Re: FYI - bash crash due to asprintf bug

[Eric Blake]

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According to Robbie Gates on 11/29/2006 3:57 AM:
>> reduces asprintf's use of realloc from quadratic
>> to log-linear performance (ie. calling realloc every time you add a byte
>> is bad, compared to doubling the buffer size every time you call
>> realloc).
> 
> Just out of interest, note that a size increase of 50% (i.e. new size
> = (3*oldsize)/2) has better properties for certain memory managers, as
> opposed to doubling. It has the same asymptotic complexity improvement
> as doubling. Roughly speaking, any factor less than the golden ratio
> (1+sqrt(5))/2 is good, but 1.5 is (a) cheaply obtanied on most cpu
> architectures, and (b) leaves a little space in case the memory
> manager adds some overhead. See http://tinyurl.com/yd5669 for details.

This message on the cygwin list has a good point, and it made me wonder:
should we update the semantics of x2nrealloc in lib/xalloc.h to prefer a
ratio smaller than 2x growth?

- --
Life is short - so eat dessert first!

Eric Blake             address@hidden
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