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From: Helge Hafting <helge.hafting@hist.no>
To: Timothy Miller <miller@techsource.com>
Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Block Device Caching
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2004 10:29:40 +0200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <40E279F4.4090708@hist.no> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <40E1FDEC.6020606@techsource.com>

Timothy Miller wrote:

>
>
> Markus Schaber wrote:
>
>> This lead us to the conclusion that block devices do not cache, but the
>> filesystem does. But subsequently, I ran some tests on my developer
>> machine (Pentium 4 Mobile Laptop).
>
>
>
> I had kernel experts repeatedly insist to me that block devices were 
> cached, while all of my tests (using dd to or from, say, /dev/sda1 or 
> whatever) indicated that there was absolutely no caching whatsoever.

Well, any cache is dropped when the device is closed. "dd" closes the device
when it finishes.

Try a program that reads the same two blocks (spaced videly apart)
over and over from the same open file descriptor.  With _no_ caching 
you'll see
the drive seeking all the time.  With caching, you won't.

Helge Hafting

  reply	other threads:[~2004-06-30  8:27 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 10+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2004-06-29 22:20 Block Device Caching Markus Schaber
2004-06-29 22:46 ` Andreas Dilger
2004-06-29 23:41   ` Timothy Miller
2004-06-30  6:30   ` Markus Schaber
2004-07-02  9:21     ` CCISS driver and Caching (was: Block Device Caching) Markus Schaber
2004-06-29 23:40 ` Block Device Caching Timothy Miller
2004-06-30  8:29   ` Helge Hafting [this message]
     [not found]     ` <20040630123828.7d48c6e6@kingfisher.intern.logi-track.com>
     [not found]       ` <40E543D7.9030303@hist.no>
2004-07-02 12:01         ` Markus Schaber
2004-07-02 12:56           ` FabF
2004-07-05 15:07             ` Markus Schaber

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