From owner-freebsd-questions  Wed May  8 21:09:27 1996
Return-Path: owner-questions
Received: (from root@localhost)
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id VAA05348
          for questions-outgoing; Wed, 8 May 1996 21:09:27 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from Root.COM (implode.Root.COM [198.145.90.17])
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with ESMTP id VAA05343
          for <questions@freebsd.org>; Wed, 8 May 1996 21:09:25 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by Root.COM (8.7.5/8.6.5) with SMTP id VAA01491; Wed, 8 May 1996 21:09:13 -0700 (PDT)
Message-Id: <199605090409.VAA01491@Root.COM>
X-Authentication-Warning: implode.Root.COM: Host localhost [127.0.0.1] didn't use HELO protocol
To: HMG coA reductase <s_koyin@eduserv.its.unimelb.EDU.AU>
cc: questions@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Disk cache? 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Thu, 09 May 1996 13:18:01 +1000."
             <199605090318.NAA07965@eduserv.its.unimelb.EDU.AU> 
From: David Greenman <davidg@Root.COM>
Reply-To: davidg@Root.COM
Date: Wed, 08 May 1996 21:09:13 -0700
Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org
X-Loop: FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk

>g'day all,
>i am wondering if FreeBSD implements something analogous to MS-DOS'
>SmartDrive, viz a disk cache to speed up access.
>
>i noticed that if i do say a "man ifconfig" (or man whatever) consecutively,
>even with no other users around, it takes almost the same amount of time
>to bring the screen up.

   "man" decompresses the manual page each time, so it's a bad test example.
All file accesses in FreeBSD are cached and the dynamic cache can grow as
large as the amount of RAM in your machine.

-DG

David Greenman
Core-team/Principal Architect, The FreeBSD Project