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SQLite (with WAL) doesn't do `fsync` on each commit under default settings
SQLite doesn’t do fsync unless specified.
Topics /
Systems & Performance
The most popular blog posts about systems & performance on Hacker News. 543 posts.
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ClickHouse vs PostgreSQL UPDATE performance comparison
See how ClickHouse’s update speed stacks up against PostgreSQL on the same data and hardware.
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Towards Interplanetary QUIC Traffic
Have you ever asked yourself which protocols get used when downloading pictures from the Perseverance Mars rover to Earth? I hadn’t thought about that either, until I came across an intriguing message on the internet, back in April 2024: I’m looking for someone knowledgeable of quic/quinn to help us out for our deep…
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The Beam
In Lorena's latest instalment, learn about the foundations of Elixir's power and reliability with the Erlang Virtual Machine (BEAM).
516
When eBPF pt_regs reads return garbage on the latest Linux kernels, blame Fred
TLDR; Starting from Linux kernel version 6.9 on x86_64, there’s a new config option CONFIG_X86_FRED enabled and it adds 16 bytes to the starting point of a task’s kernel stack area, so you’ll need to account for this extra padding in your “raw” kernel stack & pt_regs lookup code. Update: It turns out that there’s a…
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When O3 is 2x slower than O2
An deep dive into a pathological case.
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Default musl allocator considered harmful to performance
In a real world benchmark, the default musl allocator caused a 7x slowdown compared to other allocators. I recommend all Rust projects immediately swap to a different allocator in a musl environment.
519
Is Northern Virginia still the least reliable AWS region?
We analyzed if AWS’ N. Virginia region remains the least reliable in 2025. Overview of outages, affected services, and the massive October 20 AWS incident, with insights from StatusGator’s real-time monitoring.
520
Indices, not Pointers
There is a pattern I’ve learned while using Zig which I’ve never seen used in any other language. It’s an extremely simple trick which - when applied to a data structure - reduces memory usage, reduces memory allocations, speeds up accesses, makes freeing instantaneous, and generally makes everything much, much…
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Linux CVEs, more than you ever wanted to know
It’s been almost 2 full years since Linux became a CNA (Certificate Numbering Authority) which meant that we (i.e. the kernel.org community) are now responsible for issuing all CVEs for the Linux kernel. During this time, we’ve become one of the largest creators of CVEs by quantity, going from nothing to number 3 in…
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Thrashing
I’ve invested in a new odometer to help my car go faster. Accountability is important, and as a driver I believe the most important thing I can do is set measurable, achievable and inspiring goals for the people pushing my car down the road.
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Preparing for the .NET 10 GC
In .NET 9 we enabled DATAS by default. But .NET 9 is not an LTS release so for many people they will be getting DATAS for the first time…
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After 47 years, OpenVMS gets a package manager (VSP)
Published: 17-03-2025 20:33 | Author: Remy van Elst | Text only version of this article
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The write last, read first rule
TigerBeetle is a financial transactions database built for correctness. Yet, building a correct system from correct components remains a challenge:
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Zig Profiling on Apple Silicon
If you’re a developer rocking an Apple Silicon Mac and writing in Zig, congratulations - you’ve chosen the scenic route through the desert of profiling tools. It’s just you, your code, and a tumbleweed named Apple Instruments. But don’t worry - we’ll try to find some oases. Okay, it’s not that bad, but we’re far away…
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Using watermarks to coordinate change data capture in Postgres
Explore the challenges of building a change data capture (CDC) pipeline for Postgres. And see how Sequin used a watermark design inspired by Netflix's DBLog.
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Carmack on Operating Systems (1997)
I have gotten a significant amount of response on the Quake 2 extension mechanism. I do read everything that comes my way (I can't respond to all of it, though), and I have learned a few things from the mail.
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Windows 7 x64 Extended Support Page
Windows 7 ESU extended support for all Windows 7 users out there!
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FreeBSD for hi-fi audio: real-time processing, equalizer, MPD and FFmpeg
High-quality sound in FreeBSD: system parameters, bitperfect signal, real-time operation, equalizer, MPD, FFmpeg filters.
533
How to check if your Apple Silicon Mac is booting securely
How to check your Mac is booting in Full Security, and how to read its log to verify all the key steps involved in that process.
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An initial investigation into WDDM on ReactOS
ReactOS is a free, opensource reimplementation of windows
535
Exploring the Fragmentation of Wayland, an xdotool adventure
In 2007, I was spending a my norther-hemisphere summer experimenting with UI automation. Born of those efforts, xdotool came into being when I separated it from another project. The goal was modest - write some scripts that execute common keyboard, mouse, and window management tasks. The first commit had only a few…
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Here be dragons: Preventing static damage, latchup, and metastability in the 386
I've been reverse-engineering the Intel 386 processor (from 1985), and I've come across some interesting circuits for the chip's input/outpu...
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A P2P Vision for QUIC (2024)
Using QUIC to achieve everything needed for NAT traversal, from address discovery to proxying UDP
538
The curious case of the Unix workstation layout
Cathode Ray Dude recently did an excellent video about the history of the PC case, particularly the early- and mid-1990s, and the various mainboard layouts that pre-date the ATX standard. You should watch it. Here it is.
539
Pizlix: Memory Safe Linux from Scratch
Pizlix is LFS (Linux From Scratch) 12.2 with some added components, where userland is compiled with Fil-C. This means you get the most memory safe Linux-like OS currently available.
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Closures as Win32 Window Procedures
Back in 2017 I wrote about a technique for creating closures in C using JIT-compiled wrapper. It’s neat, though rarely necessary in real programs, so I don’t think about it often. I applied it to qsort , which sadly accepts no context pointer. More practical would be working around insufficient custom allocator…