Performance issue with COW strings?

[Dan Kegel]

I'm trying to migrate an app from gcc-2.95.3 + SGI STL
to gcc-3.4.3 (or gcc-4.0.0) with libstdc++.  It's going fine except for
some performance problems; gcc-2.95.3 + SGI STL is
just plain faster than any modern pure gcc, as far
as this app is concerned.  The app is multithreaded,
and uses std::string, so I can't help but wonder
whether the COW string 'optimization' might be
playing a part.

So, I'd like to try benchmarking my app with & without COX strings.
Is there a patch handy for libstdc++
to replace COW strings with deep-copy strings?

For the purpose of this test, I don't care about
compatibility, so it's ok if I can't mix code
compiled with this patch with code compiled with
a stock libstdc++.

Thanks!
- Dan

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