Re: Sort-of Announce: Gnet, a network library

[Craig Orsinger <orsingerc epg-gw1 lewis army mil>]

On 06-Jan-00 Peter C. Norton wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 06, 2000 at 11:06:57AM -0500, David Helder wrote:
>> Linux (and most good OSes) will only copy the parent's process table and
>> then copy pages on _write_ only.  So, the entire process isn't copied.
>> 
>> I don't think it will be too slow.  I'll try it out and see how it works.
> 
> You're forgetting that not all OS's allow you to overcommit memory.  A large
> vfork()'d process, even one that's you know is never going to change it's
> data and trigger a copy, can fail on most *nix's if the process is large
> enough that the copy couldn't be accomodated.
> 
> In short, you shouldn't do it that way.

        Since most modern Unix systems implement a threads library,
would that be an acceptable idea, with using 'fork()' as an alternative
on systems that don't?

----------------------------------
Date: 06-Jan-00  Time: 10:06:15

Craig Orsinger                  (email: <orsingerc@epg-gw1.lewis.army.mil>)
Logicon RDA
Bldg. 8B28                      "Just another megalomaniac with ideas above his
6th & F Streets                 station. The Universe is full of them."
Ft. Lewis, WA   98433                   - The Doctor
----------------------------------