What about a CONFIG_DEVEL_SKEW option which ensures that slow-path
ought-not-to-execute-often code is disproportionately penalised? For
example, it could leave out the interrupt enable mentioned above, it
could put a delay in the global kernel lock and do similar things to
constructs that developers ought to be discouraged from using. Then
coarse-grained comparative benchmarks may well be able to pick up
where code isn't written as tightly as it ought to be.
Or even a /proc/kludgeometer counter which slow/discouraged/deprecated
core code paths could increment to show up bad code/drivers/patches.
--Malcolm
-- Malcolm Beattie <mbeattie@sable.ox.ac.uk> Unix Systems Programmer Oxford University Computing Services- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/