[geeks] rate-limiting disk i/o

[David Cantrell]

[NB - posted to two mailing lists, careful with them replies]

Can anyone think of a way of 'nice'ing a process so that it doesn't hammer
the disks?  nice only affects scheduling, but we *really* need to limit a
process to just FOO% of disk i/o, or at least make it wait if another
process wants the disk.

Specifically, we need to run du without bringing the machine to a shuddering
halt.  A crufty solution would be a shell script which sends alternate
SIGSTOPs and SIGCONTs every couple of seconds.  But that sucks battleships
through micropore.

-- 
David Cantrell | Benevolent Dictator | http://www.cantrell.org.uk/david

WARNING! People in front of screen are stupider than they appear
    -- Tanuki the Raccoon-dog, in the Monastery