[PATCH] Add a prefork process model

[Uri Simchoni]

On 09/19/2017 07:03 AM, Andrew Bartlett wrote:
> On Tue, 2017-09-19 at 06:55 +0300, Uri Simchoni via samba-technical
> wrote:
>> On 09/18/2017 11:13 PM, Gary Lockyer via samba-technical wrote:
>>> Patch set to add a pre-fork process model
>>>
>>> Reviews appreciated
>>> Gary
>>>
>>
>>
>>> This option controls the number of worker processes that are
>>> +		started for each service when prefork process
>>> model is enabled
>>
>> Please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't "process model" a
>> Samba-devel-internal concept?
> 
> Sort of.  It is a concept that extends beyond Samba from Apache HTTPD,
> eg:
> 
> http://httpd.apache.org/dev/whiteboard/process-model.html
> http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/
> 
> It maps to this option to 'samba':
> -M, --model=MODEL                  Select process model
> 
> Naturally better text would be most helpful in both spots, if you have
> some ideas.
> 

To be perfectly honest, I have only a vague idea of what "process model"
is. Having to know this never was part of my Samba work. One time I got
curious (maybe because for me, "Standard Model" is a term from particle
physics), so I skimmed Wiki and past mailing list threads and couldn't
find a useful answer. So this is why when a new patch set introducing a
new process model appeared, I had a look at the additions to the man
page and what I found was somewhat tautological. I hope you can see my
frustration - this is not nitpicking.

I now see we have a rather useful definition in the samba.8 man page
(maybe it is incomplete but it sets the context). Reading that
definition helped me understand (hopefully) what the "prefork process
model" is all about. So what I'd like to propose is that "prefork" gets
covered in the samba.8 manpage (perhaps mentioning that only ldap
supports it and with other services it decays into single), and add a
reference to that on smb.conf.5.

Thanks,
Uri.
> Thanks,
> 
> Andrew Bartlett
>