use bio for ndb/query's output.  this is a significant help with only 20ms
lag between terminal and cpu; makes a very large difference even at 3ms
for intensive scripted queries.  e.g.  (sorry, this is my version of rc that
has "break".  i'm also assuming a class C network.  you get the point.)

#!/usr/quanstro/bin/386/rc
rfork e
net = `{ndb/query ipnet $site ip |sed s:\.0::g}
aflag = 0
vflag = 0

for(i)
	switch($1){
	case -a
		aflag = 1;
		shift;
	case -v
		aflag = 1;
		vflag = 1;
		shift
	case *
		echo 'usage: freeip [-a] [-v]'>[1=2]
		exit usage
	}
	
for(i in `{seq 1 253}){
	r = `{ndb/query ip $net^.$i ip}
	q = `{ndb/query 10gip $net^.$i 10gip}

	# it's illegal to have a duplicate ip and 10gip, unless
	# the host is the same.
	all=($r $q)
	if(! ~ $#all 0 1){
		a = `{ndb/query ip $net^.$i sys}
		b = `{ndb/query 10gip $net^.$i sys}
		if(! ~ $#a 1 && ! ~ $"a $"b){
			echo error $net^.$i >[1=2]
			echo '	' ip '	' $a>[1=2]
			echo '	' 10gip '	' $b>[1=2]
		}

	}
	if(~ $vflag 0)
	if(! ~ $r ?* && ! ~ $q ?*){
		echo $net^.$i
		if (~ $aflag 0)
			break
	}
}

Notes:
Wed Mar 19 15:07:58 EDT 2008 geoff
    Please (re)read style(6) and edit your code to conform,
    then resubmit this patch.  Thanks.


Reference: /n/sources/patch/sorry/ndbqrybio
Date: Wed Mar 12 20:36:31 CET 2008
Signed-off-by: quanstro@quanstro.net
Reviewed-by: geoff

--- /sys/src/cmd/ndb/query.c	Wed Mar 12 20:32:41 2008
+++ /sys/src/cmd/ndb/query.c	Wed Mar 12 20:32:40 2008
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 #include <ndb.h>
 
 static int all, multiple;
+Biobuf bout;
 
 void
 usage(void)
@@ -22,7 +23,7 @@
 {
 	for(; nt; nt = nt->entry)
 		if (strcmp(nt->attr, rattr) == 0)
-			print("%s\n", nt->val);
+			Bprint(&bout, "%s\n", nt->val);
 }
 
 void
@@ -38,7 +39,7 @@
 		if (multiple)
 			prmatch(t, rattr);
 		else if(p)
-			print("%s\n", p);
+			Bprint(&bout, "%s\n", p);
 		ndbfree(t);
 		free(p);
 		return;
@@ -57,8 +58,8 @@
 	/* all entries */
 	for(t = ndbsearch(db, &s, attr, val); t; t = ndbsnext(&s, attr, val)){
 		for(nt = t; nt; nt = nt->entry)
-			print("%s=%s ", nt->attr, nt->val);
-		print("\n");
+			Bprint(&bout, "%s=%s ", nt->attr, nt->val);
+		Bprint(&bout, "\n");
 		ndbfree(t);
 	}
 }
@@ -69,7 +70,7 @@
 	int reps = 1;
 	char *rattr = nil, *dbfile = nil;
 	Ndb *db;
-
+	
 	ARGBEGIN{
 	case 'a':
 		all++;
@@ -78,7 +79,7 @@
 		multiple++;
 		break;
 	case 'f':
-		dbfile = ARGF();
+		dbfile = EARGF(usage());
 		break;
 	default:
 		usage();
@@ -97,7 +98,9 @@
 	default:
 		usage();
 	}
-	
+
+	if(Binit(&bout, 1, OWRITE) == -1)
+		sysfatal("Binit: %r");
 	db = ndbopen(dbfile);
 	if(db == nil){
 		fprint(2, "%s: no db files\n", argv0);