if init_malloc returns positive (successful first init), malloc will
retry getting a chunk from the free bins rather than expanding the
heap again. also pass init_malloc a hint for the size of the initial
allocation.
we want to keep atomically updated fields (locks and thread count) and
really anything writable far away from frequently-needed function
pointers. stuff some rarely-needed function pointers in between to
pad, hopefully up to a cache line boundary.
instead of allocating a userspace structure for signal-based timers,
simply use the kernel timer id. we use the fact that thread pointers
will always be zero in the low bit (actually more) to encode integer
timerid values as pointers.
also, this change ensures that the timer_destroy syscall has completed
before the library timer_destroy function returns, in case it matters.
the major idea of this patch is not to depend on having the timer
pointer delivered to the signal handler, and instead use the thread
pointer to get the callback function address and argument. this way,
the parent thread can make the timer_create syscall while the child
thread is starting, and it should never have to block waiting for the
barrier.
unlocking an unlocked mutex is not UB for robust or error-checking
mutexes, so we must avoid calling __pthread_self (which might crash
due to lack of thread-register initialization) until after checking
that the mutex is locked.
why does this affect behavior? well, the linker seems to traverse
archive files starting from its current position when resolving
symbols. since calloc.c comes alphabetically (and thus in sequence in
the archive file) between __simple_malloc.c and malloc.c, attempts to
resolve the "malloc" symbol for use by calloc.c were pulling in the
full malloc.c implementation rather than the __simple_malloc.c
implementation.
as of now, lite_malloc.c and malloc.c are adjacent in the archive and
in the correct order, so malloc.c should never be used to resolve
"malloc" unless it's already needed to resolve another symbol ("free"
or "realloc").
this roughly halves the cost of pthread_mutex_unlock, at least for
non-robust, normal-type mutexes.
the a_store change is in preparation for future support of archs which
require a memory barrier or special atomic store operation, and also
should prevent the possibility of the compiler misordering writes.
cycle-level benchmark on atom cpu showed typical pthread_mutex_lock
call dropping from ~120 cycles to ~90 cycles with this change. benefit
may vary with compiler options and version, but this optimization is
very cheap to make and should always help some.
this implementation is superior to the glibc/nptl implementation, in
that it gives true realtime behavior. there is no risk of timer
expiration events being lost due to failed thread creation or failed
malloc, because the thread is created as time creation time, and
reused until the timer is deleted.
- there is no longer any risk of spoofing cancellation requests, since
the cancel flag is set in pthread_cancel rather than in the signal
handler.
- cancellation signal is no longer unblocked when running the
cancellation handlers. instead, pthread_create will cause any new
threads created from a cancellation handler to unblock their own
cancellation signal.
- various tweaks in preparation for POSIX timer support.
the biggest change in this commit is that stdio now uses readv to fill
the caller's buffer and the FILE buffer with a single syscall, and
likewise writev to flush the FILE buffer and write out the caller's
buffer in a single syscall.
making this change required fundamental architectural changes to
stdio, so i also made a number of other improvements in the process:
- the implementation no longer assumes that further io will fail
following errors, and no longer blocks io when the error flag is set
(though the latter could easily be changed back if desired)
- unbuffered mode is no longer implemented as a one-byte buffer. as a
consequence, scanf unreading has to use ungetc, to the unget buffer
has been enlarged to hold at least 2 wide characters.
- the FILE structure has been rearranged to maintain the locations of
the fields that might be used in glibc getc/putc type macros, while
shrinking the structure to save some space.
- error cases for fflush, fseek, etc. should be more correct.
- library-internal macros are used for getc_unlocked and putc_unlocked
now, eliminating some ugly code duplication. __uflow and __overflow
are no longer used anywhere but these macros. switch to read or
write mode is also separated so the code can be better shared, e.g.
with ungetc.
- lots of other small things.
glibc made the ridiculous choice to use pass-by-register calling
convention for these functions, which is impossible to duplicate
directly on non-gcc compilers. instead, we use ugly asm to wrap and
convert the calling convention. presumably this works with every
compiler anyone could potentially want to use.
sadly the C language does not specify any such implicit conversion, so
this is not a matter of just fixing warnings (as gcc treats it) but
actual errors. i would like to revisit a number of these changes and
possibly revise the types used to reduce the number of casts required.
Rich Felker