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The thread library provides parallel programming support similar
to that of the languages Alef and Newsqueak. Threads and procs
occupy a shared address space, communicating and synchronizing
through channels and shared variables.
A proc is a Plan 9 process that contains one or more cooperatively–scheduled
threads. Programs using threads must replace main by threadmain.
The thread library provides a main function that sets up a proc
with a single thread executing threadmain on a stack of size mainstacksize
(default eight kilobytes). To set
mainstacksize, declare a global variable initialized to the desired
value (e.g., int mainstacksize = 1024).
Creation
Threadcreate creates a new thread in the calling proc, returning
a unique integer identifying the thread; the thread executes fn(arg)
on a stack of size stacksize. Thread stacks are allocated in shared
memory, making it valid to pass pointers to stack variables between
threads and procs. Since there is no stack segment
protection, the function needstack may be used to abort if the
caller has not left at least nbytes of stack available. Procrfork
creates a new proc, and inside that proc creates a single thread
as threadcreate would, returning the id of the created thread.
Procrfork creates the new proc by calling rfork (see fork(2))
with
flags RFPROC|RFMEM|RFNOWAIT|rforkflag. (The thread library depends
on all its procs running in the same rendezvous group. Do not
include RFREND in rforkflag.) Proccreate is identical to procrfork
with rforkflag set to zero. Be aware that the calling thread may
continue execution before the newly created
proc and thread are scheduled. Because of this, arg should not
point to data on the stack of a function that could return before
the new process is scheduled.
Threadexits terminates the calling thread. If the thread is the
last in its proc, threadexits also terminates the proc, using
status as the exit status. Threadexitsall terminates all procs
in the program, using status as the exit status.
Scheduling
The threads in a proc are coroutines, scheduled non–preemptively
in a round–robin fashion. A thread must explicitly relinquish control
of the processor before another thread in the same proc is run.
Calls that do this are yield, proccreate, procexec, procexecl,
threadexits, alt, send, and recv (and the calls related to
send and recv--see their descriptions further on), plus these from
lock(2): qlock, rlock, wlock, rsleep. Procs are scheduled by the
operating system. Therefore, threads in different procs can preempt
one another in arbitrary ways and should synchronize their actions
using qlocks (see lock(2)) or channel
communication. System calls such as read(2) block the entire proc;
all threads in a proc block until the system call finishes.
As mentioned above, each thread has a unique integer thread id.
Thread ids are not reused; they are unique across the life of
the program. Threadid returns the id for the current thread. Each
thread also has a thread group id. The initial thread has a group
id of zero. Each new thread inherits the group id of the
thread that created it. Threadgrp returns the group id for the
current thread; threadsetgrp sets it. Threadpid returns the pid
of the Plan 9 process containing the thread identified by id,
or –1 if no such thread is found.
Threadint interrupts a thread that is blocked in a channel operation
or system call. Threadintgrp interrupts all threads with the given
group id. Threadkill marks a thread to die when it next relinquishes
the processor (via one of the calls listed above). If the thread
is blocked in a channel operation or system call, it is
also interrupted. Threadkillgrp kills all threads with the given
group id. Note that threadkill and threadkillgrp will not terminate
a thread that never relinquishes the processor.
Names and per–thread data
Primarily for debugging, threads can have string names associated
with them. Threadgetname returns the current thread's name; threadsetname
sets it. The pointer returned by threadgetname is only valid until
the next call to threadsetname.
Threaddata returns a pointer to a per–thread pointer that may be
modified by threaded programs for per–thread storage. Similarly,
procdata returns a pointer to a per–proc pointer.
Executing new programs
Procexecl and procexec are threaded analogues of exec and execl
(see exec(2)); on success, they replace the calling thread (which
must be the only thread in its proc) and invoke the external program,
never returning. On error, they return –1. If cpid is not null,
the pid of the invoked program will be sent along cpid once
the program has been started, or –1 will be sent if an error occurs.
Procexec and procexecl will not access their arguments after sending
a result along cpid. Thus, programs that malloc the argv passed
to procexec can safely free it once they have received the cpid
response. Note that the mount point /mnt/temp
must exist; procexec(l) mount pipes there.
Threadwaitchan returns a channel of pointers to Waitmsg structures
(see wait(2)). When an exec'ed process exits, a pointer to a Waitmsg
is sent to this channel. These Waitmsg structures have been allocated
with malloc(2) and should be freed after use.
Channels
A Channel is a buffered or unbuffered queue for fixed–size messages.
Procs and threads send messages into the channel and recv messages
from the channel. If the channel is unbuffered, a send operation
blocks until the corresponding recv operation occurs and vice
versa. Chaninit initializes a Channel for
messages of size elsize and with a buffer holding nel messages.
If nel is zero, the channel is unbuffered. Chancreate allocates
a new channel and initializes it. Chanfree frees a channel that
is no longer used. Chanfree can be called by either sender or
receiver after the last item has been sent or received. Freeing
the
channel will be delayed if there is a thread blocked on it until
that thread unblocks (but chanfree returns immediately).
Send sends the element pointed at by v to the channel c. If v
is null, zeros are sent. Recv receives an element from c and stores
it in v. If v is null, the received value is discarded. Send and
recv return 1 on success, –1 if interrupted. Nbsend and nbrecv
behave similarly, but return 0 rather than blocking.
Sendp, nbsendp, sendul, and nbsendul send a pointer or an unsigned
long; the channel must have been initialized with the appropriate
elsize. Recvp, nbrecvp, recvul, and nbrecvul receive a pointer
or an unsigned long; they return zero when a zero is received,
when interrupted, or (for nbrecvp and nbrecvul) when the
operation would have blocked. To distinguish between these three
cases, use recv or nbrecv.
Alt can be used to recv from or send to one of a number of channels,
as directed by an array of Alt structures, each of which describes
a potential send or receive operation. In an Alt structure, c
is the channel; v the value pointer (which may be null); and op
the operation: CHANSND for a send operation, CHANRCV
for a recv operation; CHANNOP for no operation (useful when alt
is called with a varying set of operations). The array of Alt
structures is terminated by an entry with op CHANEND or CHANNOBLK.
If at least one Alt structure can proceed, one of them is chosen
at random to be executed. Alt returns the index of the
chosen structure. If no operations can proceed and the list is
terminated with CHANNOBLK, alt returns the index of the terminating
CHANNOBLK structure. Otherwise, alt blocks until one of the operations
can proceed, eventually returning the index of the structure executes.
Alt returns –1 when interrupted. The tag
and entryno fields in the Alt structure are used internally by
alt and need not be initialized. They are not used between alt
calls.
Chanprint formats its arguments in the manner of print(2) and
sends the result to the channel c. The string delivered by chanprint
is allocated with malloc(2) and should be freed upon receipt.
Chanclose prevents further elements being sent to the channel
c. After closing a channel, send and recv never block. Send always
returns –1. Recv returns –1 if the channel is empty. Alt may choose
a CHANSND or CHANRCV that failed because the channel was closed.
In this case, the err field of the Alt entry points
to an error string stating that the channel was closed and the
operation was completed with failure. If all entries have been
selected and failed because they were closed, alt returns –1.
Errors, notes and resources
Thread library functions do not return on failure; if errors occur,
the entire program is aborted.
Chanclosing returns –1 if no one called closed on the channel,
and otherwise the number of elements still in the channel.
Tprivalloc allocates a global name (index) with per–thread storage
(pointer). The area may be freed with tprivfree. There is a small
pool of global indicies available, currently 7. Tprivaddr returns
a pointer to the current thread's storage index n.
Threaded programs should use threadnotify in place of atnotify
(see notify(2)).
It is safe to use sysfatal (see perror(2)) in threaded programs.
Sysfatal will print the error string and call threadexitsall.
It is safe to use rfork (see fork(2)) to manage the namespace,
file descriptors, note group, and environment of a single process.
That is, it is safe to call rfork with the flags RFNAMEG, RFFDG,
RFCFDG, RFNOTEG, RFENVG, and RFCENVG. (To create new processes,
use proccreate and procrfork.) As mentioned
above, the thread library depends on all procs being in the same
rendezvous group; do not change the rendezvous group with rfork.
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