Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Tue, 17 Apr 2001 19:58:28 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Tue, 17 Apr 2001 19:58:20 -0400 Received: from saturn.cs.uml.edu ([129.63.8.2]:58637 "EHLO saturn.cs.uml.edu") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Tue, 17 Apr 2001 19:58:12 -0400 From: "Albert D. Cahalan" Message-Id: <200104172358.f3HNw60203153@saturn.cs.uml.edu> Subject: Re: RFC: pageable kernel-segments To: hpa@zytor.com (H. Peter Anvin) Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 19:58:05 -0400 (EDT) Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org In-Reply-To: <9bi53d$5n6$1@cesium.transmeta.com> from "H. Peter Anvin" at Apr 17, 2001 12:21:17 PM X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL2] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org H. Peter Anvin writes: > By author: "Heusden, Folkert van" >> Would anyone be intrested (besides me) in a kernel which can page ... >> Certain parts of drivers could get the __pageable prefix or so > VMS does this. It at least used to have a great tendency to crash > itself, because it swapped out something that was called from a driver > that was called by the swapper -- resulting in deadlock. You need > iron discipline for this to work right in all circumstances. > > Second, it makes it quite hard to know what operations can cause a > task to sleep, since any reference to paged-out memory can require a > page-in and the associated schedule. You almost need pointer > annotation in order for this to be safe. It wouldn't be nearly so dangerous to page from compressed data in memory. The memory could be ROM. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/