From: jhood@smoke.marlboro.vt.us (John Hood) Subject: Re: linux a real unix? Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1993 03:55:44 GMT
In article <1993Apr27.120149.21183@klaava.Helsinki.FI>
torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Torvalds) writes:
>In article <1993Apr27.052411.637@smoke.marlboro.vt.us>
jhood@smoke.marlboro.vt.us (John Hood) writes:
>>Lurking just behind the open files limit is a limit on the number of
>>open *inodes*, and that can't be pushed beyond 2^8 just now. 256 open
>>files is not many for a Unix system.
>
>Actually, there is no such limit at all. There is a implementation
>limit of 256 open files *per process* ...
My apologies for a hasty misreading of kernel sources. Oops.
>>I really should have said "implementation limitations" rather than
>>"design limitations."
>
>The reason for the small number of inodes in the default configuration
>of linux is two-fold: (a) it helps on machines with only 2MB of memory,
>and (b) the 'iget()' function is a piece of cr*p, and I haven't got
>around to code it more efficiently. I should add hashing to the inode
>structures, but right now it uses a simple linear search, and it's
>noticeable if you have 1024 inodes. This is another thing to be fixed
>with the dynamic code, but I just haven't got around to it.
I think the point still remains that Linux is not really a good
operating system for a heavy multi-user load right now. However, we
all know Linux is improving by leaps and bounds (thanks, Linus and
others).
I would hate to set a horde of computer-hungry undergrads loose on a
Linux box. It would probably generate an impressive heap of useful
bug reports in a very short time, though.
--jh
-- John Hood Cthulhu-- just imagine it! jhood@smoke.marlboro.vt.us