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Comparing libev/ev.pod (file contents):
Revision 1.203 by root, Sun Oct 26 00:52:51 2008 UTC vs.
Revision 1.204 by root, Mon Oct 27 11:08:29 2008 UTC

389epoll scales either O(1) or O(active_fds). The epoll design has a number 389epoll scales either O(1) or O(active_fds). The epoll design has a number
390of shortcomings, such as silently dropping events in some hard-to-detect 390of shortcomings, such as silently dropping events in some hard-to-detect
391cases and requiring a system call per fd change, no fork support and bad 391cases and requiring a system call per fd change, no fork support and bad
392support for dup. 392support for dup.
393 393
394Epoll is also notoriously buggy - embedding epoll fds should work, but
395of course doesn't, and epoll just loves to report events for totally
396I<different> file descriptors (even already closed ones) than registered
397in the set (especially on SMP systems). Libev tries to counter these
398spurious notifications by employing an additional generation counter and
399comparing that against the events to filter out spurious ones.
400
394While stopping, setting and starting an I/O watcher in the same iteration 401While stopping, setting and starting an I/O watcher in the same iteration
395will result in some caching, there is still a system call per such incident 402will result in some caching, there is still a system call per such incident
396(because the fd could point to a different file description now), so its 403(because the fd could point to a different file description now), so its
397best to avoid that. Also, C<dup ()>'ed file descriptors might not work 404best to avoid that. Also, C<dup ()>'ed file descriptors might not work
398very well if you register events for both fds. 405very well if you register events for both fds.
399
400Please note that epoll sometimes generates spurious notifications, so you
401need to use non-blocking I/O or other means to avoid blocking when no data
402(or space) is available.
403 406
404Best performance from this backend is achieved by not unregistering all 407Best performance from this backend is achieved by not unregistering all
405watchers for a file descriptor until it has been closed, if possible, 408watchers for a file descriptor until it has been closed, if possible,
406i.e. keep at least one watcher active per fd at all times. Stopping and 409i.e. keep at least one watcher active per fd at all times. Stopping and
407starting a watcher (without re-setting it) also usually doesn't cause 410starting a watcher (without re-setting it) also usually doesn't cause

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