Konqueror vs Firefox

Cameron Simpson cs at zip.com.au
Sat Mar 8 06:57:12 UTC 2008


On 07Mar2008 20:50, Nathan Grennan <fedora-list at cygnusx-1.org> wrote:
> Cameron Simpson wrote:
>> A significant change from FF2 to FF3 is the use of sqlite3 for the
>> bookmarks/session/history state storage. It would not surprise me if sqlite
>> were doing fsyncs at strategic points to ensure db consistency. I know I
>> moved a gdbm dependent app (bogofilter) off into a /dev/shm cache to avoid a
>> similar fsync storm last year sometime.
>>
>> Just a thought.
>>   
>  You hit the nail on the head most likely. Someone left a comment on my bug 
> about another related bug which is abotu zoom and use of sqlite.
>
> https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=417732

I have just verified with strace and lsof that these fsyncs are indeed for
the places.sqlite and places.sqlite-journal files.

I believe (anecdotally, rumour) that ext3 has overzealous fsync behaviour,
syncing more than just the bare data for the file concerned; someone who
knows about ext3 internals would need to comment on that. But if it were true
one could easily imagine the fsync()s being queued up _behind_ a lot of
pending I/O for some other task, thus stalling firefox.
-- 
Cameron Simpson <cs at zip.com.au> DoD#743
http://www.cskk.ezoshosting.com/cs/

BROCCOLI!! THE ONLY VEGETABLE THAT SOUNDS LIKE AN ADVERB!!
        - ken at aiai.ed.ac.uk (Ken Johnson)




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