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Why is repairing permissions much slower on 10.5 than on 10.4 ?

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Why is repairing permissions much slower on 10.5 than on 10.4 ?
JEBB Offline
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#1
09-24-2009, 02:32 PM
Why is repairing permissions much slower on 10.5 than on 10.4 ?

It is noticeably slower on otherwise faster computers.
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Doc Offline
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#2
09-24-2009, 03:18 PM
Apple added a new database to the OS that seems to be responsible for the trouble. From what I can tell, it tends to get corrupted and conflict with the .bom files in the /Library/Receipts folder and the process stalls until a timeout when it encounters errors. It seems especially prone to such trouble when there are lots of old receipts from previous versions of the OS (that are no longer particularly relevant to permissions-repair).

Unfortunately, while I've kept an eye out, I've never found a way to simply fix or rebuild the DB. Trashing the file, for example, does not result in a rebuild on the next reboot. Removing old receipts, trashing the DB and then reinstalling the OS does work, but it's a royal PITA.

There's also some extra file-verification and ACL checks, but the additional time for that should be negligible.

The best "fix" I can recommend is to do a clean install when you move from 10.4-10.5. You can then use the Migration Assistant to pull over your apps and user accounts from your clone/backup.

(And while it sounds like a paranoid conspiracy theory, IMHO somebody at Apple must have deliberately introduced code to slow down permissions-repair a whole lot more on PPC Macs than on Intels because I can't find any better explanation as to why it takes more than 10 times longer to repair permissions on the same Leopard volume when it boots a fast G5 vs a slow CoreDuo.)
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sekker Offline
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#3
09-24-2009, 10:24 PM
Is it fixed in 10.6?
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Doc Offline
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#4
09-24-2009, 11:48 PM
sekker wrote:
Is it fixed in 10.6?

'Haven't done enough installs of 10.6 to get enough data.

It wouldn't be slow on a recently-purchased Intel Mac because there simply haven't been enough in the way of OS updates to slow it down.

It doesn't run on a PPC so Apple's (alleged) sabotage is irrelevant.

Ask someone who has installed Snow Leopard on an original CoreDuo Mini or old MacBook what repairing permissions is like.
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