IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2013-04-02

<psockali> hi again, maybe someone has some metrics 
<psockali> is mprotect / munprotect faster in hurd then in linux ?
<pinotree> ?
<psockali> can i protected a memory page against write access in hurd 
<psockali> and if so, is it a fast operation ?
<youpi> you can, I never measured, but it's probably the same cost as in
  linux
<youpi> I don't see why it would be different, as it boils down to the same
  x86 trick
<psockali> but i suppose it is part of the mach kernel doing the protection
  and not part of the unix layer ?
<youpi> it is
<youpi> the unix layer doesn't have mm control
<youpi> it has to ask the kernel
<braunr> it's slower on mach, as it's less optimized because of historical
  reasons
<braunr> but that's about it
<youpi> less optimized, how so?
<braunr> well, more entry fragmentation
<youpi> in the end you mark the page table and flush the tlb
<braunr> yes
<braunr> the high level virtual memory layer is a bit slower
<youpi> but fragmentation doesn't come into play it you just have one
  memory object, does it?
<braunr> it does, as it's about memory areas, not objects
<braunr> the object is merely a backing store
<braunr> protection, inheritance, copy on write are all area (vm_map_entry)
  attributes
<braunr> also, some operations affect all the address spaces where a
  physical page is mapped
<braunr> although i think linux does the same thing as mach/bsd now
<youpi> but mprotect/munprotect doesn't, does it?
<braunr> no
<braunr> or perhaps by side effect, in some situations, i'm not sure
<braunr> i think it depends if the memory is shared between processes, but
  i don't remember the details and can't think of a proper example right
  now
<braunr> but anyway, "slower" here is negligible unless address spaces are
  really huge and filled with lots of map entries
<braunr> psockali: why do you ask ?
<psockali> can i post a link here ?
<braunr> about what ?
<psockali> it's regarding azul / managed runtime initiative 
<psockali> a GC for java
<braunr> why not
<braunr> although i don't see the point for now :)
<psockali> they have a custom MM management module for their GC as linux
  kernel modul
<psockali> and i was wondering if mach would be any faster then linux in
  that aspect
<psockali>
  http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3358545/whats-actually-in-the-managed-runtime-initiatives-kernel-patches-and-jvm
<braunr> psockali: generally speaking, mach is slower than linux because of
  its age and the fact it didn't receive as much attention and
  microoptimization as linux did
<braunr> psockali: about this article, there is no reason mach would be
  faster