On Sun, 22 Oct 2006 15:07:02 -0400
Thor Lancelot Simon <tls@rek.tjls.com> wrote:

> If I restore a backup full of large files (such that the smooth
> syncer, which schedules writes when _a file's_ oldest data is 30
> seconds old), over the network onto LFS, the following thing happens:
> 
> 1) Writes queue up for 30 seconds (this is a design flaw in the
> smooth syncer)

Design flaw that in 4.0 can be changed via sysctl:

[juan@nocturno][~]> sysctl vfs.sync
vfs.sync.delay = 20
vfs.sync.filedelay = 20
vfs.sync.dirdelay = 15
vfs.sync.metadelay = 10
[juan@nocturno][~]>

I use these values for my system.