Performance questions

[Tom Tkacik]

In article <19 at dons3b1.UUCP> don at dons3b1.UUCP (Don Joslyn) writes:
>	I have some questions regarding UNIX-PC system tuning:
>	1.	Can the sticky bit be used to make loading programs faster on
>		the UNIX-PC?  If yes, what programs have you set the sticky bit
>		on?  Any comments?
>
I tried using the sticky bit on vi at one time, and found that there was
no decrease in load time at all.  I came to the conclusion that the sticky bit
did not work on the Unix-PC.  That was with 1Meg of memory.  I now have 2.5Meg,
and recently tried it again.  This time I found that the load time for vi
went from about 5 seconds to about 2.  I have been running gdb (the GNU
debugger), which has an executable of about 150K.  This seemed to take forever
to load, about 11 seconds.  Setting the sticky bit brought it down to under
4 sec.  Currently I also have the sticky bit set on the GCC-cc1, about 400K,
and the spreadsheet sc, 120K.  All have had load times drop by less than half.

This is just a test to see how much the sticky bit helps.  I will probably
change which programs I use it on later.  Programs I use frequntly.
If you have enough
memory, it helps a lot.  If you only have 1Meg, (or less), there seems to
be very little difference.

As to which programs to set the sticky bit on, I don't have enough experience
to say, and would also like to know a good answer.  My best guess it that
they be those few (number depending on how much memory you have) programs
that you use very frequently, and are large (>100K).  Vi is a good first choice.
(Unless of course you use emacs, in which case that is an even better first
choice due to its size :-).

---
Tom Tkacik
GM Research Labs,   Warren MI  48090
uunet!umix!rphroy!megatron!tkacik