Saving hard drive with noatime in fstab

[stream303]

I've been manually editing this option to my /etc/fstab for a long time now with no problems on PPC - even though this isn't a ppc-specific option.

I really run it just to save on hard drive writes, especially on my laptop. Adding noatime to fstab isn't a new idea, but just wanted to point out that I've been running it without any problems for those who may come across it. There are many articles about it, I started with this one:

http://kerneltrap.org/node/14148

UPDATE: Hardy now uses a newer version which only performs this function on a weekly basis with relatime, but not sure if this is available for pre-hardy installs.

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0
# /dev/sda3
UUID=a5f25c82-3439-433e-9f11-4cfa49e770c8 /               ext3    defaults,errors=remount-ro,noatime  0       1
# /dev/sda4
UUID=f4d40c0a-c0a7-4857-a131-b81f1475f7cc none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/hda        /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec 0       0

(Scroll right to see the ,noatime option)

Note that I did not change any default write-caching options for any sort of speed tweak - this was just to save a bit of head movement.

Unless you need forensic-type security of timestamps written when each file was read (!), this could speed up slow drives a little and save some wear and tear.

[stream303]

Hardy-Beta update:

While I liked to manually insert the noatime parameter into my /etc/fstab in the past, it caused problems only for the package statistics "popularity contest" if you decide to participate in that. (in your sources preferences)

Today, I took a look at my /etc/fstab in Hardy-Beta, and find that relatime has been used by default.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ux/+bug/199427

Interesting!

[slacka-vt]

looks like you're rela-(head-of-your)-time !! Budda-Boom-Cha *crowd claps*

~s

[Scientia]

How exactly do you change the system to use noatime?
Sorry, but i'm floundering around in the Linux environment.

[stream303]

Just use an editor, say nano:

sudo nano -w /etc/fstab

Ctrl-O to write out your changes, and Ctrl-X to exit nano.

Note the comma preceding noatime. Be careful if you are new to editing system files. In fact, back it up first so you can go back in with a rescue shell if you make a big mistake:

sudo cp /etc/fstab  /etc/fstab.bak