Re: Postgresql and multithreading

"Steve Wolfe" <nw@codon.com> writes:

>   On the recurring debate of threading vs. forking, I was giving it a fwe
> thoughts a few days ago, particularly with concern to Linux's memory model.
> 
>   On IA32 platforms with over 4 gigs of memory, any one process can only
> "see" up to 3 or 4 gigs of that.  Having each postmaster fork off as a new
> process obviously would allow a person to utilize very copious quantities of
> memory, assuming that (a) they were dealing with concurrent PG sessions, and
> (b) PG had reason to use the memory.
> 
>   I'm not entirely clear on threading in Linux - would it provide the same
> benefits, or would it suddenly lock you into a 3-gig memory space?

Linux threads are basically processes that share the same VM space, so
you'd be limited to 3GB or whatever, since that's what a VM space can
"see".

-Doug