> I was using Cache::SharedMemoryCache on my system. I figured, "Hey, it's > RAM, right? It's gonna be WAY faster than anything disk-based."
The thing you were missing is that on an OS with an aggressively caching filesystem (like Linux), frequently read files will end up cached in RAM anyway. The kernel can usually do a better job of managing an efficient cache than your program can. For what it's worth, DeWitt Clinton accompanied his first release of File::Cache (the precursor to Cache::FileCache) with a benchmark showing this same thing. That was the reason File::Cache was created. And ++ on Paul's comments about Devel::DProf and other profilers. - Perrin
