I have another proposal. It looks like right now dpkg extracts all of the files in the archive, then for each one, calls fsync() then rename(). Because this is done serially for each file in the archive, it forces small, out of order writes that cause extra seeking and queue plugging. It would be much better to use aio to queue up all of the syncs at once, so that the elevator can coalesce and reorder them for optimal writing.
Further, this processing is done on a per archive basis. It would be even better if multiple archives could be extracted at once, and all of the fsyncs from all of the archives batched up. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4d6fbf93.1030...@cfl.rr.com
