Commit 287967f7 authored by Rob Pike's avatar Rob Pike

doc/go_faq.html: update description of stack management

They aren't segmented any more, at least with gc.
Also improve the comparison of goroutines and threads.
Fixes #7373.

LGTM=iant
R=iant
CC=golang-codereviews
https://golang.org/cl/77950044
parent 0c841569
......@@ -426,18 +426,20 @@ When a coroutine blocks, such as by calling a blocking system call,
the run-time automatically moves other coroutines on the same operating
system thread to a different, runnable thread so they won't be blocked.
The programmer sees none of this, which is the point.
The result, which we call goroutines, can be very cheap: unless they spend a lot of time
in long-running system calls, they cost little more than the memory
for the stack, which is just a few kilobytes.
The result, which we call goroutines, can be very cheap: they have little
overhead beyond the memory for the stack, which is just a few kilobytes.
</p>
<p>
To make the stacks small, Go's run-time uses segmented stacks. A newly
To make the stacks small, Go's run-time uses resizable, bounded stacks. A newly
minted goroutine is given a few kilobytes, which is almost always enough.
When it isn't, the run-time allocates (and frees) extension segments automatically.
The overhead averages about three cheap instructions per function call.
When it isn't, the run-time grows (and shrinks) the memory for storing
the stack automatically, allowing many goroutines to live in a modest
amount of memory.
The CPU overhead averages about three cheap instructions per function call.
It is practical to create hundreds of thousands of goroutines in the same
address space. If goroutines were just threads, system resources would
address space.
If goroutines were just threads, system resources would
run out at a much smaller number.
</p>
......@@ -1614,9 +1616,10 @@ it now. <code>Gccgo</code>'s run-time support uses <code>glibc</code>.
<code>Gc</code> uses a custom library to keep the footprint under
control; it is
compiled with a version of the Plan 9 C compiler that supports
segmented stacks for goroutines.
The <code>gccgo</code> compiler implements segmented
stacks on Linux only, supported by recent modifications to the gold linker.
resizable stacks for goroutines.
The <code>gccgo</code> compiler implements these on Linux only,
using a technique called segmented stacks,
supported by recent modifications to the gold linker.
</p>
<h3 id="Why_is_my_trivial_program_such_a_large_binary">
......
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