disk wait mystery

[Gary Palmer]

On Thu, Jan 31, 2013 at 07:12:44AM -0700, Warren Block wrote:
> On Wed, 30 Jan 2013, Andrew wrote:
> 
> > On 30 Jan 2013, at 17:05, Brett Wynkoop wrote:
> >
> >> I appreciate the education on this point!  I wonder if this should be
> >> considered a man page bug?
> >
> > The man page does say "(or other short term, uninterruptible) wait". I 
> > don't know what sort of wait the kernel threads may or may not be in 
> > but if they are in one, and its short-term then the man page is 
> > correct. Maybe an FAQ entry though.
> 
> If the man page is misleading or incomplete, it should be fixed.  Based 
> on the source, the mention of disk at the start is misleading.  Maybe:
> 
> D       Marks a process in short term, uninterruptible wait.
> 
> Or
> 
> D       Marks a process in short term, uninterruptible wait (typically,
>          disk wait).
> 
> Which explains the "D" but may reintroduce the confusion.

D       Marks a process in short term, uninterruptible wait (In non-kernel
        processes, this is typically waiting on disk I/O)

?

Gary