RE: Strange load spikes on 2.4.19 kernel

Joseph D. Wagner
2002-10-13T08:10:49Z

>>> But there is no fundamental reason for that, we just haven't
>>> gotten around to threading that bit yet.

>> Oh yes there is. What if an allocation of blocks and/or
>> inodes is preempted? Another thread could attempt to
>> allocate the same set of blocks and/or inodes.

> That's why we protect the allocation with SMP locking
> primitives which under Linux prevent preemption.

"SMP locking primitives"? Tell me what that is again? Oh yeah! That's
when the kernel basically gives SMP a timeout and behaves as if there
was only one processor.

So in effect, I was right. File processes really do use one and only
one processor.

> This isn't rocket science....

I agree. I totally agree.