raw device access under Linux

[Keith Packard]

Around 14 o'clock on Nov 5, "Jeffrey W. Baker" wrote:

> The raw device is a hack around the bad buffer cache handling in the
> earlier 2.4 kernels.  With the latest 2.4 kernels it really shouldn't be
> necessary.  Sequential read-once input doesn't pollute the buffer cache
> like it used to.

That's good news; I noticed a serious performance problem because of this. 
Of course, raw device access is still a tiny bit more efficient as it 
avoids another copy, but at DVD rates that's hardly worth bothering for.

I haven't used the buffered device on 2.4.13 yet to see what it does.

keithp at keithp.com	 XFree86 Core Team		SuSE, Inc.