From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Feb 12 21:15:09 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5E1031065672 for ; Thu, 12 Feb 2009 21:15:09 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bakul@bitblocks.com) Received: from mail.bitblocks.com (bitblocks.com [64.142.15.60]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 43A988FC08 for ; Thu, 12 Feb 2009 21:15:09 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bakul@bitblocks.com) Received: from bitblocks.com (localhost.bitblocks.com [127.0.0.1]) by mail.bitblocks.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7CF795B21 for ; Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:15:08 -0800 (PST) To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org In-reply-to: Your message of "Thu, 12 Feb 2009 09:53:18 PST." <4994620E.5000804@freebsd.org> References: <200902121717.47841.max@love2party.net> <4994516B.8060703@freebsd.org> <200902121754.24536.max@love2party.net> <4994620E.5000804@freebsd.org> Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:15:08 -0800 From: Bakul Shah Message-Id: <20090212211508.7CF795B21@mail.bitblocks.com> Subject: Re: pahole - Finding holes in kernel structs X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2009 21:15:09 -0000 > >>>> So I ran the tool pahole over a 7.1 FreeBSD Kernel, and found that > >>>> many of the struct had holes, and some of which could be rearranged to > >>>> fill the gap. ... > Certainly plugging holes can also be beneficial but just cautioning that > changes of this sort need to be checked if made to critical data > structures. OTOH there aren't that many that matter in practice. But why do it? Are the benefits worth churning any ABIs?