Fast vs slow syscalls (Re: Fwd: [RFC] Kernel shared variables)

[Luigi Rizzo]

On Wed, Jun 06, 2012 at 04:36:54AM +1000, Bruce Evans wrote:
> On Tue, 5 Jun 2012, Luigi Rizzo wrote:
...
> >>Yes, we know getpid() is slow, I think the question is does it matter that
> >>it's slow in something other than a microbenchmark.  Can you name the
> >>application that you've seen use getpid()?
> >
> >i think the important question is, for any function X:
> >   Q1	"does it require horrible hacks or a huge amount of work
> >	to make X syscall-free ?"
> >rather than
> >   Q2	"does it matter to make X fast"
> 
> s/huge amount/any/
> 
> Work is all the programming work to implement it and maintain it forever.

well, some work has a return in term of fun, beauty, pride
so the balance is still favourable.

cheers
luigi