Re: 2.0, loggings, cpu quotas, 2.1 issues, etc.

Jeff Johnson (trn@gate.net)
Tue, 11 Jun 1996 11:27:18 +0000 (GMT)


On Tue, 11 Jun 1996, Alan Cox wrote:

> > You have to remember you have open, read, possibly seek, and close, 3 to
> > 5 times per second. meter-0.2 or Portato code in the kernel would add 8k
> > at the very most, as well as better interactive time, especially on
> > smaller 386 systems.
>
> Oh tragedy. Do you have any idea how tiny a load that is.
>
> > We have to think of the humble 386SX16 users too... I have a P5, but a
> > 386, too. Portato makes the system load go up noticeably. Not to 2.0 or
> > anything, but noticeably.
>
> Humble 386SX users will get far more benefit from 2 pages of pageable user
> memory.
>
> Alan
>

I do belive you... You are obviously have more experience with the kernel
internals than I.. :-) But, to quote the Portato and meter/meter-0.2
documentation:

*** About the original meter:

"Next I compiled the original version which worked but spawning off a ps
every .75 secs to collect CPU usage tended to adversely affect the CPU
usage of my friend's 386SX/16 :-) This was a bad thing. The code was an
ugly hack but I don't hold that against it. The idea is great."

*** About the new meter:

"Most noteably, this program impacts your system a lot less than the
previous versions. Okay, maybe if you've a 486DX4/100 then spawning off
ps's every 3/4ths of a second doesn't even cause your machine to slow
down a nano-sec, but for those of you with less studly systems, I'm sure
you'll apreciate this kinder version."

Now, wouldn't a kernel module be totally kind to the system...
and remember, two page optional modules aren't bloat in my opinion... The
Microsoft NT 4.0 build 1314 (beta 2 CD) kernel is about 4MB in memory.
THAT is bloat! :-)

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