Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Tue, 15 May 2001 22:24:47 -0400
From:      Bosko Milekic <bmilekic@technokratis.com>
To:        Matt Dillon <dillon@earth.backplane.com>
Cc:        freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Mbuf slab [new allocator]
Message-ID:  <20010515222447.A51806@technokratis.com>
In-Reply-To: <200105051833.f45IXiW49096@earth.backplane.com>; from dillon@earth.backplane.com on Sat, May 05, 2001 at 11:33:44AM -0700
References:  <20010503195904.A53281@technokratis.com> <200105051833.f45IXiW49096@earth.backplane.com>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help

On Sat, May 05, 2001 at 11:33:44AM -0700, Matt Dillon wrote:
> 
> :Hello,
> :
> :  Anyone interested in the mbuf subsystem code should probably read this.
> :Others may still read it, but it is somewhat longer than your average Email,
> :so consider this a warning. :-)
> :  Also, although I tried my best to cover most issues here, feel free to let
> :me know if I should clarify some points.
> :
> :  Not so long ago, as I'm sure some of you remember, Alfred committed a patch
> :...
> 
>     Sounds good.  You know the motto - first make it work, then make it fast.
> 
> 						-Matt

	Ok, I just wrote my last exam today, and I'm back at this.

	Terry commented at some point regarding the fact that "slab" allocators
are not really worth it now-a-days and mentionned something about the Dynix
allocator being less "bad." I feel that I have been somewhat imprecise when
first talking about the new mb_slab (it shouldn't really be called "mb_slab.")
The allocator is based on memcache, which is based on Dynix and Horde (sp?)
at least, as far as I have seen from the prior two.
	Further, I've been looking at the linux implementation of their slab
allocator (in 2.4 was it?) and I have also jotted down some neat things. For
one thing, I will be changing the way freeing is done in mb_slab right now,
and it will likely turn out that freeing in the general case will no longer
require lock acquiring at all.
	So, to put this back into perspective, I appologize for being
misleading with the "mb_slab" name and hereby rename the allocator to
"mb_malloc." :-) Once I am done with the mb_free() modifications, I'll re-post
a new URL with a new version asking for review. I'd like to see the code
committed sometime soon, as I think it's worth it (and time to move on), but
I can't possibly convince everyone (and am not really up for it, to be honest)
right now.

If someone happens to have a major objection to the new allocator being
introduced, however, I will be glad to provide any information I can, if that
is needed. A couple of people have contacted me off-list and brought forward
a couple of questions - for which I hope I have provided adequate answers. 
	For reference purposes (and if you actually want to look at the
implementation - and possibly offer improvements - the present version of
the code is at http://people.freebsd.org/~bmilekic/code/mb_slab/ ).

Cheers,
-- 
 Bosko Milekic
 bmilekic@technokratis.com


To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-arch" in the body of the message




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20010515222447.A51806>