Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Re: /proc/cpuinfo format - arch dependent! | From | John Kacur <> | Date | Sun, 08 May 2005 12:11:14 -0400 |
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On Sat, 2005-05-07 at 21:25, Jim Nance wrote: > On Sat, May 07, 2005 at 01:20:05PM -0400, Dave Jones wrote: > > On Sat, May 07, 2005 at 07:05:56PM +0200, Willy Tarreau wrote: > > > > system "hey, I'd like this type of workload, how many process should > > > I start, and where should I bind them ?". > > > > I think generalising this and having a method to do this in the kernel > > is a much better idea than each application parsing this themselves. > > Things are only getting more and more complex as time goes on, > > and I don't trust application developers to get it right. > > As a developer of a multiprocess/multithreaded application I can assure > you that you are right not to trust application developers to get this > right. The idea that a programmer understands the behavior of the > applications they write is largely a myth. Furthermore, I suspect > that SMT will evolve in directions that make the idea of a processor > more and more fuzzy. I don't think it is wise to construct any > interface that suggests knowing the hardware details is good, or that > processes should be bound by userland. Certainly it is sometimes > necessary for userland to do this, but we should look at that as a > bug in the kernel. > > Thanks, > > Jim
Aw c'mon. Don't we believe in the C programming philosphy of trusting the programmer? You know, give them enough rope to hang themselves? Personally, I don't care because I can parse cpuid and the like directly myself, but examples of legitimate uses for this knowledge are compilers, jvms, and threading libraries, all which although lowlevel, are technically userland. I don't think it's our job to protect the user from themselves, it's to give them a reasonable default, and the interfaces to take advantage of the tricker stuff for special purposes if they wish.
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