Book Image

Go Systems Programming

Book Image

Go Systems Programming

Overview of this book

Go is the new systems programming language for Linux and Unix systems. It is also the language in which some of the most prominent cloud-level systems have been written, such as Docker. Where C programmers used to rule, Go programmers are in demand to write highly optimized systems programming code. Created by some of the original designers of C and Unix, Go expands the systems programmers toolkit and adds a mature, clear programming language. Traditional system applications become easier to write since pointers are not relevant and garbage collection has taken away the most problematic area for low-level systems code: memory management. This book opens up the world of high-performance Unix system applications to the beginning Go programmer. It does not get stuck on single systems or even system types, but tries to expand the original teachings from Unix system level programming to all types of servers, the cloud, and the web.
Table of Contents (13 chapters)

The Go scheduler

In the previous chapter, we said that the kernel scheduler is responsible for the order your goroutines will be executed in, which is not completely accurate. The kernel scheduler is responsible for the execution of the threads your programs have. The Go runtime has its own scheduler that is responsible for the execution of the goroutines using a technique known as m:n scheduling, where m goroutines are executed using n operating system threads using multiplexing. As the Go scheduler has to deal with the goroutines of a single program, its operation is much cheaper and faster than the operation of the kernel scheduler.