Two's Complement Squashing Compilers
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Aug 10, 2025 Matt vents about his three-day battle with systemd, revealing why mounting things should never consume 200% CPU. A humorous discussion around listening stats provides comic relief. They tackle the challenges of managing large compiler installations and the intricacies of SquashFS. AWS credits bring unexpected financial relief, shaping their infrastructure plans. Linguistic quirks add a light touch, and the contrasting realities of debugging highlight the frustrations every programmer faces. It’s a mix of tech woes and relatable humor!
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Upgrade Broken By AppArmor Changes
- Matt hit AppArmor conflicts when upgrading to Ubuntu 24 that broke Compiler Explorer's jails.
- He fixed the config but noticed boot times increased dramatically.
Why SquashFS Beats NFS For Tiny Files
- Matt explains SquashFS packs tiny files into block-level chunks to reduce NFS metadata overhead.
- The kernel caches block accesses so SquashFS hides NFS latency aggressively.
Systemd Tracking Caused Massive CPU Spikes
- Systemd created ad-hoc units for each mount, which multiplied mount latency and stalls.
- The result was 100% CPU on both cores and unresponsive SSH during boot.