From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Aug 2 05:23:42 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4D8CB16A41F for ; Tue, 2 Aug 2005 05:23:42 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from frank@exit.com) Received: from tinker.exit.com (tinker.exit.com [206.223.0.1]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CEE7143D45 for ; Tue, 2 Aug 2005 05:23:41 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from frank@exit.com) Received: from realtime.exit.com (realtime [206.223.0.5]) by tinker.exit.com (8.13.3/8.13.3) with ESMTP id j725NdlZ068360; Mon, 1 Aug 2005 22:23:39 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from frank@exit.com) Received: from realtime.exit.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by realtime.exit.com (8.13.3/8.13.3) with ESMTP id j725NdWD024603; Mon, 1 Aug 2005 22:23:39 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from frank@realtime.exit.com) Received: (from frank@localhost) by realtime.exit.com (8.13.3/8.12.9/Submit) id j725Ncki024542; Mon, 1 Aug 2005 22:23:38 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from frank) Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2005 22:23:38 -0700 From: Frank Mayhar To: diz@linuxpowered.com Message-Id: <20050801222338.5d666438.frank@exit.com> In-Reply-To: <51934.68.95.232.238.1122957425.squirrel@68.95.232.238> References: <51934.68.95.232.238.1122957425.squirrel@68.95.232.238> Organization: Exit Consulting X-Mailer: Sylpheed version 2.0.0 (GTK+ 2.6.8; i386-portbld-freebsd5.4) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.86.1/1000/Sun Jul 31 12:28:06 2005 on tinker.exit.com X-Virus-Status: Clean Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: [patch] rc.d/tmp (silly mkdir usage) X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 02 Aug 2005 05:23:42 -0000 On Mon, 1 Aug 2005 23:37:05 -0500 (CDT) diz@linuxpowered.com wrote: > I grep'ed the entire rc.d dir, and found that the same technique is used > elsewhere in accounting, and cleanvar. So I feel justified this time, > although please review, and thanks for the look. While I understand the > need to want a fork program to touch, or otherwise create an inode, I feel > forking for such an effort is weird and a bit over-engineered. Well, while one prefers a system to boot as quickly as reasonably possible, it's not like startup is particularly performance-critical. This is another place where I feel that clarity more than compensates for (very minor) slowness, particularly when coupled with the fact that the cost of a fork()/exec() is overwhelmed by the cost of cranking up some of the heavy-weight daemons. It seems to me that you're looking at things from a very "hacky" perspective. That is, it seems that you know a lot of shortcuts that add a bit of speed here and there and that's what you're trying to apply. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.) I would suggest that you look at the startup scripts somewhat differently, by asking yourself what is _broken_ there. I've seen at least a couple of suggestions along this line in reply to you. The mkdir usage isn't really broken, it seems to me. While I'm by no stretch of the imagination an expert regarding the rc scripts (they work and I ignore them), there are others around here that are, and they can, I am certain, give you some relevant, useful and very challenging suggestions. -- Frank Mayhar frank@exit.com http://www.exit.com/ Exit Consulting http://www.gpsclock.com/ http://www.exit.com/blog/frank/