Odirect offers a C library and SWIG code, making it convenient to use from various scripting languages.
Odirect is a software that helps prevent buffer cache pollution when reading large amounts of data from disk or network file systems, especially during backups. This can cause a considerable performance problem for other processes on the machines involved due to buffer cache pollution. The software offers a convenient way of avoiding this issue on systems that provide an O_DIRECT value for open().
Odirect comes with a C library and SWIG code, making it easy to use from your favorite scripting language. It is currently in its toddler stage, with a series of tests being run to check for functionality. Some of the tests run include using the C library from a C program, testing the swig interface code via a python script that utilizes the swig interface directly, testing the swig interface code through a python wrapper that provides more pythonic functionality, and testing the pythonic interface wrapped with bufsock.
There are, however, some caveats that users should be aware of. The tests are pretty good but have only been used in one real application so far, which is the pyindex program. Odirect has only been tested with C and Python so far, and the developer is content with leaving it there for now since C, bash, and Python are their favorite programming languages at the moment. The software is now compatible with C++, adding to its list of supported languages.
In terms of installation, users should note that there is no "install" rule in the Makefile yet, and various python modules insert "." on their python path from too many places. This should be done in the test programs themselves and not the module(s) to prevent creating and leaving a security issue. Odirect had no write support in version 0.55, only read. However, the current version, 0.65, has 100% untested write support, which is currently being checked for functionality.
Overall, if you need to read large amounts of data from disk or network filesystems, Odirect is a software that can help prevent buffer cache pollution, ensuring better performance for other processes on the machines involved.
Odirect comes with a C library and SWIG code, making it easy to use from your favorite scripting language. It is currently in its toddler stage, with a series of tests being run to check for functionality. Some of the tests run include using the C library from a C program, testing the swig interface code via a python script that utilizes the swig interface directly, testing the swig interface code through a python wrapper that provides more pythonic functionality, and testing the pythonic interface wrapped with bufsock.
There are, however, some caveats that users should be aware of. The tests are pretty good but have only been used in one real application so far, which is the pyindex program. Odirect has only been tested with C and Python so far, and the developer is content with leaving it there for now since C, bash, and Python are their favorite programming languages at the moment. The software is now compatible with C++, adding to its list of supported languages.
In terms of installation, users should note that there is no "install" rule in the Makefile yet, and various python modules insert "." on their python path from too many places. This should be done in the test programs themselves and not the module(s) to prevent creating and leaving a security issue. Odirect had no write support in version 0.55, only read. However, the current version, 0.65, has 100% untested write support, which is currently being checked for functionality.
Overall, if you need to read large amounts of data from disk or network filesystems, Odirect is a software that can help prevent buffer cache pollution, ensuring better performance for other processes on the machines involved.
What's New
Version 0.70: N/A