Disabling atime

[Benjamin Lewis]

Les Mikesell wrote:
> Benjamin Lewis wrote:
>>
>> Les Mikesell wrote:
>>> I'd expect the RedHat-style approach to this to be: add some file
>>> under /etc/sysconfig like mount-options that contains options that can
>>> be merged with the ones in /etc/fstab and all of the magic
>>> automounting bits (this is probably as important on usb flash drives
>>> as anywhere).
>>>
>>> [snip]
>>>
>> There is something which leap out at me as soon a I saw this: the kind
>> of person who _needs_ atime, knows how to set it.
>
> Yes, just like the kind of person who _needs_ networking knows how to
> issue ifconfig commands directly to set it up.  That doesn't mean that
> a general purpose way to set it up with the most likely default and a
> GUI to change it is not an improvement.
>
That's not a fair comparison.
>> The majority of people
>> - especially the home use - has little or no use for it whatsoever. Its
>> a bit like the way mount fails on a broken fstab, it assumes that if you
>> are messing with the fstab you know what you are doing. Equally anyone
>> who _needs_ atime knows what they are doing and how to enable it.
>
> Except that they may have applications currently in use that rely on
> the decades old, documented behavior and should not have these broken
> as a surprise.  Let one release go where you encourage people to break
> these with their own choice and report it, then you'll know what to
> expect when you break it with the default.
>
I thought this only really affected some backup applications - emphasis
on the _some_ part, mutt and tmpwatch - both of which have patches to
resolve their issues. In any case, with proper release notes this would
not be a surprise.
>> Any sort of fancy /etc/sysconfig trick is more effort than is needed,
>> when the only change needed to undo it is to remove an option from the
>> fstab.
>
> atime is not the only mount option that people need to change and a
> one-off hack for every little thing is not as nice as a general
> purpose solution that exactly matches the approach of the gazillion
> other things under /etc/sysconfig, put there for the same purpose.
>
I was referring to the amount of effort required to make an
/etc/sysconfig switch work.
>> Just because something was always that way doesn't mean it needs to stay
>> that way - and whatever the numbers, noatime *does* improve performance.
>
> Agreed, but RedHat-style administration puts changes like this under
> user control with files under /etc/sysconfig and sometimes provides a
> GUI tool to modify it.  People who don't want this level/style of
> control are probably using some other OS.
>

-- 

Benjamin Lewis
Fedora Ambassador
ben.lewis at benl.co.uk

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