From nobody Wed Jan 10 20:43:33 2024 X-Original-To: freebsd-current@mlmmj.nyi.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2610:1c1:1:606c::19:1]) by mlmmj.nyi.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4T9KWz0RSHz566wF for ; Wed, 10 Jan 2024 20:43:43 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from lyndon@orthanc.ca) Received: from orthanc.ca (orthanc.ca [208.79.93.154]) (using TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256/256 bits) key-exchange X25519 server-signature RSA-PSS (4096 bits) server-digest SHA512) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 4T9KWx6N99z4hlw; Wed, 10 Jan 2024 20:43:41 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from lyndon@orthanc.ca) Authentication-Results: mx1.freebsd.org; dkim=none; dmarc=none; spf=pass (mx1.freebsd.org: domain of lyndon@orthanc.ca designates 208.79.93.154 as permitted sender) smtp.mailfrom=lyndon@orthanc.ca Received: from orthanc.ca (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by orthanc.ca (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTP id 67d6fad9; Wed, 10 Jan 2024 12:43:33 -0800 (PST) From: "Lyndon Nerenberg (VE7TFX/VE6BBM)" To: Olivier Certner cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: noatime on ufs2 In-reply-to: <6714298.qJWK8QVVMX@ravel> References: <2eabfb91-afc3-47f7-98b9-1a1791ae6e7d@app.fastmail.com> <6714298.qJWK8QVVMX@ravel> Comments: In-reply-to Olivier Certner message dated "Tue, 09 Jan 2024 09:47:59 +0100." List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Archive: https://lists.freebsd.org/archives/freebsd-current List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: Sender: owner-freebsd-current@freebsd.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-ID: <50122.1704919413.1@orthanc.ca> Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2024 12:43:33 -0800 Message-ID: X-Spamd-Bar: -- X-Spamd-Result: default: False [-2.97 / 15.00]; NEURAL_HAM_LONG(-1.00)[-1.000]; NEURAL_HAM_MEDIUM(-1.00)[-1.000]; NEURAL_HAM_SHORT(-0.77)[-0.769]; R_SPF_ALLOW(-0.20)[+ip4:208.79.93.154]; MIME_GOOD(-0.10)[text/plain]; ONCE_RECEIVED(0.10)[]; ARC_NA(0.00)[]; ASN(0.00)[asn:25795, ipnet:208.79.88.0/21, country:US]; MIME_TRACE(0.00)[0:+]; RCVD_COUNT_ONE(0.00)[1]; TO_DN_SOME(0.00)[]; FROM_HAS_DN(0.00)[]; RCPT_COUNT_TWO(0.00)[2]; R_DKIM_NA(0.00)[]; TO_MATCH_ENVRCPT_ALL(0.00)[]; FROM_EQ_ENVFROM(0.00)[]; MID_RHS_MATCH_FROM(0.00)[]; RCVD_TLS_LAST(0.00)[]; MLMMJ_DEST(0.00)[freebsd-current@freebsd.org]; DMARC_NA(0.00)[orthanc.ca]; MISSING_XM_UA(0.00)[] X-Rspamd-Queue-Id: 4T9KWx6N99z4hlw Olivier Certner writes: > I've never found any compelling reason in most uses to enable "atime", e= xcept > perhaps local mail but as addressed in other answers it is a relic of t= he pa > st mostly irrelevant today. And its drawbacks are well known and can be= seri > ous. When UNIX ran on PDP-11s and disk pack sizes were measured in the tens of megabytes, atime was very helpful in determining which files were likely candidates for archiving to tape when the disk was getting full. And in the Usenet days it was common to mount /var/spool/news noatime, which eliminated a *lot* of meta-info write traffic. These days, other than /var/mail, I can't think of a compelling use for it. I've been running my Plan 9 systems with atime disabled ever since fossil arrived (decades) without any impact. I don't see any issue with making noatime the default. For those that must have it, /var/mail can be carved out as a distinct filesystem and mounted appropriately. --lyndon