From:	SMTP%"saul@hnrc.tufts.edu"  8-JUN-1994 09:58:23.63
To:	EVERHART
CC:	
Subj:	RMS Performance patches coming

Message-Id: <9406080234.AA01005@uu7.psi.com>
Date:         Tue, 7 Jun 1994 20:02:27 -0500
Reply-To: "Saul Tannenbaum (Saul Tannenbaum)" <saul@hnrc.tufts.edu>
Sender: ANU-NEWS Discussion <ANU-NEWS@VM1.NoDak.EDU>
From: "Saul Tannenbaum (Saul Tannenbaum)" <saul@hnrc.tufts.edu>
Organization: USDA HNRC at Tufts University
Subject:      RMS Performance patches coming
To: Multiple recipients of list ANU-NEWS <ANU-NEWS@VM1.NoDak.EDU>

In the next day or two, I'll be posting a set of patches to News V6.1 Beta 9
that are designed to improve RMS performance in various pieces of News,
specifically targetting ADD and SKIM processing.

This is posted as a "heads up" to anyone who might be working on the
same modules, and to solicit any feedback on these changes.

Note: These patches supersede my "fast skim" patches and address the
concerns about RMS reliability by providing a separate mechanism to
turn on deferred write.

The changes include:

        NEWSADD:
                Open the input batch file with multibuffer and read-ahead
                For creating articles, estimate the article size, pre-extend
                        the file, and write it with multiblocking,
                        multibuffering and write behind
        NEWSRTL
                Modify file_copy to allocate a dynamically sized buffer
                        up to 63 blocks (file_copy is used for propagating
                        crossposted articles)
        NEWSFILES
                Changed controlling logical names to the NEWS_ format
                Established run time control over buffercount, cathedral
                        windows, deferred write, and global buffercount
                        of the items and group files via logical names
                Modified RMS support routines to use read ahead and write
                        behind
                Open the newsrc file with read ahead
        NEWSDELETE
                Changed controlling logical names to the NEWS_ format
                Established run time control over buffercount, cathedral
                        windows, deferred write, and global buffercount
                        of the history file

And, with Mark Martinec's delightful new statistics gathering code, we can
all see, objectively, if this will make _any_ difference whatsoever.

        - Saul
--
Saul Tannenbaum, Manager, Scientific Computing     Internet: saul@hnrc.tufts.edu
USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University