Kernel 2.4.7-pre3 on alpha. The initial phase of an RPM build is unpacking a tarball and applying patches, which is a bunch of writes followed by a update of read/write updates. A lot of write activity, basically. RPM build is running at normal priority as a normal user. In another xterm, su'd in a shell that is renice'd to -14, I run "sync" during all this write activity. It hangs for 17 seconds before I get impatient, stop counting, and suspend the RPM build process. sync continues to block, not returning to the command prompt. I run dmesg (generated read activity?), and sync finally returns. The RPM build process continues unpacking/writing files without appearing to slow in window 1 while sync blocks in window 2. I have not seen this behavior before, but I do not recall trying 'sync' specifically during heavy write activity before. This behavior is reproducible. -- Jeff Garzik | A recent study has shown that too much soup Building 1024 | can cause malaise in laboratory mice. MandrakeSoft | - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
