Subject: Re: Applixware - it's still doing it!
To: Jason Thorpe <thorpej@nas.nasa.gov>
From: Ken Hornstein <kenh@cmf.nrl.navy.mil>
List: port-i386
Date: 12/22/1999 13:54:50
> > Something like that, yes. But why does the memory allocator get slower
> > and slower? Isn't this some kind of a bug?
>
>That depends. It could be that Applixware itself is doing lots of mallocs
>and frees, maybe using an mmap-based allocator. This can fragment the
>VM map for that process.
Hmmmm .... doesn't the X server use a mmap()-based allocator? That
may be part of the problem (I seem to remember that from a while ago).
Now, is it possible to example the VM map for a process? That would
help determine if this is the root cause.
>UVM doesn't currently collapse adjacent VM map entries .... partially
>because doing that is also expensive ... Although, a clever implementation
>could take hints about where to begin and end the collapse... chalk one
>up on the TODO list...
Maybe collapsing VM map entries could be done if you got past a certain
fragmentation point .... again, something for the TODO list :-)
--Ken