Date: Mon, 28 Aug 1995 13:36:26 -0700 (PDT) From: Frank Mayhar <frank@exit.com> To: hackers@freefall.FreeBSD.org Subject: 16-bit pids? (was Re: 16, 32, and 64bit types?) Message-ID: <199508282036.NAA04576@exit.com> In-Reply-To: <199508282001.GAA12132@godzilla.zeta.org.au> from "Bruce Evans" at Aug 29, 95 06:01:16 am
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Just an aside, not directly related to the original subject. > Type FreeBSD NetBSDr1994/12) Right > ---- ------- --------------- ----- > min_pid_t - - u16_t (for PID_MAX = 30000) > kernel_pid_t - - kernel_promote(min_pid_t) > pid_t long int32_t user_promote(min_pid_t) Sixteen bits for PID_MAX? Yukko! IMHO, this should be at least 32, and preferably a black-box type (handled by allocate_pid(), not by an int increment, as fast that that might be -- it's still one of the least critical bits of fork()). Some distributed systems need at least 32 bits for the pid, since they add node information, and a black-box type would make this much easier. Granted, it's a nontrivial change, but it would be nice to see some system do it right. I don't think there's any inherent reason why pid_t should be limited to an int (of any size) in modern Un*ces. -- Frank Mayhar frank@exit.com
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