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# IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2012-07-30

    <mcsim> Why for big buffers in ext2fs used own allocator, that just
      allocates many pages at once, instead of using malloc?
    <mcsim> i.e. can I replace it with malloc, because it just complicates
      things?
    <braunr> mcsim: probably because of alignment
    <braunr> what gets complicated by that ?
    <mcsim> braunr: than valloc?
    <mcsim> braunr: this allocator allows to allocate only buffer with size of
      vm_page_size.
    <mcsim> valloc just would be clearer.
    <braunr> valloc ?
    <braunr> valloc is obsolete
    <mcsim> braunr: than memalign or posix_memalign?
    <mcsim> memalign obsolete too... would posix_memalign be eligible?
    <braunr> mcsim: why memalign instead of the custom allocator ?
    <mcsim> because, I think, it is clearer. Also, since I need to allocate any
      amount of pages, not just one, I have to edit custom allocator. Although
      it is not hard, but using ready stuff seems more sane for me.
    <mcsim> braunr: ^
    <braunr> right, but make sure posix_memalign doesn't create too much
      overhead
    <mcsim> braunr: what kind of overhead?
    <braunr> fragmentation
    <braunr> i assume the glibc implementation is careful about that, but still