Re: [RFC/PATCH] inotify -- a dnotify replacement

[nf <nf2 scheinwelt at>]

On Tue, 2004-05-11 at 14:30, Ross Burton wrote:
> On Tue, 2004-05-11 at 12:52, nf wrote:
> > I would even claim, that simple polling ("stat"-ing) the filesystem for
> > changes is more efficient in 95% of the cases, than all this dnotify,
> > fam, etc... stuff.
> 
> Do you have any idea how many files GNOME is watching?  Every file in
> your open Nautilus windows, plus the desktop, plus every .desktop file
> in your panel menu.  Stat-ing that lot would be seriously slow, and
> rather intense.
> 
> Ross

I would reckon that monitoring via dnotify/fam also takes a lot of
system resources (perhaps less CPU-time than "stat"-ing, but
memory-structures,...). So maybe GNOME should in general be more greedy
with with placing monitors (What's the point in monitoring .desktop
entries all the time?). Maybe the monitoring overhead is one reason, why
people prefer other desktops on older machines...

Did anyone ever measure the difference in resource consumption between
"stat"-ing and using dnotify? How long does it take to "stat" lets say
1000 files? Perhaps it would also make sense to dynamically expand the
"stat"-ing interval, depending on the time one "stat"-loop takes.

Besides, an option in "fam.conf" to be able to switch between monitoring
modes would be really nice...

Norbert