1 Userspace RCU Implementation
2 ============================
4 by Mathieu Desnoyers and Paul E. McKenney
10 ./bootstrap # skip if using tarball
18 - Forcing 32-bit build:
20 CFLAGS="-m32 -g -O2" ./configure
22 - Forcing 64-bit build:
24 CFLAGS="-m64 -g -O2" ./configure
26 - Forcing a 32-bit build with 386 backward compatibility:
28 CFLAGS="-m32 -g -O2" ./configure --host=i386-pc-linux-gnu
30 - Forcing a 32-bit build for Sparcv9 (typical for Sparc v9)
32 CFLAGS="-m32 -Wa,-Av9a -g -O2" ./configure
35 Architectures supported
36 -----------------------
38 Currently, the following architectures are supported:
40 - Linux x86 (i386, i486, i586, i686)
52 Tested on Linux, FreeBSD 8.2/8.3/9.0/9.1/10.0 i386/amd64, and Cygwin.
60 (more testing needed before claiming support for these OS).
62 Linux ARM depends on running a Linux kernel 2.6.15 or better, GCC 4.4 or
65 The GCC compiler versions 3.3, 3.4, 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4 and 4.5 are
66 supported, with the following exceptions:
68 - GCC 3.3 and 3.4 have a bug that prevents them from generating volatile
69 accesses to offsets in a TLS structure on 32-bit x86. These versions are
70 therefore not compatible with `liburcu` on x86 32-bit
71 (i386, i486, i586, i686).
72 The problem has been reported to the GCC community:
73 http://www.mail-archive.com/gcc-bugs@gcc.gnu.org/msg281255.html
74 - GCC 3.3 cannot match the "xchg" instruction on 32-bit x86 build.
75 See http://kerneltrap.org/node/7507
76 - Alpha, ia64 and ARM architectures depend on GCC 4.x with atomic builtins
77 support. For ARM this was introduced with GCC 4.4:
78 http://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-4.4/changes.html.
80 Clang version 3.0 (based on LLVM 3.0) is supported.
82 Building on MacOS X (Darwin) requires a work-around for processor
87 ./configure --build=i686-apple-darwin11
91 ./configure --build=x86_64-apple-darwin11
93 For developers using the Git tree:
95 This source tree is based on the autotools suite from GNU to simplify
96 portability. Here are some things you should have on your system in order to
97 compile the git repository tree :
99 - GNU autotools (automake >=1.10, autoconf >=2.50, autoheader >=2.50)
100 (make sure your system wide `automake` points to a recent version!)
102 (for more information, go to http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/)
104 If you get the tree from the repository, you will need to use the `bootstrap`
105 script in the root of the tree. It calls all the GNU tools needed to prepare
106 the tree configuration.
108 Test scripts provided in the `tests/` directory of the source tree depend
109 on `bash` and the `seq` program.
115 See the relevant API documentation files in `doc/`. The APIs provided by
116 Userspace RCU are, by prefix:
118 - `rcu_`: Read-Copy Update (see [`doc/rcu-api.md`](doc/rcu-api.md))
119 - `cmm_`: Concurrent Memory Model
120 - `caa_`: Concurrent Architecture Abstraction
121 - `cds_`: Concurrent Data Structures
122 (see [`doc/cds-api.md`](doc/cds-api.md))
123 - `uatomic_`: Userspace Atomic
124 (see [`doc/uatomic-api.md`](doc/uatomic-api.md))
130 ### Usage of all urcu libraries:
132 - Define `_LGPL_SOURCE` (only) if your code is LGPL or GPL compatible
133 before including the `urcu.h` or `urcu-qsbr.h` header. If your application
134 is distributed under another license, function calls will be generated
135 instead of inlines, so your application can link with the library.
136 - Linking with one of the libraries below is always necessary even for
137 LGPL and GPL applications.
138 - Define `URCU_INLINE_SMALL_FUNCTIONS` before including Userspace RCU
139 headers if you want Userspace RCU to inline small functions (10
140 lines or less) into the application. It can be used by applications
141 distributed under any kind of license, and does *not* make the
142 application a derived work of Userspace RCU.
144 Those small inlined functions are guaranteed to match the library
145 content as long as the library major version is unchanged.
146 Therefore, the application *must* be compiled with headers matching
147 the library major version number. Applications using
148 `URCU_INLINE_SMALL_FUNCTIONS` may be unable to use debugging
149 features of Userspace RCU without being recompiled.
152 ### Usage of `liburcu`
154 1. `#include <urcu.h>`
155 2. Link the application with `-lurcu`
157 This is the preferred version of the library, in terms of
158 grace-period detection speed, read-side speed and flexibility.
159 Dynamically detects kernel support for `sys_membarrier()`. Falls back
160 on `urcu-mb` scheme if support is not present, which has slower
164 ### Usage of `liburcu-qsbr`
166 1. `#include <urcu-qsbr.h>`
167 2. Link with `-lurcu-qsbr`
169 The QSBR flavor of RCU needs to have each reader thread executing
170 `rcu_quiescent_state()` periodically to progress. `rcu_thread_online()`
171 and `rcu_thread_offline()` can be used to mark long periods for which
172 the threads are not active. It provides the fastest read-side at the
173 expense of more intrusiveness in the application code.
176 ### Usage of `liburcu-mb`
178 1. `#include <urcu.h>`
179 2. Compile any `_LGPL_SOURCE` code using this library with `-DRCU_MB`
180 3. Link with `-lurcu-mb`
182 This version of the urcu library uses memory barriers on the writer
183 and reader sides. This results in faster grace-period detection, but
184 results in slower reads.
187 ### Usage of `liburcu-signal`
189 1. `#include <urcu.h>`
190 2. Compile any `_LGPL_SOURCE` code using this library with `-DRCU_SIGNAL`
191 3. Link the application with `-lurcu-signal`
193 Version of the library that requires a signal, typically `SIGUSR1`. Can
194 be overridden with `-DSIGRCU` by modifying `Makefile.build.inc`.
197 ### Usage of `liburcu-bp`
199 1. `#include <urcu-bp.h>`
200 2. Link with `-lurcu-bp`
202 The BP library flavor stands for "bulletproof". It is specifically
203 designed to help tracing library to hook on applications without
204 requiring to modify these applications. `rcu_init()`,
205 `rcu_register_thread()` and `rcu_unregister_thread()` all become nops.
206 The state is dealt with by the library internally at the expense of
207 read-side and write-side performance.
212 Each thread that has reader critical sections (that uses
213 `rcu_read_lock()`/`rcu_read_unlock()` must first register to the URCU
214 library. This is done by calling `rcu_register_thread()`. Unregistration
215 must be performed before exiting the thread by using
216 `rcu_unregister_thread()`.
221 Reader critical sections must be protected by locating them between
222 calls to `rcu_read_lock()` and `rcu_read_unlock()`. Inside that lock,
223 `rcu_dereference()` may be called to read an RCU protected pointer.
228 `rcu_assign_pointer()` and `rcu_xchg_pointer()` may be called anywhere.
229 After, `synchronize_rcu()` must be called. When it returns, the old
230 values are not in usage anymore.
233 ### Usage of `liburcu-defer`
235 - Follow instructions for either `liburcu`, `liburcu-qsbr`,
236 `liburcu-mb`, `liburcu-signal`, or `liburcu-bp` above.
237 The `liburcu-defer` functionality is pulled into each of
238 those library modules.
239 - Provides `defer_rcu()` primitive to enqueue delayed callbacks. Queued
240 callbacks are executed in batch periodically after a grace period.
241 Do _not_ use `defer_rcu()` within a read-side critical section, because
242 it may call `synchronize_rcu()` if the thread queue is full.
243 This can lead to deadlock or worse.
244 - Requires that `rcu_defer_barrier()` must be called in library destructor
245 if a library queues callbacks and is expected to be unloaded with
248 Its API is currently experimental. It may change in future library releases.
251 ### Usage of `urcu-call-rcu`
253 - Follow instructions for either `liburcu`, `liburcu-qsbr`,
254 `liburcu-mb`, `liburcu-signal`, or `liburcu-bp` above.
255 The `urcu-call-rcu` functionality is pulled into each of
256 those library modules.
257 - Provides the `call_rcu()` primitive to enqueue delayed callbacks
258 in a manner similar to `defer_rcu()`, but without ever delaying
259 for a grace period. On the other hand, `call_rcu()`'s best-case
260 overhead is not quite as good as that of `defer_rcu()`.
261 - Provides `call_rcu()` to allow asynchronous handling of RCU
262 grace periods. A number of additional functions are provided
263 to manage the helper threads used by `call_rcu()`, but reasonable
264 defaults are used if these additional functions are not invoked.
265 See [`doc/rcu-api.md`](doc/rcu-api.md) in userspace-rcu documentation
269 ### Being careful with signals
271 The `liburcu` library uses signals internally. The signal handler is
272 registered with the `SA_RESTART` flag. However, these signals may cause
273 some non-restartable system calls to fail with `errno = EINTR`. Care
274 should be taken to restart system calls manually if they fail with this
275 error. A list of non-restartable system calls may be found in
276 `signal(7)`. The `liburcu-mb` and `liburcu-qsbr` versions of the Userspace RCU
277 library do not require any signal.
279 Read-side critical sections are allowed in a signal handler,
280 except those setup with `sigaltstack(2)`, with `liburcu` and
281 `liburcu-mb`. Be careful, however, to disable these signals
282 between thread creation and calls to `rcu_register_thread()`, because a
283 signal handler nesting on an unregistered thread would not be
284 allowed to call `rcu_read_lock()`.
286 Read-side critical sections are _not_ allowed in a signal handler with
287 `liburcu-qsbr`, unless signals are disabled explicitly around each
288 `rcu_quiescent_state()` calls, when threads are put offline and around
289 calls to `synchronize_rcu()`. Even then, we do not recommend it.
292 ### Interaction with mutexes
294 One must be careful to do not cause deadlocks due to interaction of
295 `synchronize_rcu()` and RCU read-side with mutexes. If `synchronize_rcu()`
296 is called with a mutex held, this mutex (or any mutex which has this
297 mutex in its dependency chain) should not be acquired from within a RCU
298 read-side critical section.
300 This is especially important to understand in the context of the
301 QSBR flavor: a registered reader thread being "online" by
302 default should be considered as within a RCU read-side critical
303 section unless explicitly put "offline". Therefore, if
304 `synchronize_rcu()` is called with a mutex held, this mutex, as
305 well as any mutex which has this mutex in its dependency chain
306 should only be taken when the RCU reader thread is "offline"
307 (this can be performed by calling `rcu_thread_offline()`).
310 ### Interaction with `fork()`
312 Special care must be taken for applications performing `fork()` without
313 any following `exec()`. This is caused by the fact that Linux only clones
314 the thread calling `fork()`, and thus never replicates any of the other
315 parent thread into the child process. Most `liburcu` implementations
316 require that all registrations (as reader, `defer_rcu` and `call_rcu`
317 threads) should be released before a `fork()` is performed, except for the
318 rather common scenario where `fork()` is immediately followed by `exec()` in
319 the child process. The only implementation not subject to that rule is
320 `liburcu-bp`, which is designed to handle `fork()` by calling
321 `rcu_bp_before_fork`, `rcu_bp_after_fork_parent` and
322 `rcu_bp_after_fork_child`.
324 Applications that use `call_rcu()` and that `fork()` without
325 doing an immediate `exec()` must take special action. The parent
326 must invoke `call_rcu_before_fork()` before the `fork()` and
327 `call_rcu_after_fork_parent()` after the `fork()`. The child
328 process must invoke `call_rcu_after_fork_child()`.
329 Even though these three APIs are suitable for passing to
330 `pthread_atfork()`, use of `pthread_atfork()` is **STRONGLY
331 DISCOURAGED** for programs calling the glibc memory allocator
332 (`malloc()`, `calloc()`, `free()`, ...) within `call_rcu` callbacks.
333 This is due to limitations in the way glibc memory allocator
334 handles calls to the memory allocator from concurrent threads
335 while the `pthread_atfork()` handlers are executing.
339 - call to `free()` from callbacks executed within `call_rcu` worker
341 - executing `call_rcu` atfork handlers within the glibc pthread
344 will sometimes trigger interesting process hangs. This usually
345 hangs on a memory allocator lock within glibc.
348 ### Thread Local Storage (TLS)
350 Userspace RCU can fall back on `pthread_getspecific()` to emulate
351 TLS variables on systems where it is not available. This behavior
352 can be forced by specifying `--disable-compiler-tls` as configure
356 ### Usage of `DEBUG_RCU`
358 `DEBUG_RCU` is used to add internal debugging self-checks to the
359 RCU library. This define adds a performance penalty when enabled.
360 Can be enabled by uncommenting the corresponding line in
361 `Makefile.build.inc`.
364 ### Usage of `DEBUG_YIELD`
366 `DEBUG_YIELD` is used to add random delays in the code for testing
372 By default the library is configured to use synchronization primitives
373 adequate for SMP systems. On uniprocessor systems, support for SMP
374 systems can be disabled with:
376 ./configure --disable-smp-support
378 theoretically yielding slightly better performance.
384 In addition to the usual `make check` target, Userspace RCU features
385 `make regtest` and `make bench` targets:
387 - `make check`: short tests, meant to be run when rebuilding or
388 porting Userspace RCU.
389 - `make regtest`: long (many hours) test, meant to be run when
390 modifying Userspace RCU or porting it to a new architecture or
392 - `make bench`: long (many hours) benchmarks.
398 You can contact the maintainers on the following mailing list:
399 `lttng-dev@lists.lttng.org`.