[lttng-dev] Tmf Ctf Parser Scalability issues (3/3)

[Matthew Khouzam]

Hello all,
I was looking at the CTF parser in the TMF project of Linux Tools. I
have come up with three points where scalability will be an issue. I am
sending 3 emails, each one describing one of the issues so we can
aggregate them more cohesively. First a primer, CTF is a file format
that has traces written in packets, the packets are parts of files in
streams, the streams are files in a directory.

Issue 3: Event size
As hinted in the previous email, it can definitely be a possibility that
traces can have events that are too large to fit into memory. These
events could also make reading a packet difficult, since the packet
could have a said event in the middle, and therefore, we could end up
with a packet that cannot be read properly with the sliding window
memory map, unless corrective actions are taken.

Proposed solution:
Would anyone do this? I see it as a longer term problem and as a known
limitation, unless someone says "Hey, I want 8gb events!".