Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!apollo!apollo.hp.com!pato
From: pato@apollo.HP.COM (Joe Pato)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Subject: Re: reducing the delay between edrgy and getpwuid() etc ...
Message-ID: <4ff2e1af.20b6d@apollo.HP.COM>
Date: 21 Feb 91 15:46:00 GMT
References: <1991Feb20.211014.5823@bwdls61.bnr.ca> <9102210942.aa20303@concour.cs.concordia.ca>
Sender: root@apollo.HP.COM
Reply-To: pato@apollo.HP.COM (Joe Pato)
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Apollo Division - Chelmsford, MA
Lines: 21

In general it is a bad idea to use the getpwent call when getpwnam
or getpwuid would be better suited (getpwent will iterate the entire
database while getpwnam and getpwuid use keyed access to find the
appropriate entry).  If you find that you need to use getpwent
you will observe much better performance if you first call:

	setpwfile("/etc//passwd");

The "//" in this pathname is significant - it will force the 
library functions to actually read the ascii file instead of using
RPC calls to the server.

You should also note that as of sr10.3 the passwd (and group and
org) type managers will obtain a current view of the file and cache
it locally.  Before sr10.3 the passwd (and others) file is checkpointed
every two hours.

                    -- Joe Pato
                       Cooperative Computing Division
                       Hewlett-Packard Company
                       pato@apollo.hp.com


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