Some advantage in prefork several imapds in startup ?

[Bron Gondwana]

On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 12:45:17AM -0200, Lucas Zinato Carraro wrote:
> In tests,  i configure /etc/cyrus.conf  to start 5000 process in startup.
> 
> SERVICES {
> 
>         imap            cmd="imapd"    listen="imap"  prefork=5000
> 
> }
> 
> Consulting the system:
> 
> imap_server:/var/lib/imap/proc>ps axwww | grep imapd | wc -l
> 5177
> 
> But in: ls -l /var/lib/imap/proc  | wc -l  i see only
> 173
> 
> 
> Why, the master start new  process and don't use  prefork  process ?
> Exist any advantage startup with several process ?

It doesn't create a proc/$pid entry until someone connects.

Bron ( that said, pre-forking 5000 processes is unlikely to be a huge
       performance win I wouldn't imagine... )