On 2008-02-20 14:47 +0100, Zach wrote: > Do you know if it's expected for installing packages to take longer > the more total packages one has installed?
Yes. The reason is that for every package installation dpkg has to read the whole list of installed files from /var/lib/dpkg/info to see if a file from the new to-be-installed package is contained in another. > In recent months I notice > sometimes when I install packages (sometimes one, sometimes many) the > machine will be in nearly unusable state while it read's the package > database. That should not happen, though. Does your hard disk use DMA? If not, then the high CPU load and long time would be understandable. > Such as just happened: > > enetrek:~# apt-get upgrade > Reading package lists... Done > Building dependency tree > Reading state information... Done > The following packages have been kept back: > mplayer > The following packages will be upgraded: > linux-libc-dev > 1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded. > Need to get 0B/720kB of archives. > After unpacking 32.8kB disk space will be freed. > Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y > (Reading database ... << At this point it hung for 20 minutes! That's way too long, it should not need more than a minute (and normally considerably less). > << It then proceeded: > > 316137 files and directories currently installed.) Quite a lot, consider removing some packages. There is almost certainly cruft which you haven't used for a long time. > Preparing to replace linux-libc-dev 2.6.22-6 (using > .../linux-libc-dev_2.6.22-6.lenny1_i386.deb) ... > Setting up linux-libc-dev (2.6.22-6.lenny1) ... > [ Rootkit Hunter version 1.3.0 ] > File updated: searched for 151 files, found 131 I hope that Rootkit Hunter only checks the upgraded package and not the whole disk during the upgrade! > I'm going to start using the time command with apt so I can get some > hard data. My xload spiked up to near the very top for this entire > time and then when apt finished it went back down to the bottom. I > don't know if it is CPU or disk IO or a combination. I wonder if I can > do anything to optimize apt so it will stop doing this? Some tips: - Check with hdparm that your hard disk uses DMA. - Make sure your partitions do not fill up more than 90%, lest fragmentation will increase. - Tar /var/lib/dpkg up, remove /var/lib/dpkg and restore the backup to defragment dpkg's database. I'm not sure it will help much, though - your 20 minutes are really abysmal and hard to explain. > My machine is a P3/700MHz. And how much RAM? What does `free' say? Sven -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
