[Bug 223955] cpio needs a --block-size= option

[bugzilla-noreply at freebsd.org]

https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=223955

Ronald F. Guilmette <rfg-freebsd at tristatelogic.com> changed:

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--- Comment #4 from Ronald F. Guilmette <rfg-freebsd at tristatelogic.com> ---
Oy vey!  I think that I may perhaps want to withdraw this PR entirely, now that
I have some additional (and troubling) data.

After I filed this PR, just for laughs, I tried using that --block-size cpio
option on my Ubuntu system and then tried again to time a multi-gigabyte file
copy (cpio -p) which I had already times using other methods (e.g. "cp" and
"cpio -without any --block-size= option).  I did my test with --block-size=1M.

To my amazement and horror, adding the --block-size=1M option didn't really
make any huge difference.  The bloody file copying was -still- running at least
5x slower than copying of a similar sized file using good old "cp".

Moral of the story:  I guess I'm the only one on the planet who is still even
trying to use good old cpio.  it appears that all of the work and tuning and
optimizations have gone into cp and/or rsync instead... both of which are fast
snot... while leaving poor old cpio to wallow in the backwaters of virtual
abandonment.

Sigh.  I find this rather a pity, because, given that cpio is MUCH simpler than
rsync, in theory it -should- be able to do file copies at least as fast, or
perhaps even a bit faster.  (It doesn't have the added burden of all the
network awareness and all that fancy schmancy differential file comparison
stuff to deal with, unlike rsync.)

But it seems that I'm the only one in the universe who has even noticed, in all
the years of this century so far, that poor old cpio just hasn't been keeping
up.  Thus, it is silly of me to try to swim against the tide.  I'll just use cp
and rsync from now on and be done with it.

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