Its very fair to say I don't operate at the same Linux level as you guys and i certainly cant code anywhere near as well, but in this discussion thats actually an advantage... consider me more representative the other guys ... Perl is just easier to hack about with and make things work. Half of that is because of the sheer volume of code and google help thats available. OK so im flogging a dead horse but if a debate is to happen on which language to chose then its a big factor.... the new hacker will find Perl easier IMO.

 

But to say something more interesting.... how tight for space are we actually at. If were going for the flash approach and potentially a second flash at that then surely we have Gigs to play with? (8GB USB flash are like 15 bucks).

 

 

And to say something even more intersting . .....

 

why dont we just ask for 2 additions to unRAID, Wget and a script to install the latest package loader (a loader of the loader). Then we can leave Tom alone and do stuff faster on out own without needing to change the official unRAID again.

One thing perl has going for it is that it is designed so that multiple versions can live on the same system... so new version can be tested, and the old version put back quickly by just changing symlinks.  That makes it easy to let it live outside the initramfs, and thus not take up ram on unRAID.

 

One negative is that adding perl modules often needs a compiler... so that large body of downloadable code you can find, just may not work unless you have a compiler and can att a module it is dependent on.

 

As for size, the stock unraid has a compressed initramfs of 30M.  I'm comfortable with one twice that size, and can live with one of 100M.  Anything over that make me uncomfortable for an application server.

 

The other issue is applications, like slimserver, that can eat a bunch of ram when you launch them.

 

Another potential issue is memory leaks.... the more applications you run, the more likely you will have something leak memory.... and on a system w/o swap, especially one like unRAID that runs for months without a restart, than can get ugly.

 

I'd like to see creating a permanent swapfile made as part of the unRAID user interface... on the cache disk, or on an array drive if there is no cache disk, but a swap file is mandatory for safety if you run more than a couple of applications along with unRAID.

 

I'd suggest leaving out perl, php, and python in the base distro, but make it easy to add them.  Just expand kernel features, include wget, add simple swap configuration,  and let developers bootstrap from there.

 

I'd like to keep the target system at 512MB RAM, and a 512M flash drive... while flash drives are cheap, remember that unRAID is tied to the flash ID.  Perhaps, make unraid-Ultra, a combination of two flash drives... one for booting, and the other for the application filesystem.... and if you have a big single flash, the base system, and the additional ultra filesystem can live together on one.

 

 

One negative is that adding perl modules often needs a compiler... so that large body of downloadable code you can find, just may not work unless you have a compiler and can att a module it is dependent on.http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?action=post;quote=20885;topic=2503.0;sesc=cb874d0c9f8cb3d0251b03ce7a307a42

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This has often been a grumbling point for me. However I have been able to compile modules in once place, then lift them to another.

 

 

I'd like to see creating a permanent swapfile made as part of the unRAID user interface... on the cache disk, or on an array drive if there is no cache disk, but a swap file is mandatory for safety if you run more than a couple of applications along with unRAID.

 

Here's a food for though script

It was just a test I did a while ago, but it might have some use in stimulating ideas

 

#!/bin/bash
# Makes a swap file
# if values are no then Run with    init_swap=yes  S04-swap.sh
# Mounts a swap file
# if values are no then Run with    mount_swap=yes S04-swap.sh

# init_swap=no
mount_swap=yes

# move the file you want as a swap file to the last definition.
swapfile=/boot/unraid.swapfile
swapfile=/mnt/disk1/.unraid.swapfile
swapfile=/mnt/ram/.unraid.swapfile
swapfile=/mnt/cache/.unraid.swapfile

# move the size you want as the last definition.
size=128
size=256

if [ "${init_swap:=no}" == "yes" -a ! -f ${swapfile} ]
   then dd if=/dev/zero of=${swapfile} bs=1M count=256
        chmod 600 ${swapfile}
        mkswap -L UNRAID-SWAP ${swapfile}
fi

if [ "${mount_swap:=no}" == "yes" -a -f ${swapfile} ]
   then swapon -v ${swapfile}
fi