> ->   166.93s real     1.81s user     1.23s system
> -> dsl@snowdrop:-ksh$ time find . |wc
> ->   109552  109552 4153470
> ->   165.35s real     1.75s user     1.27s system
> ->
> -> Repeating the find takes about the same length of time, the disk
> -> 'rattles' throughout.  Memory use (reported by 'top') stays basically
> -> constant 'Memory: 33M Act, 308K Wired, 187M Free, 1025M Swp free'.
>
> I bet you run out of vnodes, the vnodes for stuff you've already gotten get


did he turned off atime?

if not find means lot of WRITEs which will do flushing and can stop system
for a while