Re: multiply files in one (was GNU/Linux stance by Richard Stallman)

Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH (allbery@kf8nh.apk.net)
Mon, 29 Mar 1999 20:33:30 -0500

In message <199903300053.KAA01302@vindaloo.atnf.CSIRO.AU>, Richard Gooch writes
:
+-----
| Larry McVoy writes:
| > Yes, that's the point. Forget everything else and concentrate on
| > designs where this point is true and you'll be rockin and rollin into
| > the performance winner's circle.
|
| OK, we agree on that. But I'm under the impression that you think that
| reading dozens of megabytes ahead *won't* give you much performance
| improvement. Is that the case or not?
+--->8

It depends on which megabytes, no? A user-space "partitioned dataset" would
most probably be arranged to be convenient for the program(s) that used it;
accomplishing the same with disk blocks arranged to produce useful readahead
is problematic, especially if the files change (extended or truncated and
extended) often.

Also, if you're depending on the system-wide buffer cache for this, you're
potentially out of luck if you run multiple programs which each want
different sets of files.

BTW, the Ultrix print server we're finally retiring uses this trick for
PostScript fragments used to initialize printers, print banner pages, etc.,
only with ar archives instead of tar.

-- 
brandon s. allbery	[os/2][linux][solaris][japh]	 allbery@kf8nh.apk.net
system administrator	     [WAY too many hats]	   allbery@ece.cmu.edu
carnegie mellon / electrical and computer engineering			 KF8NH
     We are Linux. Resistance is an indication that you missed the point.


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