Return to BSD News archive
Received: by minnie.vk1xwt.ampr.org with NNTP id AA5788 ; Fri, 01 Jan 93 01:55:52 EST Path: sserve!manuel.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!uunet!pipex!bnr.co.uk!uknet!mcsun!news.funet.fi!funic!nntp.hut.fi!nntp!Petri.Wessman From: Petri.Wessman@hut.fi (Petri Wessman) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Subject: GNU malloc (was: gcc-2.3.2 and kernel build) Message-ID: <PETRI.WESSMAN.92Dec31154930@lk-hp-9.hut.fi> Date: 31 Dec 92 15:49:30 GMT References: <RANDY.92Dec28095652@dsndata.dsndata.com> <1hqciuINN620@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> Sender: usenet@nntp.hut.fi (Usenet pseudouser id) Reply-To: Petri.Wessman@hut.fi Organization: La Gata Encantada Lines: 33 In-Reply-To: ljo@murphy.eeap.cwru.edu's message of 29 Dec 1992 20:31:26 GMT Nntp-Posting-Host: lk-hp-9.hut.fi On 29 Dec 1992 20:31:26 GMT, ljo@murphy.eeap.cwru.edu (L. Jonas Olsson) said: Olsson> (If you're short of RAM and/or swap space you can try to Olsson> replace your malloc routines in libc.a with the gnu malloc Olsson> routines. On my system this results in gcc and several other Olsson> large programs using only half as much data-space. For example Olsson> with gcc -dm aprog.c you can see how much data gcc is using. I Olsson> don't know why the data size is decreased and if the new Olsson> malloc routines will break some other programs) No kidding on the space savings! I grabbed a copy of GNU malloc from the glibc-1.05 distribution and popped it into libc.a. Here are some results of gcc 2.3.3 -dm (Data size used) for a few (gcc) example files: Compiler file dist malloc GNU malloc new compared to old -------- ---- ----------- ---------- ------------ gcc expr.c 2580440 872412 33.8% calls.c 1671128 696284 41.7% c-parse.c 2056152 1056732 51.4% gcc -O expr.c 2973656 909276 30.5% calls.c 1777624 692188 38.9% c-parse.c 2269144 1028060 45.3% Thanks for the tip, ljo! Now I can compile programs that used to bring my machine to its knees with swapping (I only have 4MB RAM). Of course, I have no idea of the other implications of using GNU malloc. Is it slower/buggier/somehtinga than the dist malloc? Anyone know of a good reason *not* to use it? //Petri