On 11-Jan-99 Ralph Clark wrote about the following Re: [SuSE Linux]
Problems with Swap :
||
|| Vary interesting but I don't think it is relevant to the current
|| discussion.
Considering that I was the one who originally posted the "Problem with
Swap" topic, I am sure that is is relevant to the topic (only because I
say it is!). The commented text that you refer to was a clarification of
someone erroneous claim that swapping ability of Linux was an enhancement
by Linus.
|| Linux is unusual among Unix kernels in that its implementation owes
|| absolutely
|| _nothing_ to the original AT&T licenced code. That is why it is free.
Actually, that is not unusual... If you take a look at NetBSD, FreeBSD and
BSD386, these are all free of AT&T code. Although BSD/386 has remnants of
original AT&T intellectual properties, hence BSD/386 moving on to become
what is now known as BSD/I. And if you really want to get specific, the
former two are also free of any BSD code which had AT&T restrictions on it.
|| Linux was
|| originally based on Andrew Tanenbaum's freeware OS called Minix (which
|| was also
|| developed independently of the AT&T code base), but I doubt if there's
|| much of
|| Minix left in the Linux kernel by now, and it's being tweaked more and
|| more all
The initial Filesystem code as well as character handling code was stolen
from Minix. The rest of the original kernel was written from the ground
up. This is not based on memeory, but on actually playing with the source
code long before it started to get wide knowledge of its existance.
|| the time. I doubt if the archaic performance trade-offs present in
|| traditional
|| Unix kernels would be found in modern Linux kernels in any
|| recognisable form.
I am sure that is one takes the time to read an entire thread to make sure
that a follow-up response is apropos, then comments like the one below
wouldn't be made. Actually, if you want to go into detail, it wouldn't be
a question of AT&T code, since the enhancement was made at Berkeley. Until
the boys and girl at CSEG over at Berkeley made swapping available in a
BSD release, there was no ability by the Bell Labs version of UNIX to do
swapping.
I normally don't get into a pissing contest on who knows the most arcana
about Linux, UNIX, or the effects of the Reagan doctrine on the
prolification of weapons of mass destruction. But I felt compelled to this
time. The realities are that this mailing list should serve to guide
people in the idiosyncracies of using S.u.S.E Linux. From time to time, we
tend to wax on subjects that may not necessarily pertain to S.u.S.E Linux.
In the case below, I was clarifying someone's misconception of where swap
originated from. This really wasn't an invitation to dispute what was
said, nor attempt to explain whether or not the response was germaine to
the topic.
||
|| Kim C. Callis wrote:
||
|| > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
|| >
|| > On 09-Jan-99 Ec|ipse wrote about the following Re: [SuSE Linux]
|| > Problems
|| > with Swap :
|| > ||
|| > || Kim C. Callis wrote:
|| > || >
|| > || > I have been having a devil of a time with getting any of my swap
|| > || > space
|| > || > addressed. Currently I have 128M of RAM and I had created a 128M
|| > || > swap
|| > || > partition
|| > ||
|| > || The only real purpose of swap space is for a system that
|| > || doesn't
|| > || have
|| > || alot of physical memory available. way back when linux was very
|| > || becoming
|| > || available, someone had asked Linus if there was a way to do this
|| > || since
|| > || he only had about 2mg of mem on his system and couldn't do
|| > || anything
|| > || really exciting with it. So along came swap space which made this
|| > || possible.
|| >
|| > I am sure Dennis Ritchie and others would have something to say about
|| > the
|| > above. In reading Andrew Tannenbaum's "The Design of the UNIX
|| > Operating
|| > System", one would find that UNIX was originally optimized to be I/O
|| > efficient and not CPU or physical RAM efficient. This is because when
|| > UNIX
|| > was created in 1969, it ran on a DEC PDP 11/45. This machine had a 16
|| > bit
|| > addressing CPU (But kind of a hybrid like the 8088 which handled 16
|| > bnits
|| > internally, but 8 bits externally, a whopping 40K of RAM and a whole
|| > 1M of
|| > disk space.
|| >
|| > So the initial design of UNIX was to make extensive use of swap space
|| > (and
|| > at that time it was truly swap space as opposed to the more efficent
|| > paging), the original kernel took up 27k and that left 13k to run
|| > various
|| > utilities like a shell and ed.
|| >
|| > Thank you for tuning into this weeks episode of "30 Years of
|| > Superiority
|| > - -- The History of the UNIX Operating System, with your host Kim
|| > Callis! :?)
|| >
|| > - ---
|| > Kim C. Callis -- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
|| > *********************************
|| > * When it absolutely, *
|| > * Positively has to be *
|| > * Destroyed over night! *
|| > * *
|| > * (800) MARINES *
|| > *********************************
|| >
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|| > -
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|| > the
|| > archiv at http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html
||
|| --
|| [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ralph Clark, Virgo Solutions
|| Ltd (UK)
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||
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|| the
|| archiv at http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html
---
Kim C. Callis -- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
*********************************
* When it absolutely, *
* Positively has to be *
* Destroyed over night! *
* *
* (800) MARINES *
*********************************
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