Kernel stat() call just got slow???

Karl Keyte (kkeyte@esoc.esa.de)
Tue, 20 Feb 1996 09:44:38 --100


With recent kernels (I think from 1.3.59 to 1.3.64 - I haven't been
able to try yet with 1.3.66), running LILO just got very slow. I
did an strace log to see what the problem may be and I discovered
that there are in excess of 8000 calls to stat().

However, it all used to run fine, so I can only assume there has
been a kernel change in this area. Interestingly enough, a.out
versions still run fine.

Here's the offending lines in the strace dump:

> strace call log
> ---------------
> execve("/sbin/lilo", ["lilo"], [/* 26 vars */]) = 0
> % time seconds usecs/call calls errors syscall
> ------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
> 85.65 3.682952 416 8849 stat

Can anyone tell me what changes have gone into the kernel which might
make this happen?

Karl