minix/lib/nbsd_libc/sys/rasctl.2

.\"     $NetBSD: rasctl.2,v 1.13 2008/04/29 21:06:28 scw Exp $
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.Dd April 29, 2008
.Dt RASCTL 2
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm rasctl
.Nd restartable atomic sequences
.Sh LIBRARY
.Lb libc
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.In sys/types.h
.In sys/ras.h
.Ft int
.Fn rasctl "void *addr" "size_t len" "int op"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
Restartable atomic sequences are code sequences which are guaranteed
to execute without preemption.
This property is assured by the kernel
by re-executing a preempted sequence from the start.
This functionality enables applications to build atomic sequences which,
when executed to completion, will have executed atomically.
Restartable atomic sequences are intended to be used on systems that
do not have hardware support for low-overhead atomic primitives.
.Pp
The
.Nm
function manipulates a process's set of restartable atomic sequences.
If a restartable atomic sequence is registered and the process is
preempted within the range
.Fa addr
and
.Fa addr Ns + Ns Fa len ,
then the process is resumed at
.Fa addr .
.Pp
As the process execution can be rolled-back, the code in the sequence
should have no side effects other than a final store at
.Fa addr Ns + Ns Fa len Ns \-1 .
The kernel does not guarantee that the sequences are successfully
restartable.
It assumes that the application knows what it is doing.
Restartable atomic sequences should adhere to the following guidelines:
.Pp
.Bl -bullet -compact
.It
have a single entry point and a single exit point;
.It
not execute emulated instructions; and
.It
not invoke any functions or system calls.
.El
.Pp
Restartable atomic sequences are inherited from the parent by the
child during the
.Xr fork 2
operation.
Restartable atomic sequences for a process are removed during
.Xr exec 3 .
.Pp
The operations that can be applied to a restartable atomic sequence
are specified by the
.Fa op
argument.
Possible operations are:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -compact -width RAS_PURGE_ALLXXX
.It Dv RAS_INSTALL
Install this sequence.
.It Dv RAS_PURGE
Remove the specified registered sequence for this process.
.It Dv RAS_PURGE_ALL
Remove all registered sequences for this process.
.El
.Pp
The
.Dv RAS_PURGE
and
.Dv RAS_PURGE_ALL
operations should be considered to have
undefined behaviour if there are any other runnable threads in the
address space which might be executing within the restartable atomic
sequence(s) at the time of the purge.
The caller must be responsible for ensuring that there is some form of
coordination with other threads to prevent unexpected behaviour.
.Pp
To preserve the atomicity of sequences, the kernel attempts to protect
the sequences from alteration by the
.Xr ptrace 2
facility.
.Sh RETURN VALUES
Upon successful completion,
.Fn rasctl
returns zero.
Otherwise, \-1 is returned and
.Va errno
is set to indicate the error.
.Sh ERRORS
The
.Nm
function will fail if:
.Bl -tag -width Er
.It Bq Er EINVAL
Invalid input was supplied, such as an invalid operation, an invalid
address, or an invalid length.
A process may have a finite number of
atomic sequences that is defined at compile time.
.It Bq Er EOPNOTSUPP
Restartable atomic sequences are not supported by the kernel.
.It Bq Er ESRCH
Restartable atomic sequence not registered.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr ptrace 2
.\" .Xr lock 9
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
functionality first appeared in
.Nx 2.0
based on a similar interface that appeared in Mach 2.5.
.Sh CAVEATS
Modern compilers reorder instruction sequences to optimize speed.
The start address and size of a
.Nm RAS
need to be protected against this.
One level of protection is created by compiler dependent instructions,
abstracted from user level code via the following macros:
.Bl -tag -width RAS_START(name)
.It Dv RAS_DECL(name)
Declares the start and end labels used internally by the
other macros to mark a
.Nm RAS .
The name uniquely identifies the
.Nm RAS .
.It Dv RAS_START(name)
Marks the start of the code.
Each restart returns to the instruction following this macro.
.It Dv RAS_END(name)
Marks the end of the restartable code.
.It Dv RAS_ADDR(name)
Returns the start address of a
.Nm RAS
and is used to create the first argument to
.Nm .
.It Dv RAS_SIZE(name)
Returns the size of a
.Nm RAS
and is used as second argument to
.Nm .
.El
Recent versions of
.Xr gcc 1
require the
.Fl fno-reorder-blocks
flag to prevent blocks of code wrapped with
.Dv RAS_START Ns / Ns Dv RAS_END
being moved outside these labels.
However, be aware that this may not always be sufficient to prevent
.Xr gcc 1
from generating non-restartable code within the
.Nm RAS
due to register clobbers.
It is, therefore, strongly recommended that restartable atomic sequences
are coded in assembly.
.Nm RAS
blocks within assembly code can be specified by using the following macros:
.Bl -tag -width RAS_START_ASM_HIDDEN(name)
.It Dv RAS_START_ASM(name)
Similar to
.Nm RAS_START
but for use in assembly source code.
.It Dv RAS_END_ASM(name)
Similar to
.Nm RAS_END
but for use in assembly source code.
.It Dv RAS_START_ASM_HIDDEN(name)
Similar to
.Nm RAS_START_ASM
except that the symbol will not be placed in the dynamic symbol table.
.It Dv RAS_END_ASM_HIDDEN(name)
Similar to
.Nm RAS_END_ASM
except that the symbol will not be placed in the dynamic symbol table.
.El