[Ext2-devel] Re: [RFC] mke2fs with DIR_INDEX, RESIZE_INODE by default

[Theodore Ts'o]

On Sun, Mar 19, 2006 at 10:59:26AM +0100, Arjan van de Ven wrote:
> 
> > In general, I doubt directory readahead actually buys you *that* much,
> > because most workloads follow up the readdir with a stat() or an
> > open() call for each file returned, or something which requires
> > reading in the inode.  In addition, it's rare that the directory will
> > be contiguously allocated, which also cuts down on the value of the
> > readahead.
> 
> what it buys you shows up on raid1 I suppose... while disk 0 is doing
> the head seek for the stat/open, disk1 is doing the head seek for the
> next directory entry.... so I can see that being a big gain in that
> specific circumstance.
> 

As long as you have the spare disk bandwifth and disk1 isn't needed
reading the directory entry for some other make process as part of the
"make -j16" kernel build...

							- Ted