When the FS-Cache partition backing cachefilesd fills up and no data is available for culling, cachefilesd loops indefinitely retrying. On the tested systems, this utilizes one full CPU core until files can be culled or indefinitely (if files cannot be culled). The desired behavior would be for cachefilesd to throttle itself somehow.
This request was evaluated by Red Hat Product Management for inclusion in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux maintenance release. Product Management has requested further review of this request by Red Hat Engineering, for potential inclusion in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Update release for currently deployed products. This request is not yet committed for inclusion in an Update release.
From the 5.2 Release Notes: http://www.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/5.2/html/Release_Notes/singles/relnotesU2-x86.html """ Thanks to the help of upstream developers and testing customers, the FS-Cache feature has undergone significant changes in line with upstream FS-Cache implementation. Consequently, the technology preview implementation of FS-Cache in this release is now rendered obsolete. As such, Red Hat does not recommend the usage of FS-Cache. Note that FS-Cache will also be likely disabled for the next minor releases. Red Hat will be focusing on further refining this feature as per upstream specifications. Once an acceptable level of invasiveness and compatibility is reached, FS-Cache will then be re-introduced in Red Hat Enterprise Linux. """
Product Management has reviewed and declined this request. You may appeal this decision by reopening this request.