Can you increase pacman performance by multithreading (CPU)

nullstring · 2013-08-12 22:45:43

Is there anything that can be done to configure pacman to use parallel threads for it's tasks?

For example, can you switch out xz for a different decompressor supporting multiple threads?

I have a slower netbook (1Ghz amd C-50), but it has two cores. The ability to take advantage of this would increase my pacman performance significantly.

Any thoughts on this?

Earnestly · 2013-08-12 22:48:15

xz is multithreaded

graysky · 2013-08-12 22:56:09

Kaustic wrote:

xz is multithreaded

Not the stable version... You need the beta for that. Lrzip is multithreaded....

karol · 2013-08-12 23:01:02

See also:
https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/25882
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=137918

Last edited by karol (2013-08-12 23:02:53)

Earnestly · 2013-08-12 23:03:02

graysky wrote:

Kaustic wrote:
xz is multithreaded
Not the stable version... You need the beta for that. Lrzip is multithreaded....

Yeah, I forgot Arch still uses 5.0.5 and not 5.1.x (and yes, lrzip is better)

Last edited by Earnestly (2013-08-12 23:13:26)

nullstring · 2013-08-12 23:12:51

Even if xz supported it, it doesn't look like libarchive does. I don't think there is anyway to configure pacman to use it.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I'll gladly go build a new version of xz

Last edited by nullstring (2013-08-12 23:15:49)

karol · 2013-08-12 23:15:43

Use https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/xz-git/ to compress and next try decompressing with it - it should use all available cores.
The packages you build from AUR don't have to be compressed at all, but the ones from the official repos still use xz 5.0.5 so no dice.

nullstring · 2013-08-12 23:24:42

karol wrote:

Use https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/xz-git/ to compress and next try decompressing with it - it should use all available cores.
The packages you build from AUR don't have to be compressed at all, but the ones from the official repos still use xz 5.0.5 so no dice.

Are you suggesting that the archives need to be compressed with a new version to enable multithreaded decompression?

karol · 2013-08-12 23:30:35

I don't have a multicore cpu to test it, but it may be the case.

yurikoles · 2015-01-15 15:57:16

xz already assumes usage of LZMA2 algorithm, one of the main features of it is multithreading support.
So format is not changed.

Allan · 2015-01-16 00:35:26

We can not use delta packages if we use multithreaded support in xz.

bstaletic · 2015-01-16 00:40:00

Allan,
Why is that? I can see no correlation between parallel xz and delta packages.

Allan · 2015-01-16 14:50:26

xdelta works on uncompressed files and re-compresses them. I am told that parallel xz will result in different compressed files depending on the system. So the regenerated package will fail to pass the integrity check.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-08-12 22:45:43

Can you increase pacman performance by multithreading (CPU)

#2 2013-08-12 22:48:15

Re: Can you increase pacman performance by multithreading (CPU)

#3 2013-08-12 22:56:09

Re: Can you increase pacman performance by multithreading (CPU)

#4 2013-08-12 23:01:02

Re: Can you increase pacman performance by multithreading (CPU)

#5 2013-08-12 23:03:02

Re: Can you increase pacman performance by multithreading (CPU)

#6 2013-08-12 23:12:51

Re: Can you increase pacman performance by multithreading (CPU)

#7 2013-08-12 23:15:43

Re: Can you increase pacman performance by multithreading (CPU)

#8 2013-08-12 23:24:42

Re: Can you increase pacman performance by multithreading (CPU)

#9 2013-08-12 23:30:35

Re: Can you increase pacman performance by multithreading (CPU)

#10 2015-01-15 15:57:16

Re: Can you increase pacman performance by multithreading (CPU)

#11 2015-01-16 00:35:26

Re: Can you increase pacman performance by multithreading (CPU)

#12 2015-01-16 00:40:00

Re: Can you increase pacman performance by multithreading (CPU)

#13 2015-01-16 14:50:26

Re: Can you increase pacman performance by multithreading (CPU)

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