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Date:      Tue, 23 Apr 2002 14:28:39 -0400
From:      utsl@quic.net
To:        Nate Williams <nate@yogotech.com>
Cc:        hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: sendfile() in tftpd?
Message-ID:  <20020423182839.GA22074@quic.net>
In-Reply-To: <15557.40442.852602.681416@caddis.yogotech.com>
References:  <Pine.LNX.4.44.0204231521120.24266-100000@scribble.fsn.hu> <3CC59C44.13013A1E@mindspring.com> <15557.40442.852602.681416@caddis.yogotech.com>

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On Tue, Apr 23, 2002 at 11:46:34AM -0600, Nate Williams wrote:
> > > > No, sendfile() is only for TCP connections, TFTP is using UDP. If you
> > > > want performance, use something else.
> > > It's even in the manpage:
> > > Sendfile() sends a regular file specified by descriptor fd out a stream
> > > socket specified by descriptor s.
> > > 
> > > Silly me. BTW, I can't use anything else. Are there any alternatives to
> > > TFTP for booting machines off the network? (using standard, PC components)
> > 
> > USE TFTP to get a tiny image up, and then go TCP.
> > 
> > There are also lightweight TCP stacks that fit in 8K or 16K; you
> > could come up with your own protocol, or decide to use FTP instead
> > of TFTP for the download.
> > 
> > In general, the faster you get to something TCP based, the happier
> > you will be, so if you *must* use TFTP, then make the boot image
> > really, really small.
> 
> Going to TCP soon assumes that you have a lossless medium in order to
> transmit packets over.  If you're using a lossy medium, TFTP (and other
> UDP based protocols) can kick their butt because of TCP's assumption
> that packet loss is a function of congestion, which is often not the
> case in lossy mediums such as wirless. :(

tftp in particular probably won't, because it uses the same packet
window concept as TCP, but with the window set to 1. It is a protocol
that is braindead by design, in order to be simple to implement.
It was never pretended that performance was a design goal.

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