Uttered Matt Kavanagh , spake thus: > > the kernel were mostly descripted as monoholitic. but some sources means > > that the linux kernel is not really monoholitic because of the feature > > of loading kernel modules. > I'd tend towards monolithic because the modules (as mentioned) run in kernel > space. These discussions are taking the wrong viewpoint. The difference between "monolithic" and "modular" kernels refers to their *internal* organization, not a cosmetic *packaging* decision. Linux is a monolithic kernel because one kernel routine can call another directly, without intervention of any message passing overhead. Linux modules are simply packaging exercises that allow some code _not_ originally linked into the kernel image to be grafted into an executing kernel image. Once installed, kernel modules can reference other kernel resources with, again, a straight subroutine reference without any message passing intervention. All else is quibbling about the color of the ribbon used to wrap up the module code ;-) HTH. -- -- .---------------------------------+----------------------------------------. | Tommy Reynolds | Email: | | P O Box 62 | Phone: +1.256.227.1839 | | Danville, AL 35619 USA | Fax: +1.256.350.5099 | | Sr. Software Devel/RHCE | IM: HisDivShadow | +---------------------------------+----------------------------------------+ | Ask MegaCoder.com For Answers! | '--------------------------------------------------------------------------' -- -- .---------------------------------+----------------------------------------. | Tommy Reynolds | Email: | | P O Box 62 | Phone: +1.256.227.1839 | | Danville, AL 35619 USA | Fax: +1.256.350.5099 | | Sr. Software Devel/RHCE | IM: HisDivShadow | +---------------------------------+----------------------------------------+ | Ask MegaCoder.com For Answers! | '--------------------------------------------------------------------------'