>> > > > That's not a given. Depending on the memory allocator, a copy can be >> > > > avoided. That's why the "str += str" hack is much more efficient under >> > > > Linux than Windows, AFAIK. >> > > >> > > Even Linux will have to copy a block on realloc in certain cases, no? >> > >> > Probably so. How often is totally unknown to me :) >> > >> http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/html_node/Changing-Block-Size.html >> >> It depends on whether there's enough free memory after the buffer you >> currently have allocated. I suppose that this becomes a question of what >> people consider "the general case" :-) > > But under certain circumstances (if a large block is requested), the > allocator uses mmap(), no?
That's right, if the block requested is bigger than mmap_threshold (256K by default with glibc, forgetting the sliding window algorithm): I'm not sure of what percentage of strings/buffers are concerned in a "typical" program. > In which case mremap() should allow to resize without copying anything. Yes, there's no copying. Note however that it doesn't come for free, the kernel will still zero-fill the pages before handling them to user-space. It is still way faster than on, let's say, Solaris. cf _______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list Python-Dev@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com
