Re: [RFC/PATCH] inotify -- a dnotify replacement

[Alexander Larsson <alexl redhat com>]

On Tue, 2004-05-18 at 15:06, nf wrote:
> On Tue, 2004-05-11 at 14:30, Ross Burton wrote:
> > On Tue, 2004-05-11 at 12:52, nf wrote:
> > > I would even claim, that simple polling ("stat"-ing) the filesystem for
> > > changes is more efficient in 95% of the cases, than all this dnotify,
> > > fam, etc... stuff.
> > 
> > Do you have any idea how many files GNOME is watching?  Every file in
> > your open Nautilus windows, plus the desktop, plus every .desktop file
> > in your panel menu.  Stat-ing that lot would be seriously slow, and
> > rather intense.
> > 
> > Ross
> 
> One million stat() calls take less than 2 seconds on my computer (athlon
> xp2000). - 2 microseconds per call! This seems negligible compared to
> all the trouble and complexity we get with xinetd, fam, dnotify,...
> At least on an average workstation...

Of course. You're stating the same file, and one that is in cache
already. You're just measuring syscall overhead, not hd seek times and
rotational delays.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 Alexander Larsson                                            Red Hat, Inc 
                   alexl redhat com    alla lysator liu se 
He's a suicidal white trash vampire hunter She's a ditzy Bolivian bounty 
hunter looking for love in all the wrong places. They fight crime!