Re: [RFC PATCH v8 1/9] Restartable sequences system call

From: Paul E. McKenney
Date: Fri Aug 19 2016 - 19:35:54 EST


On Fri, Aug 19, 2016 at 02:32:13PM -0700, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 19, 2016 at 2:19 PM, Paul E. McKenney
> <paulmck@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > On Fri, Aug 19, 2016 at 01:56:11PM -0700, Andi Kleen wrote:
> >>
> >> malloc is the primary target I believe. Saves lots of memory to keep
> >> caches per CPU rather than per thread.
> >
> > Agreed, a competent default malloc() in glibc would be a very nice change
> > from the current state.
>
> I agree that malloc can be a very good target for something like this,
> but it is also something that is quite complicated. A general-purpose
> allocator that could be used by glibc and has not just the performance
> but the debug stuff etc that people inevitably want is a big project.
> And then the people who have special needs end up writing their own
> allocators anyway, just because they care about certain layout and
> access patterns...
>
> Put another way: I'd really like to see some real numbers and use,
> rather than "this can be used for.."

No argument here!

Thanx, Paul