aboutsummaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/src/vlib/vlib_process_doc.h
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to 'src/vlib/vlib_process_doc.h')
-rw-r--r--src/vlib/vlib_process_doc.h147
1 files changed, 147 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/src/vlib/vlib_process_doc.h b/src/vlib/vlib_process_doc.h
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..a47c5e4bbe4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/vlib/vlib_process_doc.h
@@ -0,0 +1,147 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (c) 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates.
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at:
+ *
+ * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+*/
+
+#error do not #include this file!
+
+/** \file
+
+ Cooperative multi-tasking thread support.
+
+ Vlib provides a lightweight cooperative multi-tasking thread
+ model. Context switching costs a setjmp/longjump pair. It's not
+ unreasonable to put vlib threads to sleep for 10us.
+
+ The graph node scheduler invokes these processes in much the same
+ way as traditional vector-processing run-to-completion graph
+ nodes; plus-or-minus a setjmp/longjmp pair required to switch
+ stacks. Simply set the vlib_node_registration_t type field to
+ VLIB_NODE_TYPE_PROCESS. Process is a misnomer; these are threads.
+
+ As of this writing, the default stack size is 2<<15;
+ 32kb. Initialize the node registration's
+ process_log2_n_stack_bytes member as needed. The graph node
+ dispatcher makes some effort to detect stack overrun. We map a
+ no-access page below each thread stack.
+
+ Process node dispatch functions are expected to be while(1) { }
+ loops which suspend when not otherwise occupied, and which must
+ not run for unreasonably long periods of time. Unreasonably long
+ is an application-dependent concept. Over the years, we have
+ constructed frame-size sensitive control-plane nodes which will
+ use a much higher fraction of the available CPU bandwidth when the
+ frame size is low. Classic example: modifying forwarding
+ tables. So long as the table-builder leaves the forwarding tables
+ in a valid state, one can suspend the table builder to avoid
+ dropping packets as a result of control-plane activity.
+
+ Process nodes can suspend for fixed amounts of time, or until another
+ entity signals an event, or both. See the example below.
+
+ When running in VLIB process context, one must pay strict attention to
+ loop invariant issues. If one walks a data structure and calls a
+ function which may suspend, one had best know by construction that it
+ cannot change. Often, it s best to simply make a snapshot copy of a
+ data structure, walk the copy at leisure, then free the copy.
+
+ Here's an example:
+
+ <code><pre>
+ \#define EXAMPLE_POLL_PERIOD 10.0
+
+ static uword
+ example_process (vlib_main_t * vm, vlib_node_runtime_t * rt,
+ vlib_frame_t * f)
+ {
+ f64 poll_time_remaining;
+ uword event_type, *event_data = 0;
+
+ poll_time_remaining = EXAMPLE_POLL_PERIOD;
+ while (1)
+ {
+ int i;
+
+ // Sleep until next periodic call due,
+ // or until we receive event(s)
+ //
+ poll_time_remaining =
+ vlib_process_wait_for_event_or_clock (vm, poll_time_remaining);
+
+ event_type = vlib_process_get_events (vm, &event_data);
+ switch (event_type)
+ {
+ case ~0: // no events => timeout
+ break;
+
+ case EVENT1:
+ for (i = 0; i < vec_len (event_data); i++)
+ handle_event1 (mm, event_data[i]);
+ break;
+
+ case EVENT2:
+ for (i = 0; i < vec_len (event_data); i++)
+ handle_event2 (vm, event_data[i]);
+ break;
+
+ // ... and so forth for each event type
+
+ default:
+ // This should never happen...
+ clib_warning ("BUG: unhandled event type %d",
+ event_type);
+ break;
+ }
+ vec_reset_length (event_data);
+
+ // Timer expired, call periodic function
+ if (vlib_process_suspend_time_is_zero (poll_time_remaining))
+ {
+ example_periodic (vm);
+ poll_time_remaining = EXAMPLE_POLL_PERIOD;
+ }
+ }
+ // NOTREACHED
+ return 0;
+ }
+
+ static VLIB_REGISTER_NODE (example_node) = {
+ .function = example_process,
+ .type = VLIB_NODE_TYPE_PROCESS,
+ .name = "example-process",
+ };
+ </pre></code>
+
+ In this example, the VLIB process node waits for an event to
+ occur, or for 10 seconds to elapse. The code demuxes on the event
+ type, calling the appropriate handler function.
+
+ Each call to vlib_process_get_events returns a vector of
+ per-event-type data passed to successive vlib_process_signal_event
+ calls; vec_len (event_data) >= 1. It is an error to process only
+ event_data[0].
+
+ Resetting the event_data vector-length to 0 by calling
+ vec_reset_length (event_data) - instead of calling vec_free (...)
+ - means that the event scheme doesn t burn cycles continuously
+ allocating and freeing the event data vector. This is a common
+ coding pattern, well worth using when appropriate.
+*/
+
+/*
+ * fd.io coding-style-patch-verification: ON
+ *
+ * Local Variables:
+ * eval: (c-set-style "gnu")
+ * End:
+ */