On Tue, 15 Sep 2009, Dennis Schafroth wrote:

Yes, I am also working on a linux port, also on F11. There will be a lot of work due to heavy usage of kevent and mach ports/messages. Robert have pointed at libevent as a portable solution.

I've started taking a look at this -- for Linux lack of mach ports/messages shouldn't be a problem, as I have those either disabled or replaced by portable substitutes (such as mach semaphores -> POSIX semaphores). However, libdispatch makes heavy use of kqueue and a substitute will have to be identified. Ideally, one that doesn't leave libdispatch in a giant mess :-). Robert

cheers, Dennis Schafroth

On 15/09/2009, at 22.33, Chris Pardy wrote:

...

Hello Everybody I'm Chris Pardy.

I'm looking to compile libdispatch (userspace) on linux (fc 11). Is anybody else on the list working on this?

'Pardy _______________________________________________ libdispatch-dev mailing list libdispatch-dev@lists.macosforge.org http://lists.macosforge.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/libdispatch-dev

David Leimbach wrote:

Anyone happen to know the history behind why linux chose to implement epoll when many other Unix's were already doing kqueues?

I'm sure someone had a reason somewhere, and I hope it's not just NIH syndrome.

Sometimes I think Linux exists because it is fun to reinvent Unix. Unfortunately, they usually do it badly :) Linus thinks kqueue is "silly" and too complicated: http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0010.3/0013.html One Linux developer attempted (and failed) to get kevents added to the kernel. Apparently he is working on eventfs now: http://lwn.net/Articles/225714/ I think it would be possible to use a combination of Linux kernel facilities to emulate most of kqueue's functionality. Here's a rough mapping: epoll Sockets inotify Files and directories signalfd Signals timerfd Timers It looks like timerfd was released in one Linux kernel rev, and then withdrawn for futher rework of the API. I don't know if it will be reintroduced later. Regards, - Mark