Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🖥️ Task scheduling ⛏️ Refilling soil
backfilling

backfilling

6.7
Putting short jobs into idle time to keep computers busy
  • noun
  • /ˈbækˌfɪlɪŋ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : relleno
  • The team successfully increased productivity through backfilling shorter jobs into available time slots.

Examples

  • By using backfilling, the cluster completed more jobs in less time.

  • Advanced schedulers rely on backfilling to improve overall system performance.

  • The system administrator enabled backfilling to ensure no computing resources were wasted.

  • The team is using backfilling to improve system efficiency.

  • Can you explain the concept of backfilling?

  • By implementing backfilling, the computing system efficiently utilized idle resources to run additional tasks.

  • With backfilling, the scheduler optimized resource allocation to enhance computing efficiency.

Antonyms

to waste time
728 1.6

To spend time doing things that are not useful instead of doing something more useful

to idle
1 3.2

To spend time doing nothing

Surface Forms

backfilling singular
backfillings plural

Morphology

backfilling = backfill (semi-transparent) = back + fill + ing

Built from the compound 'back' + 'fill' with -ing; the compound is clear but the computing/scheduling sense is a metaphorical technical usage that may not be obvious to all learners.

Etymology

Backfilling comes from the parts back- ('behind' or 'again') and fill ('to put in'), and it borrows the image of filling a hole. Think of a schedule as a set of empty spaces you can 'fill' from behind: putting short tasks into spare slots. That's why in computing backfilling means using spare time slots to run smaller jobs so no computer time is wasted.