[BusyBox] kernel base gunzip

[Erik Andersen]

On Thu Nov 16, 2000 at 10:36:22AM +1100, Glenn McGrath wrote:
> This may be slightly offtopic, but anyway..
> 
> The linux kernel has internal code to do gunzip, if there was a kernel
> module that could provide access to the internal gunzip code from
> userland then it would provide an almost free gunzip as far as space
> goes.
> 
> Is this a good/bad idea ?

Not too bad an idea.  However, Linus would never accept it.  First, the kernel
gunzip code is usually init code, and it thrown away at boot, so you would have
to de-init it.  The cleanest way to do it would be similar to how sendfile(2)
works, where you feed an open file descriptor to the kernel.  I'm not sure it
would be a huge win -- right now gunzip adds 9.5k, and gzip adds 10.56k.  Not
enough cost to be worth fighting the kernel gunziping battle, IMHO,

 -Erik

--
Erik B. Andersen   email:  andersen at lineo.com
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