Messages in this thread |  | | | Date | Sat, 15 May 1999 21:38:23 +0200 | | From | Pavel Machek <> | | Subject | Re: Deletion of big files... |
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Hi!
> I have noticed that when I delete a big file (say 800MB), with a rm > command, for example, the rm command does not return until the file has > been deleted (or so it seems). With small files, this is almost > inmediate, but with files which are say 800 megs in size, this can > easily be 10 seconds (_seconds_, it's right) till I get the prompt > again, on a P2-333. > > In other Unices, like IRIX, the rm command returns _inmediately_, no > matter the size of the file. > > Looks to me like the unlink syscall is somewhat synchronous, and it > shouldn't, or does it? For this concrete issue, it could be easily > solved by the unlink syscall starting a thread to unlink the big file, > while the rest of the system keeps running normally. But I suppose it's > not only an issue of the unlink syscall, but more... > > I'm probably saying nonsense WRT the solution, but the problem _is_ > there. Any answers/constructive-criticisms?
Well, if you went for completely async unlink...
rm bigfile <use of lots of disk space>
could fail due to "out of disk space", where sync remove does not have this problem.
So it is not as easy as it seems.
Pavel PS: I could imagine Irix being faster not because asynchrony, but because their fs is more effective for this concrete issue. -- I'm really pavel@ucw.cz. Look at http://195.113.31.123/~pavel. Pavel Hi! I'm a .signature virus! Copy me into your ~/.signature to help me spread!
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