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On Thursday 03 July 2003 23:08, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> Please do this in user space. The "overflow every 2^32 packets" thing is
> _not_ a problem, if you just gather the statistics at any kind of
> reasonable interval.
The packet counters are fine (for now, that is), but the tx_bytes and rx_bytes
counters need those 64-bits. 4GB (= 2^32 bytes) is not enough. For example:
- - gigabit ethernet will cause 32-bit counters to overflow about every 34
seconds (at full speed.)
- - 10Gb/s ethernet will only take about 3.4 seconds
- - a user like me, who has 5Mbit/s connection to the net can cause the counter
to overflow in 1 hour 54 minutes
(Most of the time, the devices are not maxed out, but we have to check the
worst case scenario.) Now, how often should the user space
statistics-gathering program should run? Well, at least every 30 seconds, for
now that should be good, but the rein of 10Gb/s is approaching...
> I'd hate to penalise performance for something like this. We have
> generally avoided locking _entirely_ for statistics, exactly because
> people felt that there are major performance issues wrt network packet
> handling, and that "perfect statistics" aren't important enough to
> penalize performance over.
I agree with you, that is why I made it optional so the user may choose to
sacrifice performace for statistics when needed.
Additionally, I am sure there is a way of optimizing the patch I wrote (i.e.
actual transmition is locked with a lock from struct net_device.) I am aware
that this patch is a major undertaking, but it is only a matter of time
before someone will have to do it anyway.
> Remember: "perfect is the enemy of good".
Very true.
Jeff.
- --
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm
not sure about the former.
- Albert Einstein
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Jul 07 2003 - 22:00:22 EST