Bug 51157 - is kdeinit still necessary?
Summary: is kdeinit still necessary?
Status: RESOLVED LATER
Alias: None
Product: kdelibs
Classification: Frameworks and Libraries
Component: kdeinit (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Platform: Compiled Sources Linux
: NOR wishlist
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Unassigned bugs mailing-list
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2002-11-25 00:01 UTC by cb-kde
Modified: 2013-08-29 05:43 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

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Description cb-kde 2002-11-25 00:01:51 UTC
Version:            (using KDE KDE 3.0.99)
Installed from:    Compiled From Sources
Compiler:          gcc 2.95.4 (debian prerelease) 
OS:          Linux

As I understand it, kdeinit was intended to work around the slow start-up time of KDE applications caused by slow dynamic linking. As this problem has been resolved by improvements in gcc, glibc and binutils, perhaps the time has come to remove this unusual mechanism.

From one perspective, this mechanism does not seem very clean. It is the UNIX philosophy that a program should run and do whatever it is supposed to do - if KDE needs to run its window manager it should simply start kwin as a separate process.

Another reason to do this is that it presents misleading information to other tools. Top reports that my PC is running about 10 kdeinit processes - there is no indication what they are for unless I mess around with some other tools. It also makes top report misleading information with regard to the size of the process.

Or does kdeinit serve some other significant purpose?
Comment 1 Waldo Bastian 2002-11-25 11:30:55 UTC
Once the new gcc/glibc/binutils are sufficiently mainstream we will reevaluate the 
need for kdeinit, apart from startup time it also improves page-sharing. We will need 
to look at some actual data to decide whether it is still worth to keep using kdeinit. 
 
Also note that KDE runs on a number of Linux-compatible platforms which do not all 
benefit from the improvements of gcc/glibc/binutils. 
 
I am very aware of the hackish aspects of kdeinit and its shortcomings. Don't worry 
;-) 
Comment 2 Yves Glodt 2005-09-13 21:07:54 UTC
Almost 3 years after the last comment, no news on this subject...?
Comment 3 Thiago Macieira 2005-09-14 06:00:34 UTC
Nothing changed. Maybe in another 3 years.
Comment 4 Yves Glodt 2006-04-23 19:37:54 UTC
As of today, are there plans for KDE4 to still use kdeinit, or will it (finally) be ditched ? :-)
Comment 5 Thiago Macieira 2006-04-26 18:14:40 UTC
kdeinit will be used in KDE4.
Comment 6 Yves Glodt 2007-04-04 09:32:15 UTC
With the recent additions to binutils such as:
-DT_GNU_HASH
-Bsymbolic-functions
and this feature: http://dot.kde.org/1172617283/1172768274/1172773687/1172776025/

Will kdeinit with it's "hackish aspects" remain a reality in KDE4?
Comment 7 Arvid Norlander 2008-01-18 15:40:49 UTC
DT_GNU_HASH doesn't work on FreeBSD as far as I know. Do you in comment #6 only care about Linux users?
Comment 8 Andrea Diamantini 2013-08-29 05:43:25 UTC
What about here? (More than) 3 years passed...