bzr memory usage

[Dimitrios Apostolou]

On Wed, 4 May 2011, Andrew Bennetts wrote:
> Dimitrios Apostolou wrote:
>> (1) bzr branch lp:gcc
>> (2) bzr branch --stacked lp:gcc
>> (3) bzr checkout lp:gcc
>> (4) bzr checkout --lightweight lp:gcc
>
> I've got a patch to make a small improvement to case (2), and an idea
> that might make a larger improvement it as well.  It'll probably be your
> best bet in the medium term (aside from workarounds like scp'ing a
> tarball).

I agree, the stacked branch seems like the best scenario, as I understand 
it means having full branch capabilities, but leaving all metadata work 
for the server. Please let me know if/when something changes regarding 
that.

>
>> Here are the exact results I saw, which make bzr unusable equipment
>> with little RAM:
>>
>> (1) took 1h and maxed at 800MB VM usage
>> (2) took 4.7h and maxed at 500MB VM usage
>> (3) was OOM killed (!) after 1h with VM usage exceeding 850MB
>> (4) took 5.5h, downloaded about 8GB of data, and used a maximum of 450MB
>
> It's interesting that (1) and (3) should be so different, they're doing
> essentially the same work!

Hmmm the machine was near its RAM limits, so the OOM killer intervention 
in one case could be pure luck. As I see it, both needed almost the same 
time, and almost the same memory. I don't know if VM size would grow even 
more if the OOM killer hadn't intervened.


Dimitris