Some update-motd scripts still slow, especially for update-notifier

[Dave Martin]

Binary package hint: update-notifier

I did some instrumentation to see how long the update-motd scripts are actually taking to run.

/etc/update-motd.d/90-updates-available seems to be the script than can take longest--- typically I get an annoyingly slow login about once every 1-2 days.
/etc/update-motd.d/00-header also tends to cause a significant delay (though not so bad)

Does this work really need to be done at login time?

See also https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-notifier/+bug/538158

Cheers
---Dave

Here are the top 20 update-motd script execution times I saw over the last 2 weeks or so:

(Note: the times are h:mm.ss, as output by /usr/bin/time)

0:04.35elapsed: /var/log/update-motd/90-updates-available.20100811085611
0:04.32elapsed: /var/log/update-motd/90-updates-available.20100809085609
0:04.08elapsed: /var/log/update-motd/90-updates-available.20100810095713
0:03.87elapsed: /var/log/update-motd/90-updates-available.20100806101954
0:02.34elapsed: /var/log/update-motd/90-updates-available.20100810161648
0:02.32elapsed: /var/log/update-motd/90-updates-available.20100804121504
0:02.20elapsed: /var/log/update-motd/90-updates-available.20100805084448
0:02.02elapsed: /var/log/update-motd/90-updates-available.20100813081649
0:01.25elapsed: /var/log/update-motd/00-header.20100810153559
0:00.87elapsed: /var/log/update-motd/90-updates-available.20100812082151
0:00.84elapsed: /var/log/update-motd/00-header.20100812113012
0:00.79elapsed: /var/log/update-motd/90-updates-available.20100812113013
0:00.72elapsed: /var/log/update-motd/90-updates-available.20100810153600
0:00.64elapsed: /var/log/update-motd/90-updates-available.20100809163547
0:00.54elapsed: /var/log/update-motd/00-header.20100813084702
0:00.54elapsed: /var/log/update-motd/00-header.20100806101954
0:00.53elapsed: /var/log/update-motd/90-updates-available.20100813084703
0:00.53elapsed: /var/log/update-motd/00-header.20100811085610
0:00.47elapsed: /var/log/update-motd/00-header.20100809085608
0:00.47elapsed: /var/log/update-motd/00-header.20100804121504

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: update-notifier 0.99.3
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-rc6-tip+ i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Fri Aug 13 15:08:48 2010
ProcEnviron: SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: update-notifier

[Dave Martin (dave-martin-arm)]

Linking the bug to base-files, since 00-header comes from there.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package base-files - 5.0.0ubuntu25

---------------
base-files (5.0.0ubuntu25) natty; urgency=low

  * debian/update-motd.d/00-header, debian/update-motd.d/10-help-text,
    debian/update-motd.d/99-footer:
    - add copyright/license header
    - simplify/shorten text, LP: #578264
    - speed up boot by having 00-header source /etc/lsb-release, if possible,
      and only using lsb_release as a fall back, LP: #617410, #664492
  * debian/postinst.in: ensure that /var/run/motd is populated on package
    install/upgrade, LP: #614486
 -- Dustin Kirkland <email address hidden> Thu, 21 Oct 2010 08:43:01 -0500

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

Is this still a problem now that the data is cached? If so, could we simply build it in the background if we don't have it cached?