Re: [Haskell-cafe] whatever happened to sendFile?

On 2008 Aug 13, at 15:26, Chaddaï Fouché wrote:

2008/8/13 Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH :

...

I should clarify: what sendfile() is supposed to optimize isn't writing large strings, or even the user<->kernel roundtrips; it's an optimization to the kernel network stack (network buffer management, to be specific). Web servers use it to serve static content (e.g. icons, images, stylesheets) because it significantly reduces system load.

Ok, so it could still be useful in a restricted area (but then it should be easy to write a FFI wrapper for it anyway).

Right. I intended that to be a heads-up in both directions: it is not simply a library convenience function, so one needs to think about when to use it. In particular, it's possible that overuse of sendfile() in the wrong circumstances will create additional system load instead of reducing it. -- brandon s. allbery [solaris,freebsd,perl,pugs,haskell] allbery@kf8nh.com system administrator [openafs,heimdal,too many hats] allbery@ece.cmu.edu electrical and computer engineering, carnegie mellon university KF8NH