10 Feb
2021
10 Feb
'21
12:29 a.m.
On 08/02/2021 22:58, M Douglas McIlroy wrote:
% ls /usr/share/man/man2|wc
495 495 7230
% ls /bin|wc
2809 2809 30468
Whoa! Is this Linux? On my Solaris 10 boxen, I find:
[~]=> ls /bin |wc
1113 1113 10256
[~]=> ls /usr/share/man/man2|wc
219 219 2299
N.
How many of roughly 500 system calls (to say nothing
of uncounted
ioctl's) do you think are necessary for writing those few crucial
capabilities that distinguish Linux from v7? There is
undeniably bloat, but only a sliver of it contributes to the
distinctive utility of today's systems.
Or consider this. Unix grew by about 39 system calls in its first
decade, but an average of 40
per decade ever since. Is this accelerated growth more symptomatic of
maturity or of cancer?
Doug