Optimising load time.

[knoppu]

Here is a useful technique to improve loading times, cut from the following URL:

http://www.tina-vision.net/tina-knop...mastering.html

KNOPPIX boots quickly from CD in part because the ordering of the files on the disk has been optimised (think defrgamentation for the CD). In order to perform this optimisation, you need a sort list, which is generated using this script and this file. The timestamp file is only used to provide a comparative file time: the script looks at the file access times and sorts them into order, so that the files are burned onto the CD in the order in which they are needed when the disk boots.

#!/bin/sh
find / -anewer /mkisofs.timestamp -not \( -type d -o -path /KNOPPIX\* -o -path /tmp\* -o -path /proc/\* -o -path /mnt/\* \) -printf '%p	%A@\n' | sort -rn +1 -t'	' | awk -F'	' '{print $1 "	" ++i}' > /mkisofs.sort

echo "/bin/mkdir	10090" >> /mkisofs.sort
echo "/bin/chown	10080" >> /mkisofs.sort
echo "/bin/cp	10070" >> /mkisofs.sort
echo "/bin/ln	10060" >> /mkisofs.sort
echo "/bin/rm	10050" >> /mkisofs.sort
echo "/dev/*	20000" >> /mkisofs.sort
echo "/etc/*	30000" >> /mkisofs.sort

mkisofs -R -U -V "Custom KNOPPIX Live CD 1.0" -P "author" -sort /knoppix/KNOPPIX/scripts/mkisofs.sort -hide-rr-moved -cache-inodes -no-bak -pad ./ | nice -5 ./usr/bin/create_compressed_fs - 65536 > /knoppix/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX

I have not tested this but it looks sound. The mkisofs is to illustrate the use of -sort , directory names will need adjusting.

Thanks to Paul for posting that technique.