xref: /freebsd/share/man/man9/epoch.9 (revision 24929e2cccdc62b19edb66d5f71c62562a051c8c)
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29.Dd June 25, 2018
30.Dt EPOCH 9
31.Os
32.Sh NAME
33.Nm epoch ,
34.Nm epoch_context ,
35.Nm epoch_alloc ,
36.Nm epoch_free ,
37.Nm epoch_enter ,
38.Nm epoch_exit ,
39.Nm epoch_wait ,
40.Nm epoch_call ,
41.Nm in_epoch ,
42.Nd kernel epoch based reclamation
43.Sh SYNOPSIS
44.In sys/param.h
45.In sys/proc.h
46.In sys/epoch.h
47.Ft epoch_t
48.Fn epoch_alloc "int flags"
49.Ft void
50.Fn epoch_enter "epoch_t epoch"
51.Ft void
52.Fn epoch_enter_preempt "epoch_t epoch" "epoch_tracker_t et"
53.Ft void
54.Fn epoch_exit "epoch_t epoch"
55.Ft void
56.Fn epoch_exit_preempt "epoch_t epoch" "epoch_tracker_t et"
57.Ft void
58.Fn epoch_wait "epoch_t epoch"
59.Ft void
60.Fn epoch_wait_preempt "epoch_t epoch"
61.Ft void
62.Fn epoch_call "epoch_t epoch" "epoch_context_t ctx" "void (*callback) (epoch_context_t)"
63.Ft int
64.Fn in_epoch "epoch_t epoch"
65.Sh DESCRIPTION
66Epochs are used to guarantee liveness and immutability of data by
67deferring reclamation and mutation until a grace period has elapsed.
68Epochs do not have any lock ordering issues.
69Entering and leaving an epoch section will never block.
70.Pp
71Epochs are allocated with
72.Fn epoch_alloc
73and freed with
74.Fn epoch_free .
75The flags passed to epoch_alloc determine whether preemption is
76allowed during a section or not (the default), as specified by
77EPOCH_PREEMPT.
78Threads indicate the start of an epoch critical section by calling
79.Fn epoch_enter .
80The end of a critical section is indicated by calling
81.Fn epoch_exit .
82The _preempt variants can be used around code which requires preemption.
83A thread can wait until a grace period has elapsed
84since any threads have entered
85the epoch by calling
86.Fn epoch_wait
87or
88.Fn epoch_wait_preempt ,
89depending on the epoch_type.
90The use of a default epoch type allows one to use
91.Fn epoch_wait
92which is guaranteed to have much shorter completion times since
93we know that none of the threads in an epoch section will be preempted
94before completing its section.
95If the thread can't sleep or is otherwise in a performance sensitive
96path it can ensure that a grace period has elapsed by calling
97.Fn epoch_call
98with a callback with any work that needs to wait for an epoch to elapse.
99Only non-sleepable locks can be acquired during a section protected by
100.Fn epoch_enter_preempt
101and
102.Fn epoch_exit_preempt .
103INVARIANTS can assert that a thread is in an epoch by using
104.Fn in_epoch .
105.Pp
106The epoch API currently does not support sleeping in epoch_preempt sections.
107A caller should never call
108.Fn epoch_wait
109in the middle of an epoch section for the same epoch as this will lead to a deadlock.
110.Pp
111By default mutexes cannot be held across
112.Fn epoch_wait_preempt .
113To permit this the epoch must be allocated with
114EPOCH_LOCKED.
115When doing this one must be cautious of creating a situation where a deadlock is
116possible. Note that epochs are not a straight replacement for read locks.
117Callers must use safe list and tailq traversal routines in an epoch (see ck_queue).
118When modifying a list referenced from an epoch section safe removal
119routines must be used and the caller can no longer modify a list entry
120in place.
121An item to be modified must be handled with copy on write
122and frees must be deferred until after a grace period has elapsed.
123.Sh RETURN VALUES
124.Fn in_epoch curepoch
125will return 1 if curthread is in curepoch, 0 otherwise.
126.Sh CAVEATS
127One must be cautious when using
128.Fn epoch_wait_preempt
129threads are pinned during epoch sections so if a thread in a section is then
130preempted by a higher priority compute bound thread on that CPU it can be
131prevented from leaving the section.
132Thus the wait time for the waiter is
133potentially unbounded.
134.Sh EXAMPLES
135Async free example:
136Thread 1:
137.Bd -literal
138int
139in_pcbladdr(struct inpcb *inp, struct in_addr *faddr, struct in_laddr *laddr,
140    struct ucred *cred)
141{
142   /* ... */
143   epoch_enter(net_epoch);
144    CK_STAILQ_FOREACH(ifa, &ifp->if_addrhead, ifa_link) {
145        sa = ifa->ifa_addr;
146	if (sa->sa_family != AF_INET)
147	    continue;
148	sin = (struct sockaddr_in *)sa;
149	if (prison_check_ip4(cred, &sin->sin_addr) == 0) {
150	     ia = (struct in_ifaddr *)ifa;
151	     break;
152	}
153    }
154    epoch_exit(net_epoch);
155   /* ... */
156}
157.Ed
158Thread 2:
159.Bd -literal
160void
161ifa_free(struct ifaddr *ifa)
162{
163
164    if (refcount_release(&ifa->ifa_refcnt))
165        epoch_call(net_epoch, &ifa->ifa_epoch_ctx, ifa_destroy);
166}
167
168void
169if_purgeaddrs(struct ifnet *ifp)
170{
171
172    /* .... *
173    IF_ADDR_WLOCK(ifp);
174    CK_STAILQ_REMOVE(&ifp->if_addrhead, ifa, ifaddr, ifa_link);
175    IF_ADDR_WUNLOCK(ifp);
176    ifa_free(ifa);
177}
178.Ed
179.Pp
180Thread 1 traverses the ifaddr list in an epoch.
181Thread 2 unlinks with the corresponding epoch safe macro, marks as logically free,
182and then defers deletion.
183More general mutation or a synchronous
184free would have to follow a call to
185.Fn epoch_wait .
186.Sh ERRORS
187None.
188.Sh NOTES
189The
190.Nm
191kernel programming interface is under development and is subject to change.
192.El
193.Sh SEE ALSO
194.Xr locking 9 ,
195.Xr mtx_pool 9 ,
196.Xr mutex 9 ,
197.Xr rwlock 9 ,
198.Xr sema 9 ,
199.Xr sleep 9 ,
200.Xr sx 9 ,
201.Xr timeout 9
202