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Date:      Mon, 28 Aug 1995 16:31:17 -0500 (CDT)
From:      Mike Pritchard <mpp@mpp.minn.net>
To:        frank@exit.com (Frank Mayhar)
Cc:        hackers@freefall.FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: 16-bit pids?  (was Re: 16, 32, and 64bit types?)
Message-ID:  <199508282131.QAA27212@mpp.minn.net>
In-Reply-To: <199508282036.NAA04576@exit.com> from "Frank Mayhar" at Aug 28, 95 01:36:26 pm

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Frank Mayhar wrote:
> 
> 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.

Since the subject of PID_MAX has come up, what is the reason
for having it set to 30,000?  That isn't really that large of
a value, especially on a busy system.  How about raising it to
something like 90,000? 
-- 
Mike Pritchard
mpp@mpp.minn.net
"Go that way.  Really fast.  If something gets in your way, turn"



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