When you're like me, you don't like your CPU cycles waste — and if you're using Gentoo, you like to be constantly merging something in the background. The problem is that the CPU and IO load really can be a major PITA, rendering the machine essentially unusable to do any real work when compilation is running.
Luckily, Linux kernel offer a great deal of flexibility when it comes to scheduling and prioritizing processes. And using that, I hereby present you The Really Nice SysAdmin Console:
alias suscreen="sudo screen -drU || sudo nice -n19 ionice -c3 chrt -b 0 su - -c 'screen -U'"
What this code does, is to:
- try to attach to an existing root screen (won't work for more than one, sorry),
- in case that fails (ie. no screen running) it sets up a root login screen, scheduled on
- lowest nice priority,
- idle io priority class,
- BATCH scheduler class.
Maybe chrt -b 0 and nice -n19 are a bit redundant, but you're never too sure. The bottom line is — you can have your compilation running in that screen and it doesn't go in the way with whatever you do; when need be, it just yields any CPU and IO to higher-class (ie. your) processes. So you can have your cake and eat it too.
