[Sunhelp] SGML tools on Solaris7 or non-GNUified Solaris

[Wes Hofmann]

> > I understand that the very-small-grain kernel locking 
> implemented in Solaris
> > is what allows it to scale so well, but also slows it down on small
> > single-processor boxes.  I'd heard that Sun has or is 
> planning to releasse
> > the Solaris sources.  If this has been done, where would I 
> find them?  Also,
> 
> They are planning to do this.  Note that not all of Solaris is Sun's
> intellectual property so they will not be able to release everything.
> 
> > if this has been done, wouldn't it be possible to edit and 
> recompile the
> > kernel in a manner that it implements little or no kernel 
> locking to speed
> > it up on my little single-processor SPARCbook?  I don't now 
> how they laid
> > out the source code, but in Linux, it is very simple to 
> tell the kernel to
> > either use, or not use finer grain locking depending on if 
> you're compiling
> > for SMP or not.  Thanks for any info!
> 
> Speaking as someone who has hacked the code, it would be 
> quite difficult.
> The whole Solaris kernel is built around throughput (and RT 
> response time
> in some areas) and sacrificing this would net you a smaller 
> gain than you
> might think.  True, you might decrease syscall overhead.  But how much
> syscall time is your machine really using?  If it's 
> constantly stuck in
> userland or swapping (as is likely with Netscape involved) 
> then tweaking
> the kernel will not help one bit.
> 
> Use mpstat, iostat and vmstat to help find your bottlenecks.  Once you
> know exactly what they are you can start to address them.
> 
> -James
> 

Thanks for the advice.  I'll definatley give your suggestions a try. :)

Wes

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