regex over files

Robin Becker robin at SPAMREMOVEjessikat.fsnet.co.uk
Thu Apr 28 16:35:43 EDT 2005


Jeremy Bowers wrote:
....
 >
 > As you try to understand mmap, make sure your mental model can take into
 > account the fact that it is easy and quite common to mmap a file several
 > times larger than your physical memory, and it does not even *try* to read
 > the whole thing in at any given time. You may benefit from
 > reviewing/studying the difference between virtual memory and physical
 > memory.
I've been using vm systems for 30 years and I suspect my mental model is a bit
decrepit. However, as convincingly demonstrated by testing my mental model seems
able to predict low memory problems. When systems run out of memory they tend to
perform poorly. I'm not sure the horrible degradation I see with large files is
necessary, but I know it occurs on at least two common vm implementations.
-- 
Robin Becker



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