Neil Bothwick wrote: > On Thu, 06 Sep 2012 16:09:12 -0500, Dale wrote: > >>> Reading the tarball has nothing to do with this, we are discussing >>> filesystems for PORTAGE_TMPDIR, not DISTDIR. It's where the source is >>> unpacked, the object files compiled to, the executables linked to and >>> the install image created that is relevant to TMPDIR. >> Well, on my system, when I run emerge, it has to go read the tarball >> from the drive before it can unpack and do all the rest that needs to be >> done. > Of course, but it is reading from a different filesystem that is > unaffected by your choice for $PORTAGE_TMPDIR. It has about as much > relevance as the brand of mouse you are using. > >
But whether it is on tmpfs or just regular memory doesn't matter. Once emerge starts, everything is in ram including portages work directory which would be on tmpfs here. That's why it doesn't matter if portage is on tmpfs or not. Once emerge loads up the files, it's the same thing. That's why using tmpfs doesn't matter. I knew that the whole time. The amount of ram on a system doesn't matter either. If you have a system that doesn't have a lot of ram, then you can't really use tmpfs anyway. That is not something I would recommend to anyone. I just don't agree that one should *disable* cache to run the test since no one would disable cache on a normal system. It's not a memory speed test. It's a test to see if putting it on tmpfs makes it faster. The fact that emerge loads everything up in memory when it starts is not relevant for what I am testing. It does that on its own anyway. Since portage and the kernel does this in the most efficient way already, I still say putting portage's work directory on tmpfs is not needed UNLESS a person needs to save wear and tear on a drive, such as the SSD in this thread. I just don't want someone that is sort of new to Gentoo and compiling things to think that a package that takes 10 minutes when done on disk will take 3 minutes when on tmpfs. I see that thinking from time to time, usually on the forums. Dale :-) :-) -- I am only responsible for what I said ... Not for what you understood or how you interpreted my words!
