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SubjectRe: Bloat? (khttpd)
> kHTTPd (and any webserver, and in a way NFS/FTP server) is two things
> 1) A Request-decoder/Startup (header) part
> 2) Bulk data transfer
...
> way, and is in the 2.2 kernels since ages). For #2, it makes no sence to
> switch to userspace a lot, as userspace effectively would only increment
> some counter.

this is a policy decision, and thus wrong. real webservers want to
log hits, even on static pages. this, and the fact that most real
webservers are dominated by non-static pages, is why khttpd shouldn't
be in the kernel: it's a benchmark special, embarassingly so. our
friends in Redmond will certainly not refrain from pointing out that
the only way Linux can compete is by violating our own abstractions.

> The discussion about "bloat" cannot be over the filesize of the
> kernel-tarbal, as this overhead is minimal. It also cannot be "Everything
> that can be done in userspace, should be banned from the kernel". Even the
> TCP/IP stack and the VFS would have to be banned.

this is disingenuous: the criterion is whether something can only be
appropriately done in kernel space. so for instance, net protocols
would presumably be too inefficient if in user-space. AFAIR, the old
user-space nfsd simply could not implement certain operations correctly.

so far, we have no reason to believe that khttpd performs better than,
say, phhttbd, even on silly static-only benchmarks. and even if it did,
the sensible conclusion would be that there's something wrong with Linux,
not that webserving should be in the kernel!

regards, mark hahn.


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