[Bug 363695] Re: update-apt-xapian-index uses too much CPU and memory

[Max Polk]

On an idle system with 512M memory and 768M swap, while /etc/cron.weekly
/apt-xapian-index was running, I used free to see memory and swap used.
It rose to then peaked at this:

             total       used       free
Mem:        503528     497736       5792
Swap:       786428     231196     555232

Total used memory is 728M.

After ending, it immediately dropped back to this:

             total       used       free
Mem:        503528     259160     244368
Swap:       786428     224484     561944

Total used memory is 483M.

I conclude that apt-xapian-index consumes the difference, which is 245M.

Running "apt-cache stats" I see at the end "Total space accounted for:
26.0 M".

Therefore, it takes 245M to sort and index 26M of information.  This
seems conclusive that the algorithms, containers, and functions chosen
are very inefficient.  It should definitely not require 10 times the
memory space of what is being indexed.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/363695

Title:
  update-apt-xapian-index uses too much CPU and memory

Status in APT:
  Confirmed
Status in “apt-xapian-index” package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released

Bug description:
  Binary package hint: apt-xapian-index

  A background silent update process shouldn't use 98% CPU. It makes
  system sluggish with no visible reason.

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