I'm running Linux travis 2.6.15-1-686 #2 Mon Mar 6 15:27:08 UTC 2006 i686 GNU/Linux on a laptop with ext3 on / Some time ago things started getting weird in the following way: I do a fairly normal hack, ^Z, make, test loop when developing and it seems that vim is calling fsync or sync and that is then flushing everything to disk. My tests create maybe 10 dozen files in ~30MB and for some reason this is taking 4 seconds to flush. I'm not sure if ext3, the kernel, or vim is the problem. I already googled and set set swapsync=sync set nofsync in my .exrc but that hasn't helped. Has anyone else seen this and do they have a work around? I'm about to switch to reiserfs and that's a lot of fuss for what should be a simple problem (I hope). Thanks, -- --- Larry McVoy lm at bitmover.com http://www.bitkeeper.com
On Thursday August 31, lm at bitmover.com wrote:> I'm running > > Linux travis 2.6.15-1-686 #2 Mon Mar 6 15:27:08 UTC 2006 i686 GNU/Linux > > on a laptop with ext3 on / > > Some time ago things started getting weird in the following way: I do a > fairly normal hack, ^Z, make, test loop when developing and it seems > that vim is calling fsync or sync and that is then flushing everything > to disk. My tests create maybe 10 dozen files in ~30MB and for some > reason this is taking 4 seconds to flush. > > I'm not sure if ext3, the kernel, or vim is the problem. I already > googled and set > > set swapsync=sync > set nofsync > > in my .exrc but that hasn't helped. > > Has anyone else seen this and do they have a work around? I'm about to > switch to reiserfs and that's a lot of fuss for what should be a simple > problem (I hope).I've noticed this sort of problem, but it hasn't yet been enough to make me explore very far.... One thing worth a try is to mount with data=writeback. Though I sustem that set swapsyncmight be fastest, but might not be what you want. NeilBrown
(posting again from my subscribed address as it is a members' only list - grumble) On Thursday August 31, lm at bitmover.com wrote:> I'm running > > Linux travis 2.6.15-1-686 #2 Mon Mar 6 15:27:08 UTC 2006 i686 GNU/Linux > > on a laptop with ext3 on / > > Some time ago things started getting weird in the following way: I do a > fairly normal hack, ^Z, make, test loop when developing and it seems > that vim is calling fsync or sync and that is then flushing everything > to disk. My tests create maybe 10 dozen files in ~30MB and for some > reason this is taking 4 seconds to flush. > > I'm not sure if ext3, the kernel, or vim is the problem. I already > googled and set > > set swapsync=sync > set nofsync > > in my .exrc but that hasn't helped. > > Has anyone else seen this and do they have a work around? I'm about to > switch to reiserfs and that's a lot of fuss for what should be a simple > problem (I hope).I've noticed this sort of problem, but it hasn't yet been enough to make me explore very far.... One thing worth a try is to mount with data=writeback. Though I sustem that set swapsyncmight be fastest, but might not be what you want. NeilBrown
[resent to ext3-users at redhat.com] On Thu, 31 Aug 2006, Larry McVoy wrote:> Some time ago things started getting weird in the following way: I do a > fairly normal hack, ^Z, make, test loop when developing and it seems----------------------^ this would STOP your editor (vi), but do you :w before you do this?> that vim is calling fsync or syncyou can start vim via strace(1) to find out which one is called.> and that is then flushing everything to disk. My tests create maybe 10 > dozen files in ~30MB and for some reason this is taking 4 seconds to > flush.How full is the fs, maybe fragmentation is bad or the 4 sec are even I/O-bound? What mount-options are used? It'd be intresting to reproduce this behaviour on a fresh filesystem.> I'm about to switch to reiserfs and that's a lot of fuss for what shouldLet us know if this solved the problem ;) Christian. -- BOFH excuse #277: Your Flux Capacitor has gone bad.