Knoppix.sort

[eadz]

From

http://mailman.linuxtag.org/pipermai...ry/001593.html

On Mon, Jan 13, 2003 at 02:52:07PM -0800, Rib Rdb wrote:
> A question I've often seen people asking is why their
> remastered knoppix cd's run slower than knoppix.
> People usually respond saying that Klaus uses a
> special ordering of the files in the KNOPPIX cloop
> file. When people ask how to generate the sort file,
> I've never seen a response. Am I just missing
> something? If so, where is the answer. If not, is
> there a reason that Klaus won't tell us how he does it?

There is no special reason, except that some readers may find it
confusing and obscure, but no magic is involved. The ordering
is still not as good as it should be, and I doubt that it makes
a significant difference. The proper way would be tracing all
open() calls in the kernel and gernerating the list from there,
but I found no convenient way to do this yet.

Currently I use the file access times as sorting criteria, which
may not always give the best results. Attached is an example script.
Your mileage may vary.

Regards
-Klaus Knopper

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

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

Now, i'm interested in how well this works. I have seen Klaus write that no sorting at all may be just as fast sometimes. So i guess we can easily compate, and maybe improve this a little.

[SillyFly]

anyvody got a clue how the mkisofs.timestamp file is created??

[IllegalOperation]

Heh, Klaus put an end to that wives tale, didnt he

[Powindah]

I would also be interested in knowing how mkisofs.timestamp is generated.

I have a test remaster here that takes about 2 times longer to boot into KDE than the original ISO.

Even if there is a marginal speed improvement I would be happy.