Re: [Audacity-devel] "Checkpointing long" on exit

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Something that “may” help us understand what’s going on:

1.	Windows menu
2.	Type in “Resource Monitor” in the search box and hit enter
3.	Select the “Disk” tab

Watch the Audacity disk activity between steps.  Allowing Audacity to “settle” will give you stable timings.  BUT, that’s not realistic timings since folks aren’t going to sit and wait for Audacity to settle like that.  This is just to help visualize what might be contributing to the various oddball timing results.

From: Peter Sampson <pet...@gm...> 
Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2021 11:30 AM
To: Devel <aud...@li...>; Peter Sampson <pet...@gm...>
Subject: Re: [Audacity-devel] "Checkpointing long" on exit

On Tue, Mar 16, 2021 at 4:16 PM Cliff <fly...@gm... <mailto:fly...@gm...> > wrote:

If I can inject here, the speed of the external SSD will depend on the type of bus it is connected to. The USB3, which is the normally used way, can be slower than the internal bus which may be much faster so the internal disk could have better throughput in some cases. For maximum speed the SSD should be the internal drive. Just a thought when doing a comparison.

My 256 SSD and my 1TB HD are both internal drives.

The SSD is my system drive and my main work drive.

So I id some comparison testing - using a one-hour stereo 16-but WAV

1) Temp files on SSD (default scenario)

1.1) Export to SSD  23 secs

1.2) Import from SSD 31 secs

1.3) Export to HD  24 secs

1.4) Import from HD 24 secs

2) Temp files on HD 

2.1) Export to SSD  22 secs

2.2) Import from SSD 1 min 57 secs

2.3) Export to HD  25 secs

2.4) Import from HD 22 secs

So 2.2 looks seriously awry at more than 5 times longer - and I have no idea why   :-//

But even 1.2 looks iffy compared with 1.4 at a 30% increase.

Peter.

Cliff

On Mar 16, 2021, at 10:44, Peter Sampson <pet...@gm... <mailto:pet...@gm...> > wrote:

On Tue, Mar 16, 2021 at 3:15 PM Steve Fiddle <ste...@gm... <mailto:ste...@gm...> > wrote:

On Tue, 16 Mar 2021 at 14:22, Leland <ll...@ho... <mailto:ll...@ho...> > wrote:

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steve Fiddle <ste...@gm... <mailto:ste...@gm...> >
> Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2021 8:25 AM
> To: Audacity-Devel list <aud...@li... <mailto:aud...@li...> >
> Subject: [Audacity-devel] "Checkpointing long" on exit
> 
> Why is this happening?
> 
> Importing large WAV from hdd:
> 1. Launch Audacity
> 2. Drag and drop large WAV file (2.4 GB) from hdd into Audacity.
> Import takes about 45 seconds.
> 3. Exit Audacity
> 3.1. "Save project before closing?" -> No
> 3.2 "Checkpointing long" dialog opens and may take 30 seconds before
> Audacity closes.
> 
> Why is Audacity doing "checkpointing"?  What is it actually doing?
> 
> If I wait a couple of minutes after the file has fully imported before exit,
> Audacity closes immediately. Does this mean that Audacity is actually doing
> part of the import process in the background after the waveform has
> appeared?
> 
> Importing from SSD:
> 1. Launch Audacity
> 2. Drag and drop large WAV file (2.4 GB) from SSD into Audacity.
> Import is MUCH slower (around 1 minute 30) ???
> 3. Exit Audacity
> 3.1. "Save project before closing?" -> No
> 3.2 Audacity closes immediately.
> 
> Why does import from SSD take twice as long as from a much slower hdd?
> 

Checkpointing is done in a separate thread and when a database is closed, all checkpoints must complete before Audacity can continue.  In both of your cases, the checkpointing should be started while the file is still being imported.  But, in your first case, the checkpoints take longer to complete so there's more left to do when the database is closed at Audacity shutdown.  In your SSD test, the checkpoints seem to be finishing during the import and not delayed to database close.

Well, that's my first guess anyway.  A quick review of the code does seem to prove the theory, but reality may vary slightly.  😊

That's pretty much what I guessed, but it doesn't explain why importing from a fast SSD is much slower to display the waveform than when importing from a much slower hdd (as both Peter and I have observed and measured).

When I was (re)testing 3.0.0 versus 2.4.2 last week I was using a 30 minute stereo WAV 24-bit 4GB

All tests on SSD at that time.

my import times were pretty similar for both versions - no great variances.

My test macro opens a test project, exports and then re-imports - these are v3.0.0 times

to import, and all acceptable times I thought:

a) WAV 11.9 secs

b) MP3  7.7 secs

c) Ogg 4.3  secs

d) m4a/aac 5.0 secs

e) flac 4.2 secs

Perhaps more importantly I have been using the various alphas and latterly RCs

as my production system for several months now (and as you know I work with 

2-3 hour stereo shows) and IRL use I have never thought "Boy, that's taking too long"

I can do some more tests of SSD versus HD both Import and Export if

folk think that might be worthwhile ?

@ Peter, which drive is your Audacity temp folder on?

On the SSD of course.

I can try putting my temp files on the 1TB HD  foe SSD/ND Import/Export comparisons if folk 

think that would be a useful test ?

Peter.

@ devel, could it be anything to do with the file being read and the project being written to being on the same drive? 

Steve

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Re: [Audacity-devel] "Checkpointing long" on exit

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Re: [Audacity-devel] "Checkpointing long" on exit