From owner-freebsd-smp Thu Feb 21 9:42:34 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-smp@freebsd.org Received: from smtp.whitebarn.com (Spin.whitebarn.com [216.0.13.113]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3D06C37B400; Thu, 21 Feb 2002 09:42:28 -0800 (PST) Received: from NewStorm.whitebarn.com (NewStorm.whitebarn.com [216.0.13.77]) by smtp.whitebarn.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id LAA97161; Thu, 21 Feb 2002 11:42:27 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from Bob@Talarian.Com) Subject: RE: Volunteering: Old fart with old CPUs From: Bob Van Valzah To: John Baldwin Cc: smp@FreeBSD.org In-Reply-To: References: Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Evolution/1.0.2 Date: 21 Feb 2002 11:42:27 -0600 Message-Id: <1014313347.1397.32.camel@NewStorm.WhiteBarn.Com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Sender: owner-freebsd-smp@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org John, Thanks for your reply. I was beginning to think that nobody read the SMP alias :-) The box I have available for SMP testing is running -STABLE now, but it has enough space that I can also install -CURRENT (and Linux or whatever). I'm building a -STABLE kernel with config -p now and will take it for a spin tonight so that I'm up-to-speed on what to expect from a profiled kernel. Then I'll try the same on -CURRENT and look for differences. This should help to "quantify" any breakage. Is this the place to report my findings? Could you please suggest something to generate a good system call load for a profiled kernel? Maybe a -j4 buildworld of 4.5-RELEASE? Maybe an Apache build? Lemmie know. Thanks, Bob On Wed, 2002-02-20 at 16:27, John Baldwin wrote: > > On 15-Feb-02 Bob Van Valzah wrote: > > I just got back from BSDCon where I heard several folks working on SMPng > > asking for volunteers. > > > > My "day job" prevents me doing things like writing code or doing serious > > debugging, but I think I might still be able to help the SMPng cause. (I > > actually did one of the early MP Unix implementations on Gould hardware > > back in 1983, but I haven't kept current.) So I guess you could say that > > I understand the problem space and I'm excited about what you're trying > > to do for 5.0, but I'm rusty. > > > > I haven't written a line of kernel code in over 10 years, so I'm > > thinking I might be most helpful on testing, benchmarking, or profiling > > work. I'm able to use ddb to help you figure out what's going on, but I > > probably can't help you figure out how to fix it. I'm not likely to have > > big chunks of time to work on SMPng, but I can probably muster a steady > > stream of small blocks of time. > > > > I have an old dual PII-233 box sitting around and I'd be glad to put it > > to work if that'd help in some way. (My experience in the past has been > > that older, slower machines sometimes shake out latent bugs that you > > don't hit on modern screamers.) > > > > I could probably do something like regular builds from -CURRENT and run > > various benchmarks or torture tests. I'd be happy to run regular > > benchmarks against 3.x, 4.x, other BSDs, Linux or whatever. > > Testing is a big help, yes. :) > > > Also, I think I could do a decent job of SMP "data mining" if that'd > > help. For example, I might be able to cobble together some tools to > > analyze lock counters or other statistics. > > > > I see "profiling is broken" on the known issues list. I might be able to > > tackle that, but don't want to bite off more that I can chew--esp. not > > for my first attempt. How badly broken is it? > > Actually, I'm not exactly sure how broken it really is. If you could figure > out how kernel profiling works and then figure out if it is actually broken or > not, that would be great. :) > > > So I'm leaving myself open for suggestions here. Please let me know > > what'd be most helpful. I'll try to pitch in where I can. > > > > Thanks, > > > > Bob > > -- > > John Baldwin <>< http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/ > "Power Users Use the Power to Serve!" - http://www.FreeBSD.org/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-smp" in the body of the message