On Sat, Jun 23, 2007 at 09:28:01PM +0800, John Summerfield wrote:
> 
> It provides no benefit at all once a program's up and running. I expect 
> it to be most useful in desktop environments, and of least use in 
> dedicated database servers.

The typical text window stuff - vi, ls, less - loads pretty quickly
anyway.  I imagine prelink would save a few milliseconds each time,
perhaps adding up to a few minutes per year.

The "pigs" - the really slow-loading desktop stuff - are firefox2,
openoffice, vmware, and some of my CAD tools.  Most of these live
in /opt/, and prelink doesn't do much for them. 

If I was a typical code jockey, running the C compiler a thousand
times per makefile, a hundred makefiles per week, then prelink would
be very helpful, as does its work mostly in /bin and /usr/bin.

Another place prelink might be handy is for the perl-based wiki I
run on my offsite virtual server.  That is straight /usr/bin/perl,
which is probably launched very often when a spider is traversing
the wiki.  But if I get worried about performance, it is better
to learn about modperl and use that.

So in general I agree with your statement, the value of prelink
is highly situational.  However, if it makes it harder to run
my security and backup tools, it is probably better to invest
in slightly faster hardware than in jumping through hoops to
accomodate prelink.  I'm glad it is easy and safe to disable.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          [log in to unmask]         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs