From owner-freebsd-hackers Sun Aug 17 18:50:48 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id SAA11235 for hackers-outgoing; Sun, 17 Aug 1997 18:50:48 -0700 (PDT) Received: from dg-rtp.dg.com (dg-rtp.rtp.dg.com [128.222.1.2]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id SAA11199 for ; Sun, 17 Aug 1997 18:50:41 -0700 (PDT) Received: by dg-rtp.dg.com (5.4R3.10/dg-rtp-v02) id AB28045; Sun, 17 Aug 1997 21:50:07 -0400 Received: from ponds by dg-rtp.dg.com.rtp.dg.com; Sun, 17 Aug 1997 21:50 EDT Received: from lakes.dignus.com (lakes [10.0.0.3]) by ponds.dignus.com (8.8.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id PAA07357; Sun, 17 Aug 1997 15:24:44 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from rivers@localhost) by lakes.dignus.com (8.8.5/8.6.9) id PAA02042; Sun, 17 Aug 1997 15:17:59 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 17 Aug 1997 15:17:59 -0400 (EDT) From: Thomas David Rivers Message-Id: <199708171917.PAA02042@lakes.dignus.com> To: ponds!sunyit.edu!perlsta, ponds!lakes.dignus.com!rivers Subject: Re: More info on slow "rm" times with 2.2.1+. Cc: ponds!freefall.cdrom.com!freebsd-hackers Content-Type: text Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > > This is a sure sign of a failing disk. > if the disk makes a lot of whirring noises that fade in and out (listen to > it with the cover off) or a grinding kind of noise then youi are in > trouble, use the disk checking program to tet the the disk itr's called > "bad_144" i think... Ummm... I didn't mean to give that impression; the sounds definately sound like "real" I/O (i.e. twiddling, not whirring/grinding). And the case is hardly ever closed :-) It's a relatively new disk and hasn't given me any troubles in the past... But - I'll keep an eye out for something like that happening... - Thanks! - - Dave R. - > > ._________________________________________ __ _ > |Alfred Perlstein - Programming & SysAdmin for hire... > |perlsta@sunyit.edu > |http://www.cs.sunyit.edu/~perlsta > : ---"Have you seen my FreeBSD tatoo?" > ' ---"who was that masked admin?" > > On Thu, 14 Aug 1997, Thomas David Rivers wrote: > > > > > Ok - > > > > I've (at last) replaced the 8meg 386 with a 24meg 486dx2-66. > > > > So, I expected to be able to simply mount that same file system, > > and quickly remove the files in /usr/spool/news/control. > > > > However - things are not going any faster... > > > > I have determined that it's not the argument processing; I can > > simply pick a single file to remove; issue: > > > > rm file > > > > and it takes upwards of 3 to 5 seconds and a *slew* of disk > > activity to accomplish the task... (recall, this is a miserable > > little IDE drive as well.. the 'rm' spends a lot of its time > > in biowait.) > > > > What I'm looking at now is a directory full of about 20,000 files, > > each of which is around 1024 bytes... (should be readily reproducible.) > > Then, simply pick a file to remove & wait... > > > > It appears to me that the remove is rewritting the entire directory > > structure (probably spanning more than one inode, since the file names > > are 7 bytes each - 20,000 * 7 is a few bytes :-) :-) > > > > Is this the case - and if so, is my achingly slow IDE I/O the real > > cause of the bottleneck in getting this data rewritten, or has something > > else happened in this area in 2.2.x? > > > > - Thanks - > > - Dave Rivers - > > > > p.s. We'll see what this 486 does to the "daily panics" when I can > > get news running again... > > > >