[NTLUG:Discuss] Samba Server comments = performance hit

[Chris Cox]

Kenneth Loafman wrote:
> Richard Geoffrion wrote:
>> Kenneth Loafman wrote:
>>> If that's the case then they need to rethink their config strategy.  If 
>>> they are doing more than checking for a changed timestamp, then they are 
>>> doing serious overkill.  Even cron, which checks multiple files and dirs 
>>> once a minute does not have a high overhead.
>> From: http://lists.samba.org/archive/samba/2002-November/056815.html
>> ==================
>> Someone named John T. wrote:
>> <snip>
>> Based on this information and information from time spent in #Samba and 
>> #Samba-technical, typical comments in an smb.conf file will pose no 
>> great performance risk.  
>>
>> I would, however, discourage one from storing one's autobiography in a a 
>> production smb.conf file.
> 
> I tend to keep my system files under CVS, but don't normally turn on 
> logging in the files themselves.
> 
> I think that once every 20sec is overkill.  Once a minute at the most. 
> The file just does not need to change that often, even in an active 
> environment.  Besides, once one of the smbd daemons has read it, it'll 
> stay in the cache for a while, unless this was also a memory starved 
> system.  These numbers sound a bit far-fetched, but anything done 2400 
> times a second (3x800), is bound to cause a small load.

Actually, Mr. Terpstra seemed to indicate that it merely checks now
to see if the time in newer than the smbd process time.... so perhaps
this isn't as big of an issue anymore (??).  But at least we know
the history of why tools like swat, etc. nuke the comments.