xref: /freebsd/share/man/man9/taskqueue.9 (revision c2bce4a2fcf3083607e00a1734b47c249751c8a8)
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31.Dd August 18, 2009
32.Dt TASKQUEUE 9
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm taskqueue
36.Nd asynchronous task execution
37.Sh SYNOPSIS
38.In sys/param.h
39.In sys/kernel.h
40.In sys/malloc.h
41.In sys/queue.h
42.In sys/taskqueue.h
43.Bd -literal
44typedef void (*task_fn_t)(void *context, int pending);
45
46typedef void (*taskqueue_enqueue_fn)(void *context);
47
48struct task {
49	STAILQ_ENTRY(task)	ta_link;	/* link for queue */
50	u_short			ta_pending;	/* count times queued */
51	u_short			ta_priority;	/* priority of task in queue */
52	task_fn_t		ta_func;	/* task handler */
53	void			*ta_context;	/* argument for handler */
54};
55.Ed
56.Ft struct taskqueue *
57.Fn taskqueue_create "const char *name" "int mflags" "taskqueue_enqueue_fn enqueue" "void *context"
58.Ft struct taskqueue *
59.Fn taskqueue_create_fast "const char *name" "int mflags" "taskqueue_enqueue_fn enqueue" "void *context"
60.Ft void
61.Fn taskqueue_free "struct taskqueue *queue"
62.Ft int
63.Fn taskqueue_enqueue "struct taskqueue *queue" "struct task *task"
64.Ft int
65.Fn taskqueue_enqueue_fast "struct taskqueue *queue" "struct task *task"
66.Ft int
67.Fn taskqueue_cancel "struct taskqueue *queue" "struct task *task" "u_int *pendp"
68.Ft void
69.Fn taskqueue_drain "struct taskqueue *queue" "struct task *task"
70.Ft int
71.Fn taskqueue_member "struct taskqueue *queue" "struct thread *td"
72.Ft void
73.Fn taskqueue_run "struct taskqueue *queue"
74.Fn TASK_INIT "struct task *task" "int priority" "task_fn_t *func" "void *context"
75.Fn TASKQUEUE_DECLARE "name"
76.Fn TASKQUEUE_DEFINE "name" "taskqueue_enqueue_fn enqueue" "void *context" "init"
77.Fn TASKQUEUE_FAST_DEFINE "name" "taskqueue_enqueue_fn enqueue" "void *context" "init"
78.Fn TASKQUEUE_DEFINE_THREAD "name"
79.Fn TASKQUEUE_FAST_DEFINE_THREAD "name"
80.Sh DESCRIPTION
81These functions provide a simple interface for asynchronous execution
82of code.
83.Pp
84The function
85.Fn taskqueue_create
86is used to create new queues.
87The arguments to
88.Fn taskqueue_create
89include a name that should be unique,
90a set of
91.Xr malloc 9
92flags that specify whether the call to
93.Fn malloc
94is allowed to sleep,
95a function that is called from
96.Fn taskqueue_enqueue
97when a task is added to the queue,
98and a pointer to the memory location where the identity of the
99thread that services the queue is recorded.
100.\" XXX	The rest of the sentence gets lots in relation to the first part.
101The function called from
102.Fn taskqueue_enqueue
103must arrange for the queue to be processed
104(for instance by scheduling a software interrupt or waking a kernel
105thread).
106The memory location where the thread identity is recorded is used
107to signal the service thread(s) to terminate--when this value is set to
108zero and the thread is signaled it will terminate.
109If the queue is intended for use in fast interrupt handlers
110.Fn taskqueue_create_fast
111should be used in place of
112.Fn taskqueue_create .
113.Pp
114The function
115.Fn taskqueue_free
116should be used to free the memory used by the queue.
117Any tasks that are on the queue will be executed at this time after
118which the thread servicing the queue will be signaled that it should exit.
119.Pp
120To add a task to the list of tasks queued on a taskqueue, call
121.Fn taskqueue_enqueue
122with pointers to the queue and task.
123If the task's
124.Va ta_pending
125field is non-zero,
126then it is simply incremented to reflect the number of times the task
127was enqueued.
128Otherwise,
129the task is added to the list before the first task which has a lower
130.Va ta_priority
131value or at the end of the list if no tasks have a lower priority.
132Enqueueing a task does not perform any memory allocation which makes
133it suitable for calling from an interrupt handler.
134This function will return
135.Er EPIPE
136if the queue is being freed.
137.Pp
138The function
139.Fn taskqueue_enqueue_fast
140should be used in place of
141.Fn taskqueue_enqueue
142when the enqueuing must happen from a fast interrupt handler.
143This method uses spin locks to avoid the possibility of sleeping in the fast
144interrupt context.
145.Pp
146When a task is executed,
147first it is removed from the queue,
148the value of
149.Va ta_pending
150is recorded and then the field is zeroed.
151The function
152.Va ta_func
153from the task structure is called with the value of the field
154.Va ta_context
155as its first argument
156and the value of
157.Va ta_pending
158as its second argument.
159After the function
160.Va ta_func
161returns,
162.Xr wakeup 9
163is called on the task pointer passed to
164.Fn taskqueue_enqueue .
165.Pp
166The
167.Fn taskqueue_cancel
168function is used to cancel a task.
169The
170.Va ta_pending
171count is cleared, and the old value returned in the reference
172parameter
173.Fa pendp ,
174if it is non- Dv NULL .
175If the task is currently running,
176.Dv EBUSY
177is returned, otherwise 0.
178To implement a blocking
179.Fn taskqueue_cancel
180that waits for a running task to finish, it could look like:
181.Bd -literal -offset indent
182while (taskqueue_cancel(tq, task, NULL) != 0)
183	taskqueue_drain(tq, task);
184.Ed
185.Pp
186Note that, as with
187.Fn taskqueue_drain ,
188the caller is responsible for ensuring that the task is not re-enqueued
189after being canceled.
190.Pp
191The
192.Fn taskqueue_drain
193function is used to wait for the task to finish.
194There is no guarantee that the task will not be
195enqueued after call to
196.Fn taskqueue_drain .
197.Pp
198The
199.Fn taskqueue_member
200function returns
201.No 1
202if the given thread
203.Fa td
204is part of the given taskqueue
205.Fa queue
206and
207.No 0
208otherwise.
209.Pp
210The
211.Fn taskqueue_run
212function will run all pending tasks in the specified
213.Fa queue .
214Normally this function is only used internally.
215.Pp
216A convenience macro,
217.Fn TASK_INIT "task" "priority" "func" "context"
218is provided to initialise a
219.Va task
220structure.
221The values of
222.Va priority ,
223.Va func ,
224and
225.Va context
226are simply copied into the task structure fields and the
227.Va ta_pending
228field is cleared.
229.Pp
230Five macros
231.Fn TASKQUEUE_DECLARE "name" ,
232.Fn TASKQUEUE_DEFINE "name" "enqueue" "context" "init" ,
233.Fn TASKQUEUE_FAST_DEFINE "name" "enqueue" "context" "init" ,
234and
235.Fn TASKQUEUE_DEFINE_THREAD "name"
236.Fn TASKQUEUE_FAST_DEFINE_THREAD "name"
237are used to declare a reference to a global queue, to define the
238implementation of the queue, and declare a queue that uses its own thread.
239The
240.Fn TASKQUEUE_DEFINE
241macro arranges to call
242.Fn taskqueue_create
243with the values of its
244.Va name ,
245.Va enqueue
246and
247.Va context
248arguments during system initialisation.
249After calling
250.Fn taskqueue_create ,
251the
252.Va init
253argument to the macro is executed as a C statement,
254allowing any further initialisation to be performed
255(such as registering an interrupt handler etc.)
256.Pp
257The
258.Fn TASKQUEUE_DEFINE_THREAD
259macro defines a new taskqueue with its own kernel thread to serve tasks.
260The variable
261.Vt struct taskqueue *taskqueue_name
262is used to enqueue tasks onto the queue.
263.Pp
264.Fn TASKQUEUE_FAST_DEFINE
265and
266.Fn TASKQUEUE_FAST_DEFINE_THREAD
267act just like
268.Fn TASKQUEUE_DEFINE
269and
270.Fn TASKQUEUE_DEFINE_THREAD
271respectively but taskqueue is created with
272.Fn taskqueue_create_fast .
273.Ss Predefined Task Queues
274The system provides four global taskqueues,
275.Va taskqueue_fast ,
276.Va taskqueue_swi ,
277.Va taskqueue_swi_giant ,
278and
279.Va taskqueue_thread .
280The
281.Va taskqueue_fast
282queue is for swi handlers dispatched from fast interrupt handlers,
283where sleep mutexes cannot be used.
284The swi taskqueues are run via a software interrupt mechanism.
285The
286.Va taskqueue_swi
287queue runs without the protection of the
288.Va Giant
289kernel lock, and the
290.Va taskqueue_swi_giant
291queue runs with the protection of the
292.Va Giant
293kernel lock.
294The thread taskqueue
295.Va taskqueue_thread
296runs in a kernel thread context, and tasks run from this thread do
297not run under the
298.Va Giant
299kernel lock.
300If the caller wants to run under
301.Va Giant ,
302he should explicitly acquire and release
303.Va Giant
304in his taskqueue handler routine.
305.Pp
306To use these queues,
307call
308.Fn taskqueue_enqueue
309with the value of the global taskqueue variable for the queue you wish to
310use
311.Va ( taskqueue_swi ,
312.Va taskqueue_swi_giant ,
313or
314.Va taskqueue_thread ) .
315Use
316.Fn taskqueue_enqueue_fast
317for the global taskqueue variable
318.Va taskqueue_fast .
319.Pp
320The software interrupt queues can be used,
321for instance, for implementing interrupt handlers which must perform a
322significant amount of processing in the handler.
323The hardware interrupt handler would perform minimal processing of the
324interrupt and then enqueue a task to finish the work.
325This reduces to a minimum
326the amount of time spent with interrupts disabled.
327.Pp
328The thread queue can be used, for instance, by interrupt level routines
329that need to call kernel functions that do things that can only be done
330from a thread context.
331(e.g., call malloc with the M_WAITOK flag.)
332.Pp
333Note that tasks queued on shared taskqueues such as
334.Va taskqueue_swi
335may be delayed an indeterminate amount of time before execution.
336If queueing delays cannot be tolerated then a private taskqueue should
337be created with a dedicated processing thread.
338.Sh SEE ALSO
339.Xr ithread 9 ,
340.Xr kthread 9 ,
341.Xr swi 9
342.Sh HISTORY
343This interface first appeared in
344.Fx 5.0 .
345There is a similar facility called tqueue in the Linux kernel.
346.Sh AUTHORS
347This manual page was written by
348.An Doug Rabson .
349