NAME

       lat_proc - process creation tests

SYNOPSIS

       lat_proc   [   -P   <parallelism>   ]   [   -W   <warmups>   ]   [   -N   <repetitions>  ]
       procedure|fork|exec|shell

DESCRIPTION

       lat_proc creates processes in three different forms, each more expensive  than  the  last.
       The purposes is to measure the time that it takes to create a basic thread of control.

       The forms are listed and described below:

       Process fork+exit   The  time  it  takes  to  split  a process into two (nearly) identical
                           copies and have one exit.  This is how new processes are  created  but
                           is not very useful since both processes are doing the same thing.

       Process fork+execve The  time  it  takes to create a new process and have that new process
                           run a new program.  This is the inner  loop  of  all  shells  (command
                           interpreters).

       Process fork+/bin/sh -c
                           The  time  it  takes to create a new process and have that new process
                           run a new program by asking the system shell to find that program  and
                           run  it.   This  is  how  the  C  library  interface  called system is
                           implemented.  It is the most general and the most expensive.

OUTPUT

       Output is in microseconds per operation like so:

       Process fork+exit: 6054 microseconds
       Process fork+execve: 11212 microseconds
       Process fork+/bin/sh -c: 44346 microseconds

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

       Funding for the development of  this  tool  was  provided  by  Sun  Microsystems  Computer
       Corporation.

SEE ALSO

       lmbench(8).

AUTHOR

       Carl Staelin and Larry McVoy

       Comments, suggestions, and bug reports are always welcome.

(c)1994 Larry McVoy                           $Date$                                  LAT_PROC(8)