cache modes that use O_DSYNC */
+    if ((bs->open_flags & BDRV_O_CACHE_WB) != 0) {
         bdrv_flush(bs);
     }
 
diff --git a/qemu-config.c b/qemu-config.c
index 1eb6b9a..139e077 100644
--- a/qemu-config.c
+++ b/qemu-config.c
@@ -55,7 +55,8 @@
         },{
             .name = "cache",
             .type = QEMU_OPT_STRING,
-            .help = "host cache usage (none, writeback, writethrough, unsafe)",
+            .help = "host cache usage (none, writeback, writethrough, "
+                    "directsync, unsafe)",
         },{
             .name = "aio",
             .type = QEMU_OPT_STRING,
diff --git a/qemu-img.c b/qemu-img.c
index 5e203c2..10a3a8b 100644
--- a/qemu-img.c
+++ b/qemu-img.c
@@ -66,7 +66,8 @@
            "  'filename' is a disk image filename\n"
            "  'fmt' is the disk image format. It is guessed automatically in most cases\n"
            "  'cache' is the cache mode used to write the output disk image, the valid\n"
-           "    options are: 'none', 'writeback' (default), 'writethrough' and 'unsafe'\n"
+           "    options are: 'none', 'writeback' (default), 'writethrough', 'directsync'\n"
+           "    and 'unsafe'\n"
            "  'size' is the disk image size in bytes. Optional suffixes\n"
            "    'k' or 'K' (kilobyte, 1024), 'M' (megabyte, 1024k), 'G' (gigabyte, 1024M)\n"
            "    and T (terabyte, 1024G) are supported. 'b' is ignored.\n"
diff --git a/qemu-options.hx b/qemu-options.hx
index d86815d..35d95d1 100644
--- a/qemu-options.hx
+++ b/qemu-options.hx
@@ -133,7 +133,7 @@
 DEF("drive", HAS_ARG, QEMU_OPTION_drive,
     "-drive [file=file][,if=type][,bus=n][,unit=m][,media=d][,index=i]\n"
     "       [,cyls=c,heads=h,secs=s[,trans=t]][,snapshot=on|off]\n"
-    "       [,cache=writethrough|writeback|none|unsafe][,format=f]\n"
+    "       [,cache=writethrough|writeback|none|directsync|unsafe][,format=f]\n"
     "       [,serial=s][,addr=A][,id=name][,aio=threads|native]\n"
     "       [,readonly=on|off]\n"
     "                use 'file' as a drive image\n", QEMU_ARCH_ALL)
@@ -164,7 +164,7 @@
 @item snapshot=@var{snapshot}
 @var{snapshot} is "on" or "off" and allows to enable snapshot for given drive (see @option{-snapshot}).
 @item cache=@var{cache}
-@var{cache} is "none", "writeback", "unsafe", or "writethrough" and controls how the host cache is used to access block data.
+@var{cache} is "none", "writeback", "unsafe", "directsync" or "writethrough" and controls how the host cache is used to access block data.
 @item aio=@var{aio}
 @var{aio} is "threads", or "native" and selects between pthread based disk I/O and native Linux AIO.
 @item format=@var{format}
@@ -199,6 +199,10 @@
 attempt to do disk IO directly to the guests memory.  QEMU may still perform
 an internal copy of the data.
 
+The host page cache can be avoided while only sending write notifications to
+the guest when the data has been reported as written by the storage subsystem
+using @option{cache=directsync}.
+
 Some block drivers perform badly with @option{cache=writethrough}, most notably,
 qcow2.  If performance is more important than correctness,
 @option{cache=writeback} should be used with qcow2.