[PLUG] rm -rf somedir/ curiosity

[Tim]

> I should add that the target directories included static files unrelated
> to Tomcat, or anything running in that container.

Was Tomcat doing intensive I/O?  Reading/writing files at high
frequency, or reading/updating filesystem metadata?

Bad I/O performance can come about due to disk head thrashing, where
two processes are fighting for access and causing the disk head to
perform seeks a great deal.  The ultimate throughput is much much
slower than having one process do its thing, followed by the other one
doing its thing after the first has finished.  Just a thought. 

tim