itty bitty IRIX questions

[Dave Olson]

In <mg.675842217 at godzilla> mg at godzilla.cgl.rmit.oz.au (Mike Gigante) writes:

| The way I have figured it is that the first time each day it is really slow
| while the other times ity is fast. It may be either date/time based as I
| speculate, or it may ignore /tmp/ps_data if it is older than X (for some X)

Actually, I abbreviated the algorithm somewhat.  The ps_data file is
ignored and/or re-created if it is older than any of /unix, /dev, and
/etc/passwd.  So if you create devices/files in /dev a lot, or alter
/etc/passwd fairly often, that might explain it.  Both mtime and ctime
are considered; some backup programs modify ctime to preserve atime,
so this might explain your first use of the day slowness.

Excessive age is not a reason to not use the ps_data file; it is considered
simply a sign of a stable system :)

Also note that if you use YP/NIS, that new YP users don't show up by name
in the  ps output until you touch one of those files or remove the ps_data
file.
--

	Dave Olson

Life would be so much easier if we could just look at the source code.