RFC: pageable kernel-segments

Heusden, Folkert van
2001-04-17T15:57:42Z

Would anyone be intrested (besides me) in a kernel which can page
out certain parts of itself? The kernel should be in some kind of
vmlinux-ish (as in: uncompressed) format on disk for on-demand
re-loading of pages which are discarded.
Certain parts of drivers could get the __pageable prefix or so
(like the __init parts of drivers which get removed) for letting
the paging-code know that it can be discared if memory-pressure
demands it.
__pageable -code would then be things like (e.g.!) the code which
handles the open()/close() of a device. Most of the time a device
spends more time doing read/write/ioctl then close/open so. Also;
hopefully there's no interrupt-sensitive code in these routines.
I would think is usable (for example) for my 8MB ram laptop.
Anyone any thoughts on this?

Folkert van Heusden

[ http://www.vanheusden.com/Linux/kernel_patches.php3 ]