KIP, Powerprint Request software -samba

[David Collier-Brown]

   Rats!  I was hoping to find some way to keep powerprint
from opening all the files the the &#$!!! directory.

   Ok, completely different approach:
   If the file are named by a program, for example
j.d.smith_28jan1993_1.dat, the directory could be
broken up into a tree,such as
	smith/jan1993/j.d.smith_28jan1993_1.dat
and the number of files per directory be kept low
that way. The latter is how large-scale image
archiving worked at  Siemens.

   However, this assumes there is a small working
set of files which are likely to be printed at
any given date, and that they should be grouped
together. If hat's not true, all the user gets
is the problem of constantly changing directories (;-))

--dave


mnehemiah at urschel.com wrote:
> Hi David,
>               I have seen the explorer feature, that opens files looking
> for icons and slows down your directory listing.  It could
> be something similar, but I dont know.  The powerprint
> software directory listing is 4 colomns, 1-checkbox for
> selection, 2- filename, 3- size, 4 mod date.  That is it, no
> icons, and no options to change the directory listing view
> at all.   Thanks, for the response.   Any other ideas for me
> to try?
> 
> --Mark..
> 
> ---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
> Subject: Re: KIP, Powerprint Request software -samba
> From:    "David Collier-Brown" <davec-b at rogers.com>
> Date:    Wed, August 11, 2004 11:29 am
> To:      mnehemiah at urschel.com
> Cc:      samba-technical at lists.samba.org
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 
> 
>>   This looks somewhat familiar: Windows Explorer has a tenancy
>>to try to open all files in a directory in order to show a pretty
>>screen of icons, each read from icon information in the file.
>>Powerprint may well be doing something similar.
>>   When starting up the powerprint file browser, does it by any
>>chance have an option to just list filenames, or use small
>>icons, or something that causes it to not to try to open all
>>the files?  If so, try it and see if it causes a huge speed-up.
>>
>>   If not, we might have to pull some sort of kludge, such as
>>a vfs that returns precached icons without actually opening the
>>files.  It's the directory traversal (namei/iget) and file opens
>>that take the time on Unix.
>>
>>
>>mnehemiah at urschel.com wrote:
>>
>>>Hi all,
>>>        Before  I get started on my troubles now, I want to thank the
>>>team
>>>for everything they've done, and helping me before with my clarion
>>>database locking issues.  We have been running all of our production
>>>clarion databases on samba since then, with no known issues.  Hats off
>>>to
>>>the team and all who contribute.
>>>
>>>Description: Engineering dept uses wide format Kip brand printers,  They
>>>use proprietary kip software for maintenance on large numbers of image
>>>files on the server. Before samba, the files were on $NT4(&nt4 era
>>>hardware).  In their software, opening a typical directory(4000 files)
>>>took a long time ~15s.  Now, on samba they get 2min10seconds directory
>>>open time.    I set up a test network to troubleshoot.  My test network,
>>>I
>>>can get the directory time down to 38secs. on samba 3.0.5  Several
>>>engineers use this program daily for file moving, manipulation, etc.
>>>and
>>>it is just unbearable to use.   I tried an xp share, and the time was
>>>8secs.  I have been in contact with KipAmerica on this issue, and they
>>>are
>>>not interested in helping.  I hope one of you guys can look at this for
>>>me, it seems easy to recreate, and I think there is a definite problem
>>>somewhere here.
>>>
>>>To Re-create:
>>>I originally worked with our production files.
>>>    For re-creation purposes,  Just use 4000 empty files. It is slightly
>>>faster with empty files.  bash: for n in `seq 4000`;do touch $n;done.
>>>Download windows software from Kip, Powerprint Request latest version.
>>>www.kipamerica.com/software_downloads.asp
>>>or direct download -
>>>www.kipamerica.com/powerprint_2004/PP5SR3_Request.exe
>>>-(free download)  Install software on a windows box.  Have shared folder
>>>with files mounted on windows box.
>>>    Powerprint request software opens up with a directory/File browse
>>>window.  find your folder with the 4000 files, click on it and watch how
>>>long it takes to open.
>>>
>>>I have had this problem since we moved their files.  I have tried 3
>>>different server hardware configs, and many tuning parameters from
>>>noatime
>>>on mounts to several of the TCP options.   latest samba test config is
>>>at
>>>the end.  I feel confident that this problem can be reproduced easily.
>>>Please, let me know if there is any more information I can get to you on
>>>this, or if there is anything I can do to help diagnose.  I'm stuck
>>>right
>>>now, in a real bad way with our Engineering dept.  I really have to come
>>>up with an answer on this problem for them.
>>>
>>>Thanks,
>>>                 Mark..
>>>
>>>all disks were formated ext3, used single ide drives, and 3ware raid 5s,
>>>
>>>smb.conf
>>>***
>>>[global]
>>>   workgroup = AAAAAAA
>>>  netbios name = Nemo
>>>   server string = Nemo's Kip test thing
>>>   log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
>>>   max log size = 50
>>>   security = domain
>>>   password server = *
>>> encrypt passwords = yes
>>>   socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192
>>>IPTOS_THROUGHPUT
>>>   wins server = 10.x.x.x
>>>   dns proxy = no
>>>[homes]
>>>   comment = Home Directories
>>>   browseable = no
>>>   writable = yes
>>>[printers]
>>>   comment = All Printers
>>>   path = /var/spool/samba
>>>   browseable = no
>>>   guest ok = yes
>>>   writable = no
>>>   printable = yes
>>>   create mode = 0700
>>>   print command = lpr -P %p -o raw %s -r   # using client side printer
>>>drivers.
>>>
>>>[print$]
>>>   path = /var/lib/samba/printers
>>>   browseable = yes
>>>   read only = yes
>>>   write list = @adm root
>>>
>>>[Kip_files]
>>>path=/server
>>>writable=yes
>>>*************
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
> 
> 
>