RE: [PATCH] Rename "swapper" to "idle"

From: Hua Zhong
Date: Fri Apr 21 2006 - 01:20:10 EST


> On 4/20/06, Bernd Eckenfels <be-news06@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Hua Zhong <hzhong@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > This patch renames the "swapper" process (pid 0) to a
> more appropriate name "idle". The name "swapper" is not
> obviously meaningful and confuses a lot of people (e.g., when
> seen in oops report).
> > > Patch not tested, but I guess it works. :-)
>
> As we saw in "Which process is associated with process ID 0
> (swapper)", pid 0 can actually do things, such as resend TCP
> packets. Methinks idle isn't the best name either.

Swapper does not do these things. It just happens to be "running" at that time (and it is always running if the system is idle).

IOW, it is indeed an "idle" process. In fact, all it does is cpu_idle().

> > on win the system idle process shows up in taskmanager so
> you can see
> > its cpu usage and ctx switches scheduled from it. We could
> avoid the
> > skipping in /proc, also?
> >
> > Gruss
> > Bernd
> Please, no!
>
> I already have to explain this mess about Windows. We
> shouldn't be implementing Microsoft's flaws. Why waist the a
> line of screen for top?
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