xref: /freebsd/share/man/man9/sleep.9 (revision 77a62bf55d9fa10d6376ee53c1ddd9790dd41d36)
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26.\" $FreeBSD$
27.\"
28.Dd April 4, 2008
29.Os
30.Dt SLEEP 9
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm msleep ,
33.Nm msleep_spin ,
34.Nm pause ,
35.Nm tsleep ,
36.Nm wakeup
37.Nd wait for events
38.Sh SYNOPSIS
39.In sys/param.h
40.In sys/systm.h
41.In sys/proc.h
42.Ft int
43.Fn msleep "void *chan" "struct mtx *mtx" "int priority" "const char *wmesg" "int timo"
44.Ft int
45.Fn msleep_spin "void *chan" "struct mtx *mtx" "const char *wmesg" "int timo"
46.Ft void
47.Fn pause "const char *wmesg" "int timo"
48.Ft int
49.Fn tsleep "void *chan" "int priority" "const char *wmesg" "int timo"
50.Ft void
51.Fn wakeup "void *chan"
52.Ft void
53.Fn wakeup_one "void *chan"
54.Sh DESCRIPTION
55The functions
56.Fn tsleep ,
57.Fn msleep ,
58.Fn msleep_spin ,
59.Fn pause ,
60.Fn wakeup ,
61and
62.Fn wakeup_one
63handle event-based thread blocking.
64If a thread must wait for an
65external event, it is put to sleep by
66.Fn tsleep ,
67.Fn msleep ,
68.Fn msleep_spin ,
69or
70.Fn pause .
71Threads may also wait using one of the locking primitive sleep routines
72.Xr mtx_sleep 9 ,
73.Xr rw_sleep 9 ,
74or
75.Xr sx_sleep 9 .
76.Pp
77The parameter
78.Fa chan
79is an arbitrary address that uniquely identifies the event on which
80the thread is being put to sleep.
81All threads sleeping on a single
82.Fa chan
83are woken up later by
84.Fn wakeup ,
85often called from inside an interrupt routine, to indicate that the
86resource the thread was blocking on is available now.
87.Pp
88The parameter
89.Fa priority
90specifies a new priority for the thread as well as some optional flags.
91If the new priority is not 0,
92then the thread will be made
93runnable with the specified
94.Fa priority
95when it resumes.
96.Dv PZERO
97should never be used, as it is for compatibility only.
98A new priority of 0 means to use the thread's current priority when
99it is made runnable again.
100If
101.Fa priority
102includes the
103.Dv PCATCH
104flag, signals are checked before and after sleeping, otherwise signals are
105not checked.
106If
107.Dv PCATCH
108is set and a signal needs to be delivered,
109.Er ERESTART
110is returned if the current system call should be restarted if
111possible, and
112.Er EINTR
113is returned if the system call should be interrupted by the signal
114(return
115.Er EINTR ) .
116.Pp
117The parameter
118.Fa wmesg
119is a string describing the sleep condition for tools like
120.Xr ps 1 .
121Due to the limited space of those programs to display arbitrary strings,
122this message should not be longer than 6 characters.
123.Pp
124The parameter
125.Fa timo
126specifies a timeout for the sleep.
127If
128.Fa timo
129is not 0,
130then the thread will sleep for at most
131.Fa timo No / Va hz
132seconds.
133If the timeout expires,
134then the sleep function will return
135.Er EWOULDBLOCK .
136.Pp
137Several of the sleep functions including
138.Fn msleep ,
139.Fn msleep_spin ,
140and the locking primitive sleep routines specify an additional lock
141parameter.
142The lock will be released before sleeping and reacquired
143before the sleep routine returns.
144If
145.Fa priority
146includes the
147.Dv PDROP
148flag, then
149the lock will not be reacquired before returning.
150The lock is used to ensure that a condition can be checked atomically,
151and that the current thread can be suspended without missing a
152change to the condition, or an associated wakeup.
153In addition, all of the sleep routines will fully drop the
154.Va Giant
155mutex
156(even if recursed)
157while the thread is suspended and will reacquire the
158.Va Giant
159mutex before the function returns.
160Note that the
161.Va Giant
162mutex may be specified as the lock to drop.
163In that case, however, the
164.Dv PDROP
165flag is not allowed.
166.Pp
167To avoid lost wakeups,
168either a lock should be used to protect against races,
169or a timeout should be specified to place an upper bound on the delay due
170to a lost wakeup.
171As a result,
172the
173.Fn tsleep
174function should only be invoked with a timeout of 0 when the
175.Va Giant
176mutex is held.
177.Pp
178The
179.Fn msleep
180function requires that
181.Fa mtx
182reference a default, i.e. non-spin, mutex.
183Its use is deprecated in favor of
184.Xr mtx_sleep 9
185which provides identical behavior.
186.Pp
187The
188.Fn msleep_spin
189function requires that
190.Fa mtx
191reference a spin mutex.
192The
193.Fn msleep_spin
194function does not accept a
195.Fa priority
196parameter and thus does not support changing the current thread's priority,
197the
198.Dv PDROP
199flag,
200or catching signals via the
201.Dv PCATCH
202flag.
203.Pp
204The
205.Fn pause
206function is a wrapper around
207.Fn tsleep
208that suspends execution of the current thread for the indicated timeout.
209The thread can not be awakened early by signals or calls to
210.Fn wakeup
211or
212.Fn wakeup_one .
213.Pp
214The
215.Fn wakeup_one
216function makes the first thread in the queue that is sleeping on the
217parameter
218.Fa chan
219runnable.
220This reduces the load when a large number of threads are sleeping on
221the same address, but only one of them can actually do any useful work
222when made runnable.
223.Pp
224Due to the way it works, the
225.Fn wakeup_one
226function requires that only related threads sleep on a specific
227.Fa chan
228address.
229It is the programmer's responsibility to choose a unique
230.Fa chan
231value.
232The older
233.Fn wakeup
234function did not require this, though it was never good practice
235for threads to share a
236.Fa chan
237value.
238When converting from
239.Fn wakeup
240to
241.Fn wakeup_one ,
242pay particular attention to ensure that no other threads wait on the
243same
244.Fa chan .
245.Sh RETURN VALUES
246If the thread is awakened by a call to
247.Fn wakeup
248or
249.Fn wakeup_one ,
250the
251.Fn msleep ,
252.Fn msleep_spin ,
253.Fn tsleep ,
254and locking primitive sleep functions return 0.
255Otherwise, a non-zero error code is returned.
256.Sh ERRORS
257.Fn msleep ,
258.Fn msleep_spin ,
259.Fn tsleep ,
260and the locking primitive sleep functions will fail if:
261.Bl -tag -width Er
262.It Bq Er EINTR
263The
264.Dv PCATCH
265flag was specified, a signal was caught, and the system call should be
266interrupted.
267.It Bq Er ERESTART
268The
269.Dv PCATCH
270flag was specified, a signal was caught, and the system call should be
271restarted.
272.It Bq Er EWOULDBLOCK
273A non-zero timeout was specified and the timeout expired.
274.El
275.Sh SEE ALSO
276.Xr ps 1 ,
277.Xr locking 9 ,
278.Xr malloc 9 ,
279.Xr mi_switch 9 ,
280.Xr mtx_sleep 9 ,
281.Xr rw_sleep 9 ,
282.Xr sx_sleep 9
283.Sh HISTORY
284The functions
285.Fn sleep
286and
287.Fn wakeup
288were present in
289.At v1 .
290They were probably also present in the preceding
291PDP-7 version of
292.Ux .
293They were the basic process synchronization model.
294.Pp
295The
296.Fn tsleep
297function appeared in
298.Bx 4.4
299and added the parameters
300.Fa wmesg
301and
302.Fa timo .
303The
304.Fn sleep
305function was removed in
306.Fx 2.2 .
307The
308.Fn wakeup_one
309function appeared in
310.Fx 2.2 .
311The
312.Fn msleep
313function appeared in
314.Fx 5.0 ,
315and the
316.Fn msleep_spin
317function appeared in
318.Fx 6.2 .
319The
320.Fn pause
321function appeared in
322.Fx 7.0 .
323.Sh AUTHORS
324.An -nosplit
325This manual page was written by
326.An J\(:org Wunsch Aq joerg@FreeBSD.org .
327