[ANN] io_splice 3.0.0 - kinder, gentler Linux zero-copy

ruby-talk
1

The splice family of Linux system calls can transfer data between file
descriptors without the need to copy data into userspace. Instead of a
userspace buffer, they rely on an ordinary Unix pipe as a kernel-level
buffer.

* http://bogomips.org/ruby_io_splice/
* ruby.io.splice@librelist.com
* git://bogomips.org/ruby_io_splice.git

Changes:

This release adds the IO.trysplice and IO.trytee interfaces
to avoid expensive EAGAIN exceptions for non-blocking I/O.

There is no IO.tryvmsplice method as we still haven't figured
out a good use for IO.vmsplice in Ruby, and non-blocking I/O
with iovecs is just painful! If you want more zero-copy fun
without needing mmap(2), check out the "sendfile" RubyGem and
IO.copy_stream (1.9). As of Linux 2.6.33+, sendfile(2) can copy
mmap-able files to +any+ descriptor, not just sockets.

Please email us at ruby.io.splice@librelist.com if you can think
of a good use for IO.vmsplice or IO.trysplice in Ruby.

···

--
Eric Wong

2

This sounds really cool. Bookmarked!

···

On Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 4:44 AM, Eric Wong <normalperson@yhbt.net> wrote:

The splice family of Linux system calls can transfer data between file
descriptors without the need to copy data into userspace. Instead of a
userspace buffer, they rely on an ordinary Unix pipe as a kernel-level
buffer.

--
Avdi Grimm