malloc: performance improvements and bugfixes

[Carlos O'Donell]

On 01/25/2016 07:50 PM, Paul Eggert wrote:
> Thanks for doing all the work and bringing it to our attention. A
> couple of comments on the process:
> 
> On 01/25/2016 04:24 PM, Joern Engel wrote:
>> I happen to prefer the kernel coding style over GNU coding style.
> 
> Nevertheless, let's keep the GNU coding style for glibc. In some
> places the existing code doesn't conform to that style but that can
> be fixed as we go.
> 
>> I believe there are some applications that have deeper knowledge
>> about malloc-internal data structures than they should
>> (*cough*emacs).  As a result it has become impossible to change the
>> internals of malloc without breaking said applications
> 
> This underestimates Emacs. :-)
> 
> Emacs "knows" so much about glibc malloc's internal data structures
> that Emacs should do the right thing if glibc removes the hooks in
> question. Of course we should test the resulting combination.
> However, the point is that Emacs's usage of glibc malloc internals
> shouldn't ossify glibc malloc.

Agreed. Paul, thank you for your contribution to make sure that
glibc and emacs empower the GNU ecosystem as best they can together.

Cheers,
Carlos.