[Bro] Select Loop

[Robin Sommer]

On Tue, Apr 01, 2008 at 18:28 -0700, you wrote:

> of the event loop. I looked at the code and noticed this will put pcap into
> blocking mode, but Im not sure what other impact this may have.

That's right, disabling the select loop will let Bro use blocking
pcap descriptors. That's the only difference and it is only
noticable when using other input than packets as well, in particular
when doing communication with other Bro nodes. If pcap blocks, 
communication can stall. 

Historically, Bro used to use only blocking descriptors, which we
changed when introducing the communication. Initially, the
non-blocking select loop was optional and needed to be turned on
explicitly. These days however it is the default and I don't really
know any reason to turn it off. The option to go back to blocking is
just a relict from the old times.

Any particular reason why you're interested in this? 

Robin

-- 
Robin Sommer * Phone +1 (510) 666-2886 * robin at icir.org 
ICSI/LBNL    * Fax   +1 (510) 666-2956 *   www.icir.org