Re: tar -> unresponsive machine
On Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 05:27:19PM +0100, Vincent Lefevre wrote:
> Is it normal that when using the "tar" command to create a big archive,
> the whole machine becomes unresponsive, e.g. several dozens of seconds
> to do some operation (e.g. starting an xterm, or making Firefox react)?
>
> htop shows that there is still plenty of memory and atop shows nothing
> special, except 100% disk busy of course.
It's the disk being busy that slows it all down. Normal. A hard
disk can service perhaps 10-100 requests per second -- if tar is
using all of them, everything else will be delayed.
Solid-state disks can handle 10-70,000 requests per second, but
they have their own tradeoffs including price and capacity.
-dsr-
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