Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!lll-winken!arisia!sgi!shinobu!odin!ramoth.esd.sgi.com!msc
From: msc@ramoth.esd.sgi.com (Mark Callow)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re: News-servers that grow but never shrink.
Message-ID: <1843@odin.SGI.COM>
Date: 7 Dec 89 22:10:31 GMT
Sender: news@odin.SGI.COM
Reply-To: msc@sgi.com
Organization: Silicon Graphics Inc., Entry Systems Division
Lines: 26

In article <124@cutmcvax.OZ> Phil Dench (architec@cutmcvax.uucp) writes:
> 
> It would be nice if the news-postcript 'save' did something like...
> 
> 	old_data_seg = sbrk( 0);
> 
> and the 'restore' did something like...
> 
> 	brk( old_data_seg);
> 
That's a great idea.  Unfortunately the data segment is shared among
all the light-weight processes.  Thus changing the sbrk could have
bad effects on other lwp's.

Fixing the problem requires major changes to the way memory is allocated
within the server.

> 
> But is there a quick fix (other than logging out and in again)?
Unfortunately no.

--
>From the TARDIS of Mark Callow
msc@ramoth.sgi.com, ...{ames,decwrl}!sgi!msc
"There is much virtue in a window.  It is to a human being as a frame is to
a painting, as a proscenium to a play.  It strongly defines its content."