Evolution of Network Server Programming Patterns: From Fork() to Worker Threads
By
tosh
Not artisan, but a perfectly fine bagel. Hits the spot.
Summary
The article discusses a popular network-server programming pattern that has become the canonical approach for writing network servers. It describes a design where the main loop waits for events and dispatches based on file descriptors and their states. The article traces the evolution of this pattern from using fork() to create separate threads for each file descriptor to the modern approach using worker threads that rely on the kernel to schedule file descriptors. The content appears to be an educational or technical explanation of server programming patterns and their historical development.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledThere's a network-server programming pattern which is so popular that it's the canonical approach towards writing network servers
This design is easy to recognise: The main loop waits for some event, then dispatches based on the file descriptor and state that the file descriptor is in
At one point it was in vogue to actually fork() so that each file descriptor could be handled by a different thread
but now 'worker threads' are usually created that all perform the same task and rely on the kernel to schedule file descriptors
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