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Date:      Wed, 16 Dec 98 16:45:59 -0600
From:      "Richard Seaman, Jr." <lists@tar.com>
To:        "Mike Smith" <mike@smith.net.au>
Cc:        "current@freebsd.org" <current@FreeBSD.ORG>, "Nate Williams" <nate@mt.sri.com>
Subject:   Re: Linux Threads patches available
Message-ID:  <199812162246.QAA20211@ns.tar.com>

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On Wed, 16 Dec 1998 03:41:59 -0800, Mike Smith wrote:

>I've had a (quick) look at your current webpage; thanks for collecting
>all this in one place.  Would you care to summarise the changes in a
>little more detail, and perhaps sort them into 'non-intrusive' and
>'intrusive' groups so that we can commit the first set and do whatever 
>needs to be done to resolve any problems with the second ASAP?

Yes.  I'd planned on more of a description.  I'm working on it but
won't have time until tomorrow at the earliest.

>I notice that you mention that the posix realtime support is "probably" 
>required for the Linux threads stuff to work; can you confirm this, and 
>perhaps talk to Peter Dufault (dufault@freebsd.org) about what can be 
>done to either ratify and incorporate this code unconditionally, or 
>(perhaps better) to move it into a KLD module on which the Linux module 
>can then depend?

Ok.  I'll contact him.  I haven't tried the linux emulation code with
out them, since the linux threads library calls sched_yield, 
sched_setscheduler, etc.  I will double check for sure that they
don't somehow sneek into the kernel without explicitly enabling the
real time extensions.

>> However the Linux Threads code is GPL copyrighted.  The additional
>> code provided in separate files needed to get the port working, 
>> is not GPL copyrighted.  However, none of this code goes into
>> the kernel, its all in a library.
>
>... which would be an excellent candidate for a port/package.

Yes.  The only complication is the integration with libc, where
I think you will need the libc source installed to compile the
linux threads port.  And, there is the problem of working with
conflicting pthread.h headers.  However, none of this is all that
much of a problem.

>For the sake of reestablishing our compatibility with Linux, I think 
>that your current code should be strongly considered.  As for the 
>eventual fate of threading in the FreeBSD kernel

Linux threads has its warts.  And, I expect kernel threads can be
done much better.   But, once the kernel patches are done, the
linux code doesn't require all that much modification, so it may
be a temporary, if imperfect, solution.




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