Written by idzuna the 19 Mar 09 at 23:18.
Category: System.
Related project:
Nothing/Others.
Status: New
Rationale
One thing with just about any OS is that copying files before another task is done slows down the copying process for both tasks.
Example:
Task 1: HDD1 copies to HDD2 (10 mins of copy time)
Then the user wants to copy something from HDD1 > HDD3
Task 2: HDD1 copies to HDD3 (5 mins of copy time)
The system currently tries to do both at once. which does not mean 15mins of copy time. As the head on HDD1 is switching between copying both tasks its increases copy time (in my experience ~25mins)
I've been wanting this for ages! It also will hopefully reduce fragmentation & network throughput (for network filesystems) too.
I would like to point out that if copying to a destination filesystem locks it might be incredibly irritating for a user.
Say you are copying lots of large media files, but wish to copy a small text file.
Upon any file copy you should be told that the destination filesystem is already being copied to, and have the option to queue the copy, or just have it take place anyway. Perhaps this behaviour could be semi-automated based on the size of the file (you so never see the prompt for less than 10mb maybe?)