Re: controlling the load average
On Wed, 6 Oct 1999, Wichert Akkerman wrote:
> Previously Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:
> > I think the Debian installation tools need something to monitor the load
> > average, to prevent systems from [ct]rashing during install. Cfr. sendmail
> > which stops processing mail when the load average is above a specified
> > threshold.
>
> This sounds like you hit the bug in menu where it eats all your memory.
> FWIW, a fix has already been uploaded and should hit the mirrors
> tonight.
>
> What kind of checking did you have in mind? The only thing I can think
Something like
while (loadavg > threshold)
sleep(10);
> of during package installation that could put a strain on the system
> is running mandb or upgrading TeX, but neither should increase the load
A lot of programs start update-menus in the background upon installation. If
you install (or upgrade) 50 of them, you get 50 running update-menus processes
fighting for CPU cycles.
It may sound hard to update all helper scripts (like update-menus) used for
installation, but even adding a simple load average check to dpkg only would
cure most of the problems. If you do that dpkg just pauses until the load
average is lower, i.e. until the background update-menus scripts are finished.
> so much that for example sendmail stops processing mail..
Sorry if I was unclear: I don't have problems with sendmail which stops
processing mail. I mentioned sendmail as an example of a program that has a
builtin load average checker.
Greetings,
Geert
--
Geert Uytterhoeven ----------------- Sony Suprastructure Center Europe (SUPC-E)
Geert.Uytterhoeven@sonycom.com ------------------- Sint Stevens Woluwestraat 55
Phone +32-2-7248632 Fax +32-2-7262686 ---------------- B-1130 Brussels, Belgium
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