The "update-mime-database" step can take several minutes on my systems, with extremely high disk I/O. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Emerge a software that adds new mime types (e.g. media-gfx/hugin) 2. Observe the "Updating shared mime info database" step at install with iotop Actual Results: "update-mime-database" takes 4 minutes to complete (HDD 5400rpm), iotop gets crazy Expected Results: "update-mime-database" takes a few seconds to complete with low I/O This issue was already reported in #487504 and fixed with "export ac_cv_func_fdatasync=no" in the ebuild. Sadly this trick doesn't work any more since >=x11-misc/shared-mime-info-2.0 I see 2 possible fixes: - either set "PKGSYSTEM_ENABLE_FSYNC=0" in xdg-utils.eclass (see https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=70366 ) - or patch shared-mime-info to disable 'fdatasync' in meson.ebuild
Slow spinning disks are much less common today than they were in 2013/2014 when bug 484504 was open. The performance hit on a solid state disk is probably trivial. I would suggest setting PKGSYSTEM_ENABLE_FSYNC=0 in make.conf to work around this issue if you are running Gentoo with slow disks.
Regarding the speed yes, but the high write I/O will reduce SSDs lifetime...
I suppose that's a good point. I guess we can rely on FEATURES="merge-sync" in Portage.
(In reply to Mike Gilbert from comment #3) > I suppose that's a good point. > > I guess we can rely on FEATURES="merge-sync" in Portage. Aye, and for e.g. Raspberry Pis on SD cards.
Created attachment 747744 [details, diff] Patch proposal for Gentoo portage tree eclass
Created attachment 747747 [details, diff] Patch proposal for x11-misc/shared-mime-info
I attached to patches as fix proposals. Maybe relying on FEATURES="merge-sync" could be an option too...
The bug has been closed via the following commit(s): https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/gentoo.git/commit/?id=99c24c9cd97877fe0a052f028061c177e066360c commit 99c24c9cd97877fe0a052f028061c177e066360c Author: Mike Gilbert <floppym@gentoo.org> AuthorDate: 2021-10-24 15:26:17 +0000 Commit: Mike Gilbert <floppym@gentoo.org> CommitDate: 2021-10-31 19:32:41 +0000 xdg-utils.eclass: disable fdatasync() in update-mime-database This speeds up installation dramatically on slow disks, and may reduce wear on solid state storage. Portage will call 'sync' after installation if FEATURES="merge-sync" is enabled, so the risk should be small. Closes: https://bugs.gentoo.org/819783 Signed-off-by: Mike Gilbert <floppym@gentoo.org> eclass/xdg-utils.eclass | 3 +++ 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+)