Preload EatMyData speeds up dpkg and apt... lots
 

Anyone else played with http://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/eatmydata

Basically its a PRELOAD library that redirects all sync and fsync system calls to "/dev/null"...

I've compiled it within easydebian and did some tests with apt-get reinstalling packages that were already downloaded and cached on disk

2 debs
without eatmydata - 3m22
with eatmydata - 0m33

So... much faster!

I'm going to make a package for maemo too so others can play - but has anyone already done this?

IF APT-GET or DPKG crashes whilst running under eatmydata you could end up with very corrupt apt/dpkg databases!!! unless using a filesystem like btrfs which promises atomicity using its COW semantics.... roll on btrfs!