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Removing the Big Kernel Lock

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the wait-i-thought-locks-made-it-secure dept.

Corrado writes "There is a big discussion going on over removing a bit of non-preemptable code from the Linux kernel. 'As some of the latency junkies on lkml already know, commit 8e3e076 in v2.6.26-rc2 removed the preemptable BKL feature and made the Big Kernel Lock a spinlock and thus turned it into non-preemptable code again. "This commit returned the BKL code to the 2.6.7 state of affairs in essence," began Ingo Molnar. He noted that this had a very negative effect on the real time kernel efforts, adding that Linux creator Linus Torvalds indicated the only acceptable way forward was to completely remove the BKL.'"

4 of 222 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Linux? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    jah, because it's gone from 0% to like nearly 1% in, er, the entire time it's existed! Wow! It's really making it's presence felt!

  2. Re:Linux? by Toreo+asesino · · Score: -1, Troll

    The future. jah, because it's gone from 0% to like nearly 1% in, er, the entire time it's existed! Wow! It's really making it's presence felt!
    --
    throw new NoSignatureException();
  3. Re:Translation? by Hal_Porter · · Score: 0, Troll

    Windows NT was around before 1992 and it doesn't have a big kernel lock - individual resources are protected with spinlocks.

    But that's because it was designed from the ground up to be SMP friendly, as opposed to being a clone of a 1970's operating system.

    --
    echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
  4. Re:Keep these on Front Page... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    "Maybe if we did this, real discussions about the designs and benefits of all technologies could be debated and referenced accruately."

    Maaaaaaaaaaahahahahaa. Are you for real?

    You seriously think knowledge of preemptive locking mechanisms in multi-tasking kernel architectures will make people educated in decisions about global warming, the prospects of space travel or the privacy implications of the digital society?

    Wake up, propeller boy.