NAME
psref
—
passive references
SYNOPSIS
#include
<sys/psref.h>
struct psref_class *
psref_class_create
(const
char *name, int
ipl);
void
psref_class_destroy
(struct
psref_class *class);
void
psref_target_init
(struct
psref_target *target,
struct psref_class
*class);
void
psref_target_destroy
(struct
psref_target *target,
struct psref_class
*class);
void
psref_acquire
(struct
psref *ref, const struct
psref_target *target,
struct psref_class
*class);
void
psref_release
(struct
psref *ref, const struct
psref_target *target,
struct psref_class
*class);
void
psref_copy
(struct
psref *pto, const struct
psref *pfrom, struct
psref_class *class);
#ifdef DIAGNOSTIC
bool
psref_held
(const
struct psref_target *target,
struct psref_class
*class);
#endif
DESCRIPTION
The psref
abstraction allows CPUs to
cheaply acquire and release
passive
references to a resource, which guarantee the resource will not be
destroyed until the reference is released. Acquiring and releasing passive
references requires no interprocessor synchronization, except when the
resource is pending destruction.
Passive references are an intermediate between pserialize(9) and reference counting:
- pserialize(9) read sections require no interprocessor synchronization, but must be of short duration, and may not sleep. A pserialize(9) read section blocks soft interrupts on the local CPU until it is complete.
- Reference counting requires interprocessor synchronization via atomic_ops(3) or mutex(9). However, with reference counting, a reference may be held for arbitrary durations, may be transferred between owners across CPUs and threads, and may be held by a caller that sleeps.
Passive references share some properties of both: passive references avoid interprocessor synchronization, and do not block soft interrupts, but can be held by a caller that sleeps. However, a caller holding a passive reference may not transfer it from one LWP to another, and the caller's LWP must be bound to a single CPU while it holds any passive references.
Thus, passive references are useful for incrementally parallelizing resources whose operations may sleep, such as in the network stack, before comprehensively removing sleeps from the code paths involved.
Resources to which callers may hold passive
references are called
targets, and must
contain an embedded struct psref_target object,
initialized with
psref_target_init
().
When a caller wants to guarantee that a
resource will not be destroyed until it is done, it must allocate storage
for a struct psref object, find the
struct psref_target for the resource it seeks, and use
psref_acquire
()
to acquire a passive reference. When a caller is done with the resource, it
must release the resource with psref_release
().
When a resource is about to go away, its
passive reference target must be passed to
psref_target_destroy
()
to wait until all extant passive references are released; then the resource
itself may be freed.
struct psref_target and struct psref objects must be allocated by the caller, but they should be treated as opaque and should not be inspected or copied.
Passive reference targets are grouped into classes, represented by an opaque struct psref_class object, e.g. the class of all network routes, or the class of all file systems mount points, which may be needed at different interrupt priority levels.
FUNCTIONS
psref_class_create
(name, ipl)- Create a passive reference class with the given name and interrupt
priority level, and return an opaque pointer describing it. The name must
be at most eight characters long, and will be shown in utilities such as
ps(1)
for threads that are waiting to destroy passive reference targets. On
failure, return
NULL
instead. psref_class_destroy
(class)- Destroy a passive reference class created with
psref_class_create
(). There must be no more passive references in this class. psref_target_init
(target, class)- Initialize a passive reference target in a struct
psref_target object allocated by the caller in the given class.
The caller must issue a membar_producer(3) after calling
psref_target_init
() and before publishing a pointer to the target so that other CPUs can see it, e.g. by inserting it into a pslist(9). psref_target_destroy
(target, class)- Wait for all extant passive references to target on
all CPUs to be released, and then destroy it. The passive reference target
target must have been initialized with
psref_target_init
() in the same class. May sleep.The caller must guarantee that no new references to target will be acquired once it calls
psref_target_destroy
(), e.g. by removing the target from a pslist(9) and calling pserialize_perform(9) to wait for pserialize(9) readers to complete.No further use of the target is allowed unless it is reinitialized with
psref_target_init
(). Multiple concurrent calls topsref_target_destroy
() are not allowed. psref_acquire
(ref, target, class)- Acquire a passive reference to target, storing
per-CPU bookkeeping in ref. The class of
target must be class.
The caller must ensure by some other mechanism than passive references that the target will not be destroyed before the call to
psref_acquire
(); typically this will be via a pserialize(9) read section.The caller's LWP must be bound to a CPU.
psref_release
(ref, target, class)- Release the passive reference ref, which must have
been acquired to point at target in the class
class, waking a thread calling
psref_target_destroy
() if any.Further use of the resource represented by target is not allowed, unless it is re-acquired in the same way that it was originally acquired.
psref_copy
(pto, pfrom, class)- Copy the passive reference pfrom to pto, which must be to a target in class. The resource represented by the target of the passive references will not be destroyed before both references are released.
psref_held
(target, class)- Return true if the current CPU holds a passive reference to
target in the passive reference class
class, or false if not.
This does not answer about other CPUs — it does not tell you whether any CPU holds a passive reference to target.
This may be used only in assertions, e.g. with KASSERT(9), not for making run-time decisions. This should be used only for positive assertions, as in
KASSERT(psref_held(
target, class))
, not for negative assertions, as inKASSERT(!psref_held(
target, class))
, unless you are sure you can prove that no caller holds a reference either.
EXAMPLES
struct frotz { int f_key; ... struct pslist_entry f_entry; struct psref_target f_target; }; static struct { kmutex_t lock; struct pslist_head list; } frobbotzim __cacheline_aligned; static pserialize_t frobbotzim_psz __read_mostly; static struct psref_class *frobbotzim_prc __read_mostly; void publish_as_frotz(uint64_t key, ...) { struct frotz *f; f = kmem_alloc(sizeof(*f), KM_SLEEP); f->f_key = key; f->f_... = ...; PSLIST_ENTRY_INIT(f, f_entry); psref_target_init(&f->f_target, frobbotzim_prc); mutex_enter(&frobbotzim.lock); PSLIST_WRITER_INSERT_HEAD(&frobbotzim.list, f, f_entry); mutex_exit(&frobbotzim.lock); } int use_frotz(int key, int op) { struct frotz *f; struct psref ref; /* Acquire a passive reference. */ if ((f = lookup_frotz(key, &ref)) == NULL) return ENOENT; /* Do something that may sleep. */ do_stuff_with_frotz(f, op); /* Release passive reference, possibly waking destroy_frotz. */ psref_release(&ref, &f->f_psref, frobbotzim_prc); return 0; } struct frotz * lookup_frotz(int key, struct psref *ref) { struct frotz *f; int s; /* Look up a frotz in a pserialized list. */ s = pserialize_read_enter(); PSLIST_READER_FOREACH(f, &frobbotzim.list, struct frotz, f_next) { /* f is stable until pserialize_read_exit. */ if (f->f_key == key) { /* Acquire a passive reference. */ psref_acquire(ref, &f->f_target, frobbotzim_prc); /* f is now stable until psref_release. */ break; } } pserialize_read_exit(s); return f; } void destroy_frotz(int key) { struct frotz *f; /* Look up and delete a frotz. */ mutex_enter(&frobbotzim.lock); PSLIST_WRITER_FOREACH(f, &frobbotzim.list, struct frotz, f_entry) { if (f->f_key == key) { /* * Unlink the frotz from the list to stop new * pserialize read sections from seeing it. */ PSLIST_WRITER_REMOVE(f, f_entry); /* * Wait until extant pserialize read sections * have completed. */ pserialize_perform(frobbotzim_psz); break; } } mutex_exit(&frobbotzim.lock); if (f != NULL) { /* Wait for all readers to drain before freeing. */ psref_target_destroy(&f->f_target, frobbotzim_prc); PSLIST_ENTRY_DESTROY(f, f_entry); kmem_free(f, sizeof(*f)); } }
CODE REFERENCES
The psref
abstraction is implemented in
sys/kern/subr_psref.c.
SEE ALSO
HISTORY
The psref
data structure first appeared in
NetBSD 8.0.
AUTHORS
Taylor R Campbell <riastradh@NetBSD.org>