up to now.
The new sendfile is the code that Netflix uses to send their multiple tens
of gigabits of data per second. The new implementation features asynchronous
I/O, when I/O operations are launched, but not awaited to be complete. An
explanation of why such behavior is beneficial compared to old one is
going to be too long for a commit message, so we will skip it here.
Additional features of new syscall are extra flags, which provide an
application more control over data sent. The SF_NOCACHE flag tells
kernel that data shouldn't be cached after it was sent. The SF_READAHEAD()
macro allows to specify readahead size in pages.
The new syscalls is a drop in replacement. No modifications are required
to applications. One can take nginx binary for stable/10 and run it
successfully on head. Although SF_NODISKIO lost its original sense, as now
sendfile doesn't block, and now means something completely different (tm),
using the new sendfile the old way is absolutely safe.
Celebrates: Netflix global launch!
Sponsored by: Nginx, Inc.
Sponsored by: Netflix
Relnotes: yes
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