Subject: Re: New features in NetBSD 2.0
To: Daniel de Kok <danieldk@pobox.com>
From: SODA Noriyuki <soda@sra.co.jp>
List: netbsd-docs
Date: 10/13/2004 07:25:43
>>>>> On Wed, 13 Oct 2004 00:03:03 +0200,
	Daniel de Kok <danieldk@pobox.com> said:

> How about this?

> ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/misc/daniel/patches/chap-whatsnew.xml.diff

+         <para>
+           The memory allocation scheme for the buffer cache, which
+           is used for file system meta data, has been rewritten. The
+           buffer cache can now use up to 15% of the physical memory
+           in the default configuration (tunable via &man.sysctl.8;).

Currently sysctl(8) doesn't mention the vm.bufcache variable... ;-/
At least the following variables should be added to the man page:
	vm.bufcache
	vm.bufmem
	vm.bufmem_lowater
	vm.bufmem_hiwater
and the change must be pulled up to 2.0 branch, but I'm not sure
it will be in time for 2.0 release...
Perhaps mentioning the variable in /Documentation/tune/stune.html
and refering to the page may be safer.

+       <listitem>
+         <para>
+           A red-black tree is now being used to find entries in
+           vm_map. This speeds up memory allocation.
+      </listitem>

Well, it speeds up not only memory allocation but also memory
reference, if there are many vm_map entries.

Also, we should find a place to describe $PTHREAD_CONCURRENCY.
Currently pthread(3) man page doesn't mention this environment
varaible, and this should be fixed. Also it may be worth mentioning
this variable somewhere in www.netbsd.org.
--
soda