[comp.unix.wizards] overhead of namei

snoopy@sopwith.UUCP (Snoopy) (06/04/89)

In article <400@amc-gw.UUCP> jhall@emu.UUCP (John Hall) writes:

|  I would be willing to take a performance hit in namei(), if this idea
|  was well implemented.  Think of the incredible functionality it would
|  provide!  In any case, namei() is used only when opening "files" and
|  slightly lower performance here would not affect system performance
|  much at all.

"With the addition of the two caches, the percentage of system time
devoted to name translation dropped from 25 percent to less than 10
percent."

	_The Design and Implementation of the 4.3BSD UNIX Operating System_
		by Leffler, McKusick, Karels, and Quarterman

It appears that namei() soaks up more cycles than one might expect.

    _____     						  .-----.
   /_____\    Snoopy					./  RIP	 \.
  /_______\   qiclab!sopwith!snoopy			|  	  |
    |___|     parsely!sopwith!snoopy			| tekecs  |
    |___|     sun!nosun!illian!sopwith!snoopy		|_________|

		"I *am* the next man!"  -Indy

libes@cme.nbs.gov (Don Libes) (06/05/89)

In article <201@sopwith.UUCP> snoopy@sopwith.UUCP (Snoopy) writes:
>"With the addition of the two caches, the percentage of system time
>devoted to name translation dropped from 25 percent to less than 10
>percent."
>
>	_The Design and Implementation of the 4.3BSD UNIX Operating System_
>		by Leffler, McKusick, Karels, and Quarterman
>
>It appears that namei() soaks up more cycles than one might expect.

You misunderstood the quote.  It doesn't say anything about percentage
of *total* system time.

Don Libes          libes@cme.nbs.gov      ...!uunet!cme-durer!libes

snoopy@sopwith.UUCP (Snoopy) (06/07/89)

In article <1245@muffin.cme.nbs.gov> libes@cme.nbs.gov (Don Libes) writes:
|In article <201@sopwith.UUCP> snoopy@sopwith.UUCP (Snoopy) writes:
|>"With the addition of the two caches, the percentage of system time
|>devoted to name translation dropped from 25 percent to less than 10
|>percent."
|>
|>	_The Design and Implementation of the 4.3BSD UNIX Operating System_
|>		by Leffler, McKusick, Karels, and Quarterman
|>
|>It appears that namei() soaks up more cycles than one might expect.
|
|You misunderstood the quote.  It doesn't say anything about percentage
|of *total* system time.

From the beginning of section 7.8:

"Profiling studies show that nearly one-quarter of the time in the kernel
is spent in the pathname-translation routine, namei(), translating
pathnames to inodes."

Then they tell what namei() does, and how they added caches to make it
faster, and finally give the results quoted above (25% -> 10%).

If I misunderstood, I still do.  If they aren't refering to the total
system time, what *are* they refering to?


    _____     						  .-----.
   /_____\    Snoopy					./  RIP	 \.
  /_______\   qiclab!sopwith!snoopy			|  	  |
    |___|     parsely!sopwith!snoopy			| tekecs  |
    |___|     sun!nosun!illian!sopwith!snoopy		|_________|

		"I *was* the next man!"  -Indy