[mythtv-users] Low Power Frontends (in anticipation of nvidia's new API)

[Glenn Harris]

On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 2:39 PM, Jan Ceuleers <jan.ceuleers at computer.org> wrote:
> In my case it's mythfilldatabase that consumes a lot of CPU, so I run it
> at nice -19. The amount of CPU used by mythfilldatabase is about twice
> the amount consumed by mysql.
>
> But the problem I'm trying to solve is not the execution speed of
> mythfilldatabase, but rather that a mythfilldatabase run has minimal
> impact on any foreground processes. My current solution is to simply run
> mythfilldatabase in the middle of the night but I'd like to understand
> what my options are for when I do have to run it during showtime.

You can also run it using ionice to 'nice' the disk usage.  Something like:
ionice -c2 -n7 <cmd>
would have a similar impact on disk usage as nice -17 has on cpu.
Check the man page for full details on the parameters.

You can monitor your disk usage (and io in general) with iotop.

Good luck!
--Glenn