[ale] compiled system calls versus shell scripts

[Pete Hardie]

Christopher Bergeron wrote:
> Does anyone know if I would get a speed increase in my startup scripts
> by converting them to a binary?  Essentially, I'm trying to reduce my
> boot time by running my startup commands in parallel.  I stripped my
> startup scripts down to 1 file and I've appended the & on most of the
> commands (modprobes, ifconfig eth0 up, etc) in an attempt to speed
> things up.  But what I'm wondering is if I create a simple C program
> that just does:
> void main() {
>  system("modprobe whatever &");
>  system("ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.4 &");
> }
> 
> Would this give me a faster boot during this phase?  I'm thinking about
> doing this and replacing my /sbin/init altogether.
> 
> I know there are already packages out there that do this, but I'm doing
> it myself as more of a learning excercise.  I've also heard of using a
> Makefile to control startup, but that's a bit beyond me at this point.
> 
> Anyone have any suggestions?

system() invokes a shell, so you probably aren't gaining anything.

Did you see the /. article a few weeks back about using make for booting - it 
showed that it works to run things in parallel, if you know the dependency 
ordering of stuff.



-- 
Pete Hardie                   |   Goalie, DVSG Dart Team
     posting from, but not     |
     speaking for:             |
Scientific Atlanta, Digital Video Services Group



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