[LAD] [OT] bash vs disk activity

[Patrick Shirkey]

On Wed, 2007-10-10 at 06:37 -0400, Forest Bond wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On Wed, Oct 10, 2007 at 09:51:35AM +0700, Patrick Shirkey wrote:
> > On Tue, 2007-10-09 at 09:16 -0400, Forest Bond wrote:
> > > On Tue, Oct 09, 2007 at 01:11:38PM +0200, Lars Luthman wrote:
> > > > Slightly-slower-hack: add the 'sync' option to whatever script or config
> > > > file is used to mount the device (/etc/fstab, udev rules, KDE service
> > > > menu etc). That way all writes will be synchronised automatically.
> > > 
> > > It sounds like this doesn't matter much for you, but keep in mind that -o
> > > sync doesn't cause reads to be unbuffered, so don't go trying to benchmark
> > > your flash devices that way!
> > 
> > Hmm, I need speed and accuracy. 
> 
> But only for writes, no?

For the purpose of this script I am happy with just write but I will be
needing read in the near future.

FYI, I can connect 200 usb-storage devices to a dual cpu intel with 4 GB
RAM and an extra pci-usb card on the same irq as the internal usb bus. 

Basically I am uploading content to a couple of hundred mp3/multi media
players at the same time and this script is used by other people with
less Linux knowledge than I so I'm trying to make the progress bar as
accurate as possible. Otherwise there is a significant lag between when
the progress bar says it is finished to when the transfer is actually
finished. Speed is also a major issue here so I cannot use the sync
option as that causes way too much delay compared to async.

Can anyone here shed a little more light on how to monitor the disk
activity while transferring data?



Cheers.


-- 
Patrick Shirkey
Boost Hardware Ltd.