Hello everyone, We have had some discussion about that local database and how it could be improved. I thought it would be useful to have a summary of what options touch what files in the local db: -R <pkg> all "desc" files single "files" file -S (something that installs a package...) all "desc" files single/multiple "files" files during package upgrades -Q stuff: -c <pkg> -> single "changelog" file per package -l <pkg> -> single "files" file per package -k <pkg> -> single "files/mtree" file per package -kk <pkg> -> single "mtree" file per package -d, -e, -g, -i, -m, -s, -t, -u all "desc" files -l, -o (, -k) all "files" files -c all "changelog" files -kk (, -k) all "mtree" files What can we conclude from this? 1) no operation reads a single "desc" file 2) -Qo is the only operation to gain from efficient reading of all "files" files. (-Ql may also gain, but is probably output bound) 3) having "desc" and "files" files separate and only loading these files if we need it is a gain. 4) all operations on mtree files require lots of disk access, so there is not much gain in increasing the efficiency of reading these. Allan