I asked about this almost 2 years ago.  I was thinking along the same
line as yourself.  I was told it wasn't available AND if it could be
disabled, it may break a lot of code.  Linux caching also includes write
caching.  So your writes don't immediately pass to CP (much less the I/O
boundry) immediately.

Anyway, after playing with Linux for almost 2 years, I don't think
disabling Linux caching would be a good idea, even if it was doable.

Big reason is caching has the least amount of overhead the closer you
are to the application that is doing the I/O.  So Linux caching doesn't
envolve the overhead of going to CP to MDcache, much less going through
the hardware boundary to controller cache (ok, so now a days it's most
likely, controller cache, raid cache and drive cache...any others?)

So disabling Linux cache would only be good for mdcache, if multiple
Linux machines where sharing the same physical cylinders.  And sharing
packs, which was discussed last week, doesn't seem to be too easy.  Some
low volume packs may be easy, but the root, usr and such are somewhat
hard to do.  (Now if you have the money for LinuxCare....)

I only have 17 images, each sufficiently unique enough to make sharing
packs difficult, that I gave up on this idea.  However, I do share a
pack containing RPMs, and TAR files.

I went back to vdisk (or for low priority images, tdisk) swap space,
with a second, lower priority allocation of some old Ramac drives.

Tom Duerbusch
THD Consulting

-----Original Message-----
From: Linux on 390 Port [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dave
Jones
Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2004 12:20 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Linux on zSeries and file caching...


Folks, does anyone know how to build a Linux 2.4.x kernel that has Linux file caching disabled? I want to disable Linux's file caching and let CP's minidisk caching functions do it instead, and to reduce the virtual storage requirements for the guest.

TIA.

--
Dave Jones
Houston, TX

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