Byte counters reset at ~4GB

[Julian Elischer]

On Mon, 15 Mar 2004, Marcel Moolenaar wrote:

> On Mon, Mar 15, 2004 at 04:05:44PM -0800, Kris Kennaway wrote:
> > > 
> > > It seems that the byte counters (derived from netstat -nbi) reset at
> > > around 4 GB. Is there no way around this? It would be nice to be able to
> > > see an accurate display of totals. It just seems pointless to even have
> > > this, as 4 GB is just not that much anymore. I know this is a 32bit
> > > limitation of the variable, but that's just bad coding in my opinion (no
> > > offence intended), I mean there must be some way around this.
> > 
> > I think in the past it's been pointed out changing to a 64-bit
> > variable would slow down the code on non-64-bit architectures like the
> > venerable i386.
> 
> Is there a particular reason I don't know about as to why we cannot
> introduce a MD typedef for counters like this (or even just "long")?
> I mean, if people make the statement that widening counters is not an
> option because it slows down some platforms, I must be missing the
> reason for it to be an all or none kind of issue.

I believe that the expense is that acting on the counters can not be 
both cheap and atomic at the same time..
I think we need a whole pile of atomic primatives in addition to what we
already have. including an atomic reference conting method and
atomic statistics methods.

> 
> -- 
>  Marcel Moolenaar	  USPA: A-39004		 marcel at xcllnt.net
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