From owner-freebsd-questions Tue Nov 3 14:23:28 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id OAA23141 for freebsd-questions-outgoing; Tue, 3 Nov 1998 14:23:28 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from smtp.enteract.com (thor.enteract.com [207.229.143.11]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id OAA23136 for ; Tue, 3 Nov 1998 14:23:25 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from jrs@enteract.com) Received: (qmail 16588 invoked from network); 3 Nov 1998 22:23:15 -0000 Received: from adam.enteract.com (jrs@206.54.252.1) by thor.enteract.com with SMTP; 3 Nov 1998 22:23:15 -0000 Date: Tue, 3 Nov 1998 16:23:15 -0600 (CST) From: John Sconiers To: Graeme Tait cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: File system performance In-Reply-To: <363F7AA3.22254A9C@echidna.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > I have a situation that involves manipulating large numbers of small > files of about 1k each. I recently noticed a strange performance > comparison between my "play" system (a 486-DX2/66/16MB with > run-of-the-mill IDE drives and a Promise caching controller, running > 2.2.6R) and "production" system (Pentium-II/400/256MB with Ultra 2 LVD > SCSI and 4.5GB Seagate Cheetah drives, running 2.2.7S/CAM). How big is the IDE drive > When deleting these files (rm -rf), the 486 does it with a minimum of > fuss (no trashing of the disk heads) at about 120 files a second. Disk > operations occur ever second or so with intervals between. > > The production system only manages about 40 files a second, and you can > hear that the disk heads are going for their life, vibrating back and > forth between tracks. It's impressive to hear the speed of the head > positioning, but the end result is hardly so. > > In both cases, the files being deleted were expanded from the same > archive, into a relatively empty filesystem (built with the default > fragment size, etc.). > Similar behaviour occurs when the gzipped archive is expanded, but in > this case the systems are about equal in speed. > In other filesystem comparisions, with larger files, the production > system runs rings around the test system, as you would expect. > What is happening here? Is maybe something configured wrong on the > production system? JOHN To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message