Re: userspace pagecache management tool

Rik van Riel
2007-03-03T22:25:44Z

Andrew Morton wrote:

> Well, backup programs are a unique case. Let's say instead that the user
> has just generated a 600MB ISO image.
>
> The kernel *just doesn't know* whether the user will next try to read the
> kernel tree or will next try to read that ISO image.
>
> That, Rik, is my point, and is the entire point of this work.

I still don't understand why "the backup program flushed my data out
of the cache with POSIX_FADV_DONTNEED" is an improvement over "the
backup program flushed my data out of the cache by reading other files".

Your code may be useful for a few specialized situations, but I don't
see it actually fixing most of the examples you gave in your
announcement, except for the DVD copying one.

--
Politics is the struggle between those who want to make their country
the best in the world, and those who believe it already is. Each group
calls the other unpatriotic.