Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!rice!sun-spots-request
From: cthombor@luke.d.umn.edu (Clark Thomborson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun
Subject: "nice" I/O?
Keywords: SunOS
Message-ID: <3997@brazos.Rice.edu>
Date: 22 Dec 89 20:33:42 GMT
Sender: root@rice.edu
Organization: Sun-Spots
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Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu
X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 8, Issue 228, message 9 of 18

Problem: one I/O-bound process on one workstation can nearly saturate our
fileserver.  Two I/O-bound processes make life miserable.  I don't know of
any concept of "I/O priority" in either Unix or NFS that would limit the
frequency of fileservice for such processes.  Is there such a notion
anywhere in the Unix world?

Solution(?): I can imagine a new "limit" parameter, pagefault_frequency.
A process with a pagefault_frequency of 5, for example, would get no more
than 5 pagefault requests each second from its local Unix kernel...the
sixth would be delayed until the next second.

Can anyone think of a simple workaround that doesn't involve kernel
hacking?  I don't want to wait years for a solution.