xref: /freebsd/share/man/man9/epoch.9 (revision 33346ed65c9b6c90f92085741cc9887c299b3a22)

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.Dd May 13, 2018
.Dt EPOCH 9
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm epoch ,
.Nm epoch_context ,
.Nm epoch_alloc ,
.Nm epoch_free ,
.Nm epoch_enter ,
.Nm epoch_exit ,
.Nm epoch_wait ,
.Nm epoch_call ,
.Nm in_epoch ,
.Nd kernel epoch based reclaimation
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.In sys/param.h
.In sys/proc.h
.In sys/epoch.h
.Ft epoch_t
.Fn epoch_alloc "void"
.Ft void
.Fn epoch_enter "epoch_t epoch"
.Ft void
.Fn epoch_exit "epoch_t epoch"
.Ft void
.Fn epoch_wait "epoch_t epoch"
.Ft void
.Fn epoch_call "epoch_t epoch" "epoch_context_t ctx" "void (*callback) (epoch_context_t)"
.Ft int
.Fn in_epoch "void"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
Epochs are used to guarantee liveness and immutability of data by
deferring reclamation and mutation until a grace period has elapsed.
Epochs do not have any lock ordering issues. Entering and leaving
an epoch section will never block.
.Pp
Epochs are allocated with
.Fn epoch_alloc
and freed with
.Fn epoch_free .
Threads indicate the start of an epoch critical section by calling
.Fn epoch_enter .
The end of a critical section is indicated by calling
.Fn epoch_exit .
A thread can wait until a grace period has elapsed
since any threads have entered
the epoch by calling
.Fn epoch_wait .
If the thread can't sleep or is otherwise in a performance sensitive
path it can ensure that a grace period has elapsed by calling
.Fn epoch_call
with a callback with any work that needs to wait for an epoch to elapse.
Only non-sleepable locks can be acquired during a section protected by
.Fn epoch_enter
and
.Fn epoch_exit .
INVARIANTS can assert that a thread is in an epoch by using
.Fn in_epoch .
.Pp
The epoch API currently does not support sleeping in epoch sections.
A caller cannot do epoch_enter recursively on different epochs. A
caller should never call
.Fn epoch_wait
in the middle of an epoch section as this will lead to a deadlock.
.Pp
Note that epochs are not a straight replacement for read locks. Callers
must use safe list and tailq traversal routines in an epoch (see ck_queue).
When modifying a list referenced from an epoch section safe removal
routines must be used and the caller can no longer modify a list entry
in place. An item to be modified must be handled with copy on write
and frees must be deferred until after a grace period has elapsed.

.Sh RETURN VALUES
.Fn in_epoch
will return 1 if curthread is in an epoch, 0 otherwise.
.Sh EXAMPLES
Async free example:

Thread 1:
.Bd -literal
{
    epoch_enter(net_epoch);
    CK_STAILQ_FOREACH(ifa, &ifp->if_addrhead, ifa_link) {
        sa = ifa->ifa_addr;
	if (sa->sa_family != AF_INET)
	    continue;
	sin = (struct sockaddr_in *)sa;
	if (prison_check_ip4(cred, &sin->sin_addr) == 0) {
	     ia = (struct in_ifaddr *)ifa;
	     break;
	}
    }
    epoch_exit(net_epoch);
}
.Ed
Thread 2:
.Bd -literal
void
ifa_free(struct ifaddr *ifa)
{

    if (refcount_release(&ifa->ifa_refcnt))
        epoch_call(net_epoch, &ifa->ifa_epoch_ctx, ifa_destroy);
}

{

    IF_ADDR_WLOCK(ifp);
    CK_STAILQ_REMOVE(&ifp->if_addrhead, ifa, ifaddr, ifa_link);
    /* mark as unlinked */
    ifa->ifa_addr->sa_family = AF_UNSPEC;
    IF_ADDR_WUNLOCK(ifp);
    ifa_free(ifa);
}
.Ed
.Pp
Thread 1 traverses the ifaddr list in an epoch. Thread 2 unlinks
with the corresponding epoch safe macro, marks as logically free,
and then defers deletion. More general mutation or a synchronous
free would have to follow a a call to
.Fn epoch_wait .
.Sh ERRORS
None.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr locking 9 ,
.Xr mtx_pool 9 ,
.Xr mutex 9 ,
.Xr rwlock 9 ,
.Xr sema 9 ,
.Xr sleep 9 ,
.Xr sx 9 ,
.Xr timeout 9