[TEST/REVIEW] CPU accounting patches

[Poul-Henning Kamp]

In message <20060125114544.edawx42obkkos0ck at netchild.homeip.net>, Alexander Lei
dinger writes:


>> That way, the user/system time reported will get units of "cpu seconds
>> if the cpu ran full speed".
>
>How large do you expect the error will be?

I don't consider it an error, I consider it increasing precision.


If you run

	time mycommand

on your laptop, and along the way the CPU clock ramps up from
75 MHz to 600 MHz before it reports 

	user 2.01  sys 0.30 real 4.00

What exactly have you learned from the first two numbers with the
current definition of "cpu second" ?


With my definition you would be more likely to see lower numbers
maybe
	user 0.20  sys 0.03 real 4.00

And they would have meaning, they should be pretty much the same
no matter what speed your CPU runs at any instant in time.

In theory, it should be possible to compare user/sys numbers
you collect while running at 75 MHz with the ones you got
under full steam at 1600 MHz.

In practice however, things that run on the real time, HZ
interrupting to run hardclock() for instance, will still make
comparison of such numbers quite shaky.

But at least they will not be random as they are now.


-- 
Poul-Henning Kamp       | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
phk at FreeBSD.ORG         | TCP/IP since RFC 956
FreeBSD committer       | BSD since 4.3-tahoe    
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.