Re: Are We Back to the "Wars" Now ?

On Wed, 18 Dec 2024 14:02:52 -0000 (UTC)
Rich <rich@example.invalid> wrote:

The amount of data you can transfer over a pipe is not in any way
limited by system memory size or any other system imposed limits. 

 
Quite. I’m not sure why this discussion has restarted but it was
clear from last time round that some of the participants don’t know
what a pipe is, and aren’t particularly interested in finding out. 

 
Yes, our local nymshift troll seems to clearly not know what a pipe
is, nor care to learn either.

I *think* what he's meaning to say is this: while you can transfer any
arbitrary amount of data *through* a pipe, there is an upper limit to
how much you can have *in* a pipe at any one time; eventually, you hit
either *A.* an OS-imposed limit on buffer size, at which point things
start blocking as already discussed, or *B.* the upper bounds of system
memory, at which point the system will either start swapping (in which
case you lose any speed advantage) or blocking (as with limited buffer
size.)

That said, what probably shouldn't need saying here is that if you're
filling up all available space in a pipe such that you're regularly
hitting these limits, you're probably doing pipes wrong.