Really Slow Cron Job

[Dave Tweten]

I leave my ThinkPad X21 running and connected to the net almost all the 
time.  Through the services of /etc/weekly.local, it does a full backup 
and then a complete cvsup and build of STABLE world, kernel, docs, and 
ports skeletons and databases, all in the wee dark hours every Saturday 
morning.

At least that's the way it's supposed to work, and the way it does work 
when I run the script manually.  Then, it takes a just a few hours 
(dominated by backup compression).  When it is run by Cron, it takes all 
day Saturday, all day Sunday, and until I log in Monday.  If I log in over 
the weekend, it completes quickly.

When I changed the script to put timestamps in the log files, it looked 
like the machine ran quickly while accessing the net (to transfer the full 
backup or to do the cvsups).  It then slowed way down for the make steps.

My operating guess is this has something to do with power management.  Can 
anyone enlighten me?  If it's power management, can I turn it off from 
/etc/weekly.local and then turn it back on at the end?  If there is a way, 
I haven't been able to find it.

Any help will be appreciated.
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