The setuid walk is paced before each file too, so a large directory is not read blind (review of issue 433)

A file's own details (lstat) may be read from the disk as a directory is,
so a directory of tens of thousands of files was read without a look and
the header's promise that no burst is longer than PaceLook did not hold.
The walk now asks the pacer before each file as well; the 250 ms gate
makes that a clock read per file. A test with one directory of twenty
files fails without it. The clock is read once after a run of pauses,
and the constants test says that it guards the constants only.

internal/accounts/setuid_pace.go

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package accounts
 
-// The walk for setuid programs yields to a busy disk (novox/hq issue 433). The walk is put in the idle I/O class
+// The walk for setuid programs yields to a busy disk (novox/hq issue 433). It asks before each directory and each
+// file it reads, so no burst between two looks is longer than PaceLook, however large a directory. The walk is put in the idle I/O class
 // (idle_linux.go), but only a disk scheduler that schedules by class honours that (BFQ does). The control-node's
 // disks run mq-deadline, which does not, and there the walk read at full priority: on 2026-10-11 it kept two
 // spinning disks saturated for sixteen minutes, the bus whose store shares those disks stalled for half a minute
@@ -105,7 +106,8 @@ func (pc *pacer) yield(ctx context.Context) error {
 			break
 		}
 	}
-	pc.readSince, pc.lastLook = pc.now(), pc.now()
+	resumed := pc.now()
+	pc.readSince, pc.lastLook = resumed, resumed
 	return nil
 }
 

internal/accounts/setuid_pace_test.go

@@ -138,7 +138,8 @@ func TestTheWalkKeepsATenthOfTheTimeWhateverThePressure(t *testing.T) {
 
 // What the floor promises against the ages a search is judged by: the walk that took 16m31s unpaced on the
 // control-node on 2026-10-11, slowed to its worst, still completes well inside the time the controller stays quiet
-// while it waits for a search, and so judges for most of its fresh age.
+// while it waits for a search. A guard on the constants only: that the code keeps to the ratio is proven by
+// TestTheWalkKeepsATenthOfTheTimeWhateverThePressure.
 func TestTheSlowestPacedWalkStillJudgesInTime(t *testing.T) {
 	const unpaced = 16*time.Minute + 31*time.Second
 	worst := (1 + PaceRatio) * unpaced
@@ -280,3 +281,22 @@ func TestTheIOPressureIsReadAsTheKernelWritesIt(t *testing.T) {
 		}
 	}
 }
+
+// One directory of many files is paced as it is read, not only between directories: a file's own details may be
+// read from the disk too.
+func TestADirectoryOfManyFilesIsPacedAsItIsRead(t *testing.T) {
+	names := []string{"bin/"}
+	for i := range 20 {
+		names = append(names, "bin/f"+strings.Repeat("x", i+1))
+	}
+	top := tree(t, names...)
+	f := newFake(80, 2)
+	f.tick = 100 * time.Millisecond
+	w := mine()
+	w.pace = f.pacer()
+	walkAll(t, w, top)
+	// Two directories alone would be looked at once, 200 ms apart, within one look: no pause at all.
+	if len(f.slept) == 0 {
+		t.Fatal("a directory of twenty files was read without a pause under pressure")
+	}
+}

internal/accounts/setuid_walk.go

@@ -239,6 +239,10 @@ func (w walker) walkMount(ctx context.Context, p *SetuidProgress, mount string,
 				return err
 			}
 		case d.Type().IsRegular():
+			// A file's own details may be read from the disk too: a directory of many files is paced as it is read.
+			if err := w.pace.yield(ctx); err != nil {
+				return err
+			}
 			info, err := d.Info() // the entry's own, never through a link
 			if errors.Is(err, fs.ErrNotExist) {
 				return nil