Re: X15 alpha release: as fast as TUX but in user space (fwd)

[Linus Torvalds]

In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Matti Aarnio  <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>On Sun, Apr 29, 2001 at 02:16:43PM -0700, Jim Gettys wrote:
>...
>> "X is an exercise in avoiding system calls".  I think I said this around
>> 1984-1985.  
>>                              - Jim
>
>I think that applies to all really high-performance servers.

Note that it is definitely not always true.

Linux system calls are reasonably light-weight.  And sometimes trying to
avoid them ends up beaing _more_ work - because you might have to worry
about synchronization and cache coherency in user mode. 

So the rule should be "avoid _unnecessary_ system calls".

                Linus
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