[Solved] First upgrade in session: slowest cache loading.

4javier · 2011-02-03 13:25:02

Hi all.
I have this problem (~55 secs) with first execution of pacman in a session (I think, at least since six months so far, but I'm not sure). I tried both with /var mounted in tmpfs, both with no special mountpoint, into the same / partition in ext4, but nothing changes. I have no connection problems, and time loss is all in local work.
First execution in a session:

[root@Archbox javier]# time pacman -Syu
:: Sincronizzazione dei database in corso...
 core è aggiornato
 extra è aggiornato
 community è aggiornato
:: Aggiornamento del sistema in corso...
Non c'è nulla da fare

real    0m55.001s
user    0m0.227s
sys    0m0.727s

Second

[root@Archbox javier]# time pacman -Syu
:: Sincronizzazione dei database in corso...
 core è aggiornato
 extra è aggiornato
 community è aggiornato
:: Aggiornamento del sistema in corso...
Non c'è nulla da fare

real    0m1.680s
user    0m0.157s
sys    0m0.083s

95% of time is spent in

debug: loading package cache for repository 'extra'
debug: database path for tree extra set to /var/lib/pacman/sync/extra/
debug: loading package cache for repository 'community'
debug: database path for tree community set to /var/lib/pacman/sync/community/

My hd is 6 years old, and sometimes I have also firefox freezes reading from it. Tell me what kind of test could I do to report to you hd status.

P.S.
I know formatting /var in reiserfs could markably increment performances in a partition full of small files, but first of all I want to know if this is the expected behaviour of pacman with /var in ext4. I tried pacman-optimize too, but it works just one time. Successive upgrades are slow again.

Thanks in advance.

Last edited by 4javier (2011-04-08 10:20:56)

Allan · 2011-02-03 13:47:42

This is because pacman has to read many small files from the hard-drive. Wait for pacman-3.5 which will speed this up substantially.

bzt · 2011-02-03 13:53:50

Until then, try using pacman-cage. It has considerably sped up pacman performance for me.

4javier · 2011-02-03 14:00:31

Thanks guys.
So, do you think this timings are normal?
@bzt
I prefer to keep a core-app like pacman as smooth as possibile.

I'll not mark this thread as solved, waiting for pacman 3.5

Last edited by 4javier (2011-02-03 14:00:47)

karol · 2011-02-03 15:31:01

4javier wrote:

Thanks guys.
So, do you think this timings are normal?

For now, this *is* normal. This is not a bug, this is just how the things are.
This is about to change http://mailman.archlinux.org/pipermail/ … 18136.html

4javier · 2011-02-03 16:46:12

Thanks to you too.
I'll wait patiently for 3.5

4javier · 2011-04-08 10:20:28

I forgot to update this thread two weeks ago. Thanks guys, last pacman version works as you mentioned.

time pacman -Syu
:: Sincronizzazione dei database in corso...
 core è aggiornato
 extra è aggiornato
community è aggiornato
 testing è aggiornato
:: Aggiornamento del sistema in corso...
 non ci sono aggiornamenti disponibili

real    0m8.180s
user    0m0.177s
sys    0m0.070s

Now I can mark this thread as solved. Bye

Arch Linux

#1 2011-02-03 13:25:02

[Solved] First upgrade in session: slowest cache loading.

#2 2011-02-03 13:47:42

Re: [Solved] First upgrade in session: slowest cache loading.

#3 2011-02-03 13:53:50

Re: [Solved] First upgrade in session: slowest cache loading.

#4 2011-02-03 14:00:31

Re: [Solved] First upgrade in session: slowest cache loading.

#5 2011-02-03 15:31:01

Re: [Solved] First upgrade in session: slowest cache loading.

#6 2011-02-03 16:46:12

Re: [Solved] First upgrade in session: slowest cache loading.

#7 2011-04-08 10:20:28

Re: [Solved] First upgrade in session: slowest cache loading.

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