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From: als@bohra.cpg.oz (Anthony Shipman)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.i386
Subject: Re: why separate filesystems?
Summary: swap space
Message-ID: <582@bohra.cpg.oz>
Date: 27 Aug 90 03:30:44 GMT
References: <46649@ism780c.isc.com> <1585@sixhub.UUCP> <1053@p4tustin.UUCP> <1990Aug24.091111.508@bbt.se>
Organization: Computer Power Group, Melb, Australia
Lines: 25

In article <1990Aug24.091111.508@bbt.se>, pgd@bbt.se (P.Garbha) writes:
> In article <1053@p4tustin.UUCP> carl@p4tustin.UUCP (Carl W. Bergerson) writes:
> >Performance:
> >
> >	"Smaller filesystems are faster" - Xenix Installation Guide
> >
> >	This is generally true for all versions of *ix.
> 
> Can you explain why? Becuase I cannot see why it should be like that.
> The only reason I can think of is reduced head-movement, but if you
> divide one disk into to parts, that effectively defeats that, by
> having to move the head back and forth between the parts.
> 
> I tend to believe that dividing a file system makes it slower, because
> you get less free space on each part, and UNIX file-system with little

If you can put the swap space in the middle between two file systems then I
would expect this to improve overall system performance once swapping/paging
starts. The average head movement between swap I/O and file I/O should be less.

-- 
Anthony Shipman                               ACSnet: als@bohra.cpg.oz.au
Computer Power Group
9th Flr, 616 St. Kilda Rd.,
St. Kilda, Melbourne, Australia
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