5.2.1p6, Sparc64 && ypwhich

[Tillman Hodgson]

On Thu, May 13, 2004 at 04:43:44PM -0700, Mike Hogsett wrote:
> 
> > A buildworld would be preferable. Reinstalling the include files and
> > just building ypwhich should work, but other programs use this header
> > too, so it would be nice to get a more complete test coverage.
> 
> Ok.  I just started the buildworld.  The host is only an Ultra5 at
> 360Mhz with 128Mbytes RAM so this is going to take a while.  I'll have
> an answer for you tomorrow.

(heading off towards a new topic, but hey, the sparc64 list needs more
 off-topic posts anyway ;-) )

In my tests it's not the CPU in the Ultra5 that makes buildworld slow,
it's the IDE interface that must've been designed by Lucas[1]. Adding
memory helps simply because it lets the file cache stand a chance,
though I don't believe the buildworld process re-uses nearly as many
files as, say, a production web server.

There are two things I've tried to alleviate the slow disk I/O:

* I tried using an Ultra SCSI card and drive. This helps immensely, but
  I needed the card for another box.

* I mount /usr/obj, /usr/src and /usr/ports off another box. With a bit
  of NFS tuning, I went from around 2MB/s to around 8MB/s

Seriously, by NFS mounting the filesystems needed to buildworld, I
drastically speed them up as compared to local disk.

"The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger
 than we can imagine."  -J. B. S. Haldane

seems oddly appropriate ;-)

-T


1. Collectors of classic British motorcycles will know what I'm talking
   about. Lucas designed electrical systems, including lights. They were
   often nicknaemd "Lucas, the Prince of Darkness" (a great pun)


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