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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.unix.advocacy Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!nntp.coast.net!news.kei.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!howland.reston.ans.net!newsserver.jvnc.net!jvnc.net!lazlo From: jlucas@uvi.edu (John Lucas) Subject: Re: Win32 CreateThread() vs Unix fork() Message-ID: <DJBt1u.GFD@tigger.jvnc.net> Sender: news@tigger.jvnc.net (Zee News Genie) Organization: University of the Virgin Islands X-Newsreader: News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #3 References: <4ab85f$idq@news.voicenet.com> Date: Sat, 9 Dec 1995 15:42:16 GMT Lines: 36 Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:10784 comp.unix.advocacy:12369 In article <4ab85f$idq@news.voicenet.com>, 900RR (900RR) wrote: > >Win32's CreateThread() is an extremely fast and efficient way of >implementing multi-threaded, multi-user server applications (like Web >servers). Threads are then run on individual processors in SMP boards, >further boosting throughput. > >By contrast, Unix uses fork() to start an entire new process to >service client requests. MP unixes could then run these whole >processes on different CPU's. > >In any case, does anyone know how much more efficient a server >application could run under an NT system than the same app, same >hardware on something like FreeBSD or Linux? > >Do veteran Unix programmers avoid fork() like the plague? > There are versions of "Unix" that support threaded execution: NextStep, Mach, OS/F-1 and AIX (there are probably more). NetBSD apparently supports user-level POSIX threads with some plans to make a threaded kernal an option. There is a discussion about adding POSIX threads to FreeBSD, but I got no answer to my query about plans to support them in FreeBSD's future. If anyone knows anything about plans for POSIX threads in FreeBSD (user-level and/or kernal-based) please let me know; I would like to see if Dartmouth's "BlitzMail" could be ported to FreeBSD and it requires POSIX threads or "cthreads". Threads are just another name for "lighweight process"; you often need "heavyweight processes" too. :-} | John Lucas jlucas@uvi.edu | | Academic Computing NIC Handle: JL423 | | University of the Virgin Islands (809) 693-1216 | | St. Thomas, VI 00802 http://www.uvi.edu/jlucas.html |