The linker definitly needs some work on linux. Program startup can be painfully slow especialy when using KDE (C++). This really gives the feeling of a slow system, even though when the programs are finally started, they run rather snappy.
Redhat 7.2 has a prelinker utility on the cdrom although it is unsupported. I tried it out. Installed it, and ran the prelinker on all binaries in the default path (it appears to include most libraries and binaries). The improvement was negligible if even there.
Any Ideas on how this could be improved in the future. I have two ideas that I can think of to improve the linking performance, or at least improve the feel of the linking.
1. Memory pages that are linked, but not dirty(Havent been updated since) could be marked as part of a link cache. For instance the same program starting up could just ajust it's page table to point to the already linked page, and update the page count. The page would then be copy on write. These pages would be usable until the reference count is zero, and the system needs the page for other purposes. This would impove load speed as long as the program was previously used, and it's pages haven't been used for other purposes. This would be great for multiple use systems like a terminal server. I don't know if this is possible, or already been done, and I'm behind the times.
2. Simple start up tricks. For instance the window manager opens a frame where the program is going to start up. The frame would contain a throbber, status bar, etc. The frame would resize once the program connects to the Xserver to surround the first window of the application.
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The linker definitly needs some work on linux. Program startup can be painfully slow especialy when using KDE (C++). This really gives the feeling of a slow system, even though when the programs are finally started, they run rather snappy.
Redhat 7.2 has a prelinker utility on the cdrom although it is unsupported. I tried it out. Installed it, and ran the prelinker on all binaries in the default path (it appears to include most libraries and binaries). The improvement was negligible if even there.
Any Ideas on how this could be improved in the future. I have two ideas that I can think of to improve the linking performance, or at least improve the feel of the linking.
1. Memory pages that are linked, but not dirty(Havent been updated since) could be marked as part of a link cache. For instance the same program starting up could just ajust it's page table to point to the already linked page, and update the page count. The page would then be copy on write. These pages would be usable until the reference count is zero, and the system needs the page for other purposes. This would impove load speed as long as the program was previously used, and it's pages haven't been used for other purposes. This would be great for multiple use systems like a terminal server. I don't know if this is possible, or already been done, and I'm behind the times.
2. Simple start up tricks. For instance the window manager opens a frame where the program is going to start up. The frame would contain a throbber, status bar, etc. The frame would resize once the program connects to the Xserver to surround the first window of the application.
I hope these posts aren't too off topic.
Thanks.
Adam