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    SubjectRe: sysconf (was Re: RLIM_INFINITY inconsistency between archs)
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    Linus Torvalds <torvalds@transmeta.com> writes:

    > That code should just DIE.

    This was an example. The STREAMS stuff is simply something which came
    immediately to my mind since I know there are parameter which must be
    exported by sysconf.

    > Code does NOT get added to the kernel just because somebody makes a big
    > deal of nothing.

    This leads to problems. People will be surprised to seem some
    programs run slower in future because some of the few remaining fixed
    limits in glibc are lifted (because there are people who recompiled
    their kernels) and the only way to accomodate this is by trial and
    error. In some cases hundreds of syscalls could be made because the
    information is not available. And note that even if somebody would
    volunteer to work on implementing this for the kernel right away there
    are still old kernel versions to take care of.

    By thinking a bit ahead and investing a few more bytes (the sysctl
    stuff really requires not many resources) you can avoid this.
    Otherwise we'll have ever more configuration parameters in the libc
    since every single kernel version must be handled specially. This
    descreases performance even more since the duplicated code&data is at
    user level where sharing (of the data) is not possible to that extend
    and where the kernel differences have normally to be handled
    dynamically instead of at compile-time.

    I'll stop trying to convince you since I don't have much hope. When
    glibc 2.2 comes out I'll provide some information on how much code is
    necessary to handle all the different kernel versions. Almost all of
    these changes could have been avoided if this purely minimalistic
    approach to kernel interface design would be replaced by something
    more flexible.

    --
    ---------------. ,-. 1325 Chesapeake Terrace
    Ulrich Drepper \ ,-------------------' \ Sunnyvale, CA 94089 USA
    Red Hat `--' drepper at redhat.com `------------------------

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