On Sun, May 6, 2018 at 7:52 AM, Dor Laor <d...@scylladb.com> wrote: > On Sat, May 5, 2018 at 9:48 AM, Waldek Kozaczuk <jwkozac...@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> What if there was a way early into the booting process to load specific >> features of OSv, that right now are linked in as part of kernel, as >> libraries? For example if we mounted ROFS as early and possible we could >> load other elements of the logic (configuration, ZFS, boost program options >> library, dhcp, etc) on demand and only as needed. Same way even some >> drivers could be loaded on demand later. >> >> Why would it be beneficial? >> > > You can gain it all by preparing the right image ahead of time, so you'll > only have the features/setup you wish before boot. >
Right. I remember that Linux started this way (you choose the parts of the kernel you want in compile time), and then around 1995, they added loadable kernel modules. The best feature of kernel modules was that it allows you not to compile your own kernel, and rather take from some distribution a large collection of pre-compiled modules, and then use only the one you need. This may be useful for projects like Capstan where you want to use pre-compiled code, but may still want a smaller kernel. The biggest question I have, is what sort of applications will truely see a big gain from the smaller kernel. After all, OSv is relatively small, and doesn't have thousands of rarely used drivers and features like Linux has, so there's not *too* much to shave off this way. There is, but not dramatic like it is in Linux. > > What's good about your approach is that you can boot a generic image ahead > of time and only customize it once > you actually need to use it (when the first packet arrives) and thus save > the boot time > > >> >> - OSv kernel would be smaller and load even faster >> - OSv kernel can be modularized and therefore better tailored for >> specific hypervisor or application needs >> >> What do you think? >> >> Waldek >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "OSv Development" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to osv-dev+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "OSv Development" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to osv-dev+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "OSv Development" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to osv-dev+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
