Emails From Vlad on Startup

Importance of Cold Start


Hey guys,

Here are the details on getting a cold start (no FS cache) for perf
analysis:

MacOS X:
  sync
  purge

Linux:
  sync
  echo 3>  /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

Windows:
  Much trickier.

  First, if you're on Vista/7, you need to delete the preload cache
data.  In your windows dir, ... argh, can't find it atm, but there's a
precache or preload or something, and there should be a firefox.exe-like
dir inside it that you need to delete.  Otherwise vista/7 will start
doing its app preload acceleration stuff which will screw over the data
you're trying to collect.

  Then, grab something like flushmem:
http://aegisknight.org/2009/04/flushing-disk-cache/  There's another
tool that's more flexible and might be faster, but that one should get
the job done.

  Then run the app.

Gotta do these steps before each start to simulate cold start.

    - Vlad

Firefox/Projects/Startup Time Improvements Notes

Emails From Vlad on Startup