[issue3526] Customized malloc implementation on SunOS and AIX

[Floris Bruynooghe]

Floris Bruynooghe <floris.bruynooghe at gmail.com> added the comment:

> > So by using dlmalloc on SunOS and AIX you would get the same level
> > of performance for memory operations that you already probably can
> > appreciate on Linux systems.
>
> Yes, but with the above "trick", you can do that without patching
> python nor your app.
> I mean, if you start embedding malloc in python, why stop there, and
> not embed the whole glibc ;-)
> Note that I realize this won't solve the problem for other AIX users
> (if there are any left :-), but since this patch doesn't seem to be
> gaining adhesion, I'm just proposing an alternative that I find
> cleaner, simpler and easier to maintain.

This trick is hard to find however and I don't think it serves Solaris
and AIX users very much (and sadly IBM keeps pushing AIX so yes it's
used more then I like :-( ).

So how about a --with-dlmalloc=path/to/dlmalloc.c?  This way the
dlmalloc code does not live inside Python and doesn't need to be
maintained by python.  But python still supports the code and will
easily be built using it.  Add a note in the README for AIX and
Solaris and I think this would be a lot friendlier to users.  This is
similar in how python uses e.g. openssl to provide optional extra
functionality/performance.

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