[PATCH] when logging out, sync() all data in background to disc

[Kok, Auke]

Benedikt Meurer wrote:
> Kok, Auke wrote:
>> ===
>> New patch filed here: http://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4313
>> ===
>>
>> Another patch for speedups! This one however speeds things up when the system is
>> shutting down!
>>
>> On netbooks where we have slow-to-write SSD devices, shutdown can be painful as
>> flushing all the dirty data to disc is quite a penalty, slowing down shutdown by
>> seconds.
>>
>> A quick helping hand can be given by xfce4 if it calls sync() when the user
>> appears to be going-to-shutdown. The xfce4-session-logout application is the
>> central point that is initially called if the user selects any of the `exit` paths
>> in xfce4. By inserting an asynchronous `sync();` call as the very first action
>> that xfce4-session-logout does, data is being flushed to disc even before the
>> `logout` and `shutdown` buttons appear on screen.
>>
>> This helps a lot with shutdown time, as the user usually needs at least a whole
>> second to locate the appropriate button on the screen with his mouse and click it.
>> In that time we could have flushed a significant amount of data back to disc
>> already. And that's exactly what this patch does.
>>
>> The patch is against 4-4, but I assume just like the other patch that it applies
>> against trunk just fine as well.
> 
> You should use _exit instead of exit for the child process, just to be sure.

ok, that sounds reasonable :)

but that kind of stuff is up to the person who merges it. I'm too shy to abuse my
root privs and commit this stuff myself :)

Auke