I don't know of any documentation out there about Steam -update or
-verify-all, so I am just guessing here based on observation. I could
be wrong.
The Steam updater uses file hashes/signatures of some kind. Date and
file size are not used in any way.
This hashing can cause a lot of disk IO wait.
In order to provide any update, the files in the update must be first
hashed, then the hashes compared, then files with differences are updated.
If the updater is smart, then it compares the installation versions
(where is this even stored?) and discovers all updates between here and
there, stacks the changed files, and would only hash and compare those
files involved.
If it's dumb, it just hashes everything in the installation and only
compares the changed files between versions.
So, what's the difference between -verify-all and a regular -update?
The app itself says "Verify all HLDS files are up to date".
I am guessing that it does what it says and hashes all files, diffs the
hashes, and updates any that do not match.
Unfortunately, there isn't something like rsync's --delete, which will
also delete extra junk on the target and give you an exact mirror of the
source.
If Valve just used rsync, they could probably save a lot of bandwidth.
Not to mention CPU and diskIO time on host systems.
In summary, the larger the update, the more hashing, and thus disk IO wait.
Use nice to raise the prio of your running games, and lower the prio of
the updates.
Peter Reinhold wrote:
Hi all,
Is it possible to run a game update (./steam -command update ..) that
does not verify the entire gamefolder befores downloading?
Running a standard update, not specifying -verify_all results in a
flurry of disc activity, and I would really like to avoid that.
/Peter
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