Re: [ext3][kernels >= 2.6.20.7 at least] KDE going comatose when FS is under heavy write load (massive starvation)

Peter Zijlstra
2007-04-27T12:31:07Z

On Fri, 2007-04-27 at 15:59 +0400, Marat Buharov wrote:
> On 4/27/07, Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> wrote:
> > Aside: why the heck do applications think that their data is so important
> > that they need to fsync it all the time. I used to run a kernel on my
> > laptop which had "return 0;" at the top of fsync() and fdatasync(). Most
> > pleasurable.
>
> So, if having fake fsync() and fdatasync() is pleasurable for laptop
> and desktop, may be it's time to add option into Kconfig which
> disables normal fsync behaviour in favor of robust desktop?

Nah, just teaching user-space to behave themselves should be sufficient;
there is just no way kicker can justify doing a fdatasync(), I mean,
come on its just showing a friggin menu. I have always wondered why that
thing was so damn slow, like it needs to fetch stuff like that from all
four corners of disk, feh!

Just sliding over a sub-menu can take more than a second; I mean, it
_really_ is just faster to just start things from your favourite shell.

No way is globally disabling fsync() a good thing. I guess Andrew just
is a sucker for punishment :-)