Re: removing an ext2fs file forces disk activity

[Niels Möller]

tb@becket.net (Thomas Bushnell, BSG) writes:

> nisse@lysator.liu.se (Niels Möller) writes:
> 
> > I guess I should have asked for the ratio B/A. If that's small, as you
> > claim, there should be a significant gain. _If_ it turned out that A
> > and B were of the same size, then the gain would be quite small,
> > decreasing the number of required syncs at most by a smallish factor
> > like 2 or 5.
> 
> Um, cutting the number of syncs in half would have a *huge* impact.  I
> think you underestimate the cost of a disk seek.

Right, it would improve the speed significantly, but it wouldn't get
rid of the "harddisk is thrashing hard all the time while I'm
compiling, even if I have plenty of RAM and all the source files are
cached"-behaviour.

The thrashing would be just as violent, but last shorter.

I'll try to stop now. Thanks for your patience.
/Niels