In message <20000128181557.A4537@hermit.home.cs.tu-berlin.de>, Bjoern Labitzke 
writes:
>6. Run "tunefs -n enable /dev/rXd0x" to enable soft updates on the
>   filesystem(s) of your choice.

Oh, cool!  I had tried 'wd0a', and it wouldn't let me, but it looks like it
does for rwd0a.

>7. Remove "update=YES" from your /etc/rc.conf file. update(8) is no longer
>   needed. Its work is now done in a more sophisticated way by a kernel
>   thread.

Is it still done if you've got some non-soft-update filesystems?  Maybe
turning it off will improve performance further.  ;-)

>8. Reboot
>9. Have fun testing.

>I understood this, that you have to reboot after en-/disabling the
>soft updates on a fs.

Not intrinsically, but you do if it's /.

-s