Re: What to know detail about why Squid use single process.

Even though others have jumped in on this, I'll point out some
documentation:

The C10K Problem page operated by Dan Kegel has load of information on
all major concurrency models in use today, including the still preferred
state machine style model that is similar to what Squid uses:

http://www.kegel.com/c10k.html

It is pretty much a given that threads are a rather heavy way to achieve
concurrency, and though they are easier to program in languages that
have mechanisms to make it easier (Java, C++, being the primary choices
in the context of near-system level projects like Squid), they can be
very bug-prone in C. Then again, that's not to say one couldn't design
a highly concurrent application like Squid with threads, but it is worth
noting that the most popular open source competition for Squid (Oops)
uses a threaded model and does not scale up to higher client loads as
well as Squid even though it is a newer design. Though it is likely
that part of the scalability problem with Oops is its reliance on the
BerkelyDB (or GigaBase) for it's storage backend.

Kotetu also uses a threaded design I believe, and it /does/ manage to
scale slightly better than Squid if given enough disks, but I'm not
familiar enough with it to know for sure what kind of architecture they
have.

Anyway, I suspect that if the current Squid developers were to start
over from scratch today they would again choose a state machine model
based around poll or /dev/poll and/or kqueues. It is still the fastest
model available to us.

maer727@sohu.com wrote:
> Hi, pals!
>
> I read from Programming Guide that Squid is a single process
> application. I also learn the shortcoming of multi-process
> (multi-thread). Here is what the Programming Guide says,
>
> //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
> Squid does not use a ``threads package'' such has Pthreads. While
> this might be easier to code, it suffers from portability and
> performance problems. Instead Squid maintains data structures and
> state information for each active request.
> //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
>
> I am very interested in the field and want to know details about what
> is the shortcoming of multi-process/thread. Why Squid choose single
> process? Are there any detailed documents?
>
> Best regards,
> George Ma
>
>

-- 
Joe Cooper <joe@swelltech.com>
http://www.swelltech.com
Web Caching Appliances and Support