Conference csc32::consolemanager

373.0. "buffer writes" by CX3PST::ANASAZ::J_BECKER (There's no substitute for a good boot) Mon Aug 29 1994 17:57

I have a user that does not like the disk noise on his 
workstation caused by writes on every keystroke when in the 
connect interface.  He wishes to control the writes (ie buffer 
them) and select the write interval, say maybe every 5 seconds
as an example.  I have tried to explain why we do  
this, but he wants a suggestion to have it changed.  Rather than 
enter a formal suggestion spr, I am placing his request 
here to save $$$.  

Here is the user's request:

is there a way to ask the cnsole manager to defer its
writing.  its hard to listen to my hard drive rattle for
every single key stroke.

And by response:

No.  The reason is the importance of the console data.   Since CONSOLE
MANAGER can be used to log console data, the writing of the data to disk
was deem critical.  If the CONSOLE MANAGER engine were to crash, the data
recorded by the DAEMON would be on disk and would not be lost.  When
failover is implimented, the backup CONSOLE MANAGER node will "pickup"
where the lost system left off.  The data would be on the lost system's
disk.

His final request:
since we have the ability to actually turn it off, can I
request that the next version include the ability to
Defer it?  Granted logging is important, but by allowing
us to turn it off completely you are allowing us to say
that it is also umimportant.  what i would like is
somewhere in between, where i say it is good to keep it
but not necesary to direct write every single keystroke.


john becker

John,

  Your customers request has been noted (but tell
  them not to hold their breath, making this change
  impacts so much else in the software!!).

  As an aside, they could always change to OSF/1 as
  the operating system will buffer our writes and
  then flush to disk periodically.

Cheers,
Phil