LinuxThreads or other alternatives for the Hurd/{Mach,L4}?

[Farid Hajji]

Hello Xavier,

I'm searching for a P-Threads library with an N:M-mapping model that
could be ported to Mach and to L4 microkernels. LinuxThreads currently
only supports a 1:1 model (that maps a pthread to a clone()-ed Linux
process), so that's definitely not what we need.

The reason why we need an N:M library is, that we are planning to port
the Hurd from Mach to the L4 microkernel. Unfortunately, the Hurd uses
threads very heavily, and L4 provides only a limited number of native
threads per task (128 or so), so there is a need for a multiplexing
library.

Are you planning to evolve LinuxThreads to an N:M-model in the future
or are you already busy hacking on it? I'm asking this, because I'd
really like to avoid duplicate/unnecessary work here.

Even if you don't plan to implement N:M, could you point us to an
existing implementation or to a description of the underlying theory?
Implementing multiplexing threading libraries looks quite scary to me
at the moment (you know, the "black art" aspect...) ;-)

Thanks for your help,

-Farid.

-- 
Farid Hajji -- Unix Systems and Network Admin | Phone: +49-2131-67-555
Broicherdorfstr. 83, D-41564 Kaarst, Germany  | address@hidden
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