xref: /illumos-gate/usr/src/lib/libc/README (revision 7c478bd95313f5f23a4c958a745db2134aa03244)

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The Solaris Process Model Unification project:
	PSARC/2002/117 Solaris Process Model Unification
	4470917 Solaris Process Model Unification
folded libthread into libc and has led to some fundamental changes
in the rules by which code in libc must be developed and maintained.

All code in libc must be both MT-Safe and Fork-Safe
and where possible (almost everywhere), Async-Signal-Safe.

To this end, the following rules should be followed:

Almost all internal libc locks (mutexes and read-write locks)
should be acquired and released via these interfaces:

	mutex_t some_lock = DEFAULTMUTEX;

	lmutex_lock(&some_lock);
	... do something critical ...
	lmutex_unlock(&some_lock);

	rwlock_t some_rw_lock = DEFAULTRWLOCK;

	lrw_rdlock(&some_rw_lock);
	... multiple threads can do something ...
	lrw_unlock(&some_rw_lock);

	lrw_wrlock(&some_rw_lock);
	... only one thread can do something ...
	lrw_unlock(&some_rw_lock);

The above l* versions of the mutex and rwlock interfaces do more
than the ordinary interfaces:  They define critical regions in
which the calling thread cannot be suspended (making the region
fork-safe) and in which the calling thread has all signals deferred
(making the region async-signal-safe).

However, certain rules apply to the code within these critical regions:

	- The code must be of guaranteed short duration; no
	  calls to interfaces that might block indefinitely are
	  allowed.  This means no calls into stdio or syslog().

	- The code cannot call any non-l* synchronization
	  primitives (mutex_lock(), _private_mutex_lock(),
	  rw_wrlock(), rw_rdlock(), sema_wait(), etc.)

	- The code cannot call any functions outside of libc,
	  including application callbacks and functions from
	  dlopen()ed objects, such as those in the I18N code.

	- Because malloc(), calloc(), realloc(), and free()
	  are designed to be interposed upon, they fall into
	  the previous case of prohibition.  None of these can
	  be called by a thread while in a critical region.

There is a private memory allocator for use internally to libc.
It cannot be interposed upon and it is safe to use while in
a critical region (or for that matter while not in a critical
region; it is async-signal-safe and fork-safe):

	void *lmalloc(size_t);
	void lfree(void *, size_t);

	void *libc_malloc(size_t);
	void *libc_realloc(void *, size_t);
	char *libc_strdup(const char *);
	void libc_free(void *);

lmalloc() and lfree() are the basic interfaces.  The libc_*()
variants are built on top of lmalloc()/lfree() but they have
the same interface signatures as the corresponding functions
without the 'libc_' prefix.  lmalloc() and libc_malloc()
return zeroed memory blocks.  Note that lmalloc()/lfree()
require the caller to remember the size parameter passed
to lmalloc() and to pass the same value to lfree().

Memory allocated by lmalloc() can only be freed by lfree().
Memory allocated by libc_malloc(), libc_realloc(), or libc_strdup()
can only be freed by libc_free().  Never pass such allocated
memory out of libc if the caller of libc is expected to free it.

lmalloc()/lfree() is a small and simple power of two allocator.
Do not use it as a general-purpose allocator.  Be kind to it.

There is a special mutual exclusion interface that exists for
cases, like code in the I18N interfaces, where mutual exclusion
is required but the above rules cannot be followed:

	int fork_lock_enter(const char *);
	void fork_lock_exit(void);

fork_lock_enter() does triple-duty.  Not only does it serialize
calls to fork() and forkall(), but it also serializes calls to
thr_suspend() (fork() and forkall() also suspend other threads),
and furthermore it serializes I18N calls to functions in other
dlopen()ed L10N objects that might be calling malloc()/free().
Use it in general like this:

	(void) fork_lock_enter(NULL);
	... serialized; do something that might call malloc ...
	fork_lock_exit();

The 'const char *' argument to fork_lock_enter() should always
be NULL except for two special cases:
	- When called from fork() or forkall()
	- When called from pthread_atfork()
This enforces the prohibition against calling fork() or pthread_atfork()
from a pthread_atfork()-registered fork handler function while a fork()
prologue or epilogue is in progress.  If _THREAD_ERROR_DETECTION is set
to 1 or 2 in the environment, such cases will draw a nasty message and
will dump core if _THREAD_ERROR_DETECTION=2.  fork_lock_enter() returns
non-zero only if it is called from a fork handler.  This is of interest
only to callers that have to do something about this condition; the
return value should be ignored in all other cases (fork_lock_enter()
never actually fails).

It is an error to call fork_lock_enter() while in a critical region
(that is, while holding any internal libc lock).

On return from fork_lock_enter(), no internal libc locks are held
but a flag has been set to cause other callers of fork_lock_enter()
to delay (via _cond_wait()) until fork_lock_exit() is called.

These are the rules to follow for memory allocation:

  - If a function acquires an internal libc lock or is called while
    an internal libc lock is held:

	* The malloc family cannot be used.

	* lmalloc or libc_malloc should be used.  The memory must
	  be released by lfree or libc_free, respectively.

	* lfree takes an argument to tell the size of the releasing
	  memory.  If the function does not know the size at the
	  releasing point, libc_malloc and libc_free should be used.

	* As the memory allocated by lmalloc or libc_malloc needs
	  to be released by lfree or libc_free and these are internal
	  to libc, they cannot be used to allocate memory that might
	  be released by application code outside libc.

	* If the memory allocation by malloc() cannot be avoided and
	  the scalability of the function does not matter much, the
	  function can be serialized with fork_lock_enter() instead
	  of lmutex_lock().

	* If the memory allocation by malloc() cannot be avoided and
	  the scalability of the function does matter, another
	  implementation of the function will be necessary.

In a DEBUG build of libc:
	make THREAD_DEBUG=-DTHREAD_DEBUG install
many of these rules are enforced by ASSERT() statements scattered about
in the libc sources.  This is the default mode for building libc when
a DEBUG nightly build is performed.

-----

Some i18n code cannot be distributed as open source.  To enable the rest of
libc to be distributed as open source, those i18n files now live in a
separate libc_i18n directory.  Those source files are position-independently
compiled and are archived into the libc_i18n.a library.  The libc_i18n.a
archive library is installed into the $(ROOTFS_LIBDIR) and
$(ROOTFS_LIBDIR64) directories.  During link phase, libc.so.1 links with
libc_i18n.a in the proto area.  Therefore, the build of the libc_i18n tree
needs to be done before the build of the libc tree.  Also the compilation
conditions such as the setting of CFLAGS and CPPFLAGS for the libc_i18n
stuff need to be compatible with the ones for the libc stuff.  Whenever
changes that affect the compilation conditions of libc occur, the changes
should be propagated to libc_i18n.