Why is Linux thread locking so slow?

[Tom Tromey]

Jeff> Or, if we discover some useful (fast, MP-aware) locking code to
Jeff> use in place of pthread_mutex_lock, we can make it a
Jeff> configurable option for libgcj, no?

Yeah, that is possible.

Jeff> It'd be easier than getting it into the pthread library...

A sad statement.  Hacking around broken proprietary software is the
norm, but I like to have higher standards for the free stuff.

Has anybody looked at GNU's portable pthreads library?  Maybe it would
be a good way to go.  Or maybe we could convince them to implement the
2-level system there.

Tom