From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Mar 14 15:02:53 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A6B0B106567A for ; Sat, 14 Mar 2009 15:02:53 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd-questions-local@be-well.ilk.org) Received: from mail1.sea5.speakeasy.net (mail1.sea5.speakeasy.net [69.17.117.3]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7D9148FC19 for ; Sat, 14 Mar 2009 15:02:53 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd-questions-local@be-well.ilk.org) Received: (qmail 17215 invoked from network); 14 Mar 2009 15:02:53 -0000 Received: from dsl092-078-145.bos1.dsl.speakeasy.net (HELO be-well.ilk.org) ([66.92.78.145]) (envelope-sender ) by mail1.sea5.speakeasy.net (qmail-ldap-1.03) with SMTP for ; 14 Mar 2009 15:02:52 -0000 Received: from lowell-desk.lan (lowell-desk.lan [172.30.250.6]) by be-well.ilk.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A843550825; Sat, 14 Mar 2009 11:02:48 -0400 (EDT) Received: by lowell-desk.lan (Postfix, from userid 1147) id 5CE881CF41; Sat, 14 Mar 2009 11:02:48 -0400 (EDT) To: prad References: <20090312223713.55535586@gom.home> From: Lowell Gilbert Date: Sat, 14 Mar 2009 11:02:48 -0400 In-Reply-To: <20090312223713.55535586@gom.home> (prad@towardsfreedom.com's message of "Thu\, 12 Mar 2009 22\:37\:13 -0700") Message-ID: <448wn8taef.fsf@lowell-desk.lan> User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.3 (berkeley-unix) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: the pause that removes X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 14 Mar 2009 15:02:54 -0000 prad writes: > one of the neat things i've found about freebsd vs linux is the > 'instantaneous' rm. > > when you remove a large file or a substantial directory, freebsd does > it right away ard you get your prompt back, while with every linux i've > tried, you wait and wait and wait. > > i presume freebsd just takes the pointer to the file out so it can be > overwritten, while may be the linuxes fill stuff with zeros or > something like that?? > > is this instantaneity a result of the ufs file system vs say ext3 or > reiser? I've never noticed that large directory trees were "instantaneous" to remove on any filesystem. I haven't done any benchmarks, either, though. I'm not going to accept it as a real FreeBSD advantage unless I saw some solid benchmarks... -- Lowell Gilbert, embedded/networking software engineer, Boston area http://be-well.ilk.org/~lowell/