the hard problem here is unlinking threads from a list when they exit
without creating a window of inconsistency where the kernel task for a
thread still exists and is still executing instructions in userspace,
but is not reflected in the list. the magic solution here is getting
rid of per-thread exit futex addresses (set_tid_address), and instead
using the exit futex to unlock the global thread list.
since pthread_join can no longer see the thread enter a detach_state
of EXITED (which depended on the exit futex address pointing to the
detach_state), it must now observe the unlocking of the thread list
lock before it can unmap the joined thread and return. it doesn't
actually have to take the lock. for this, a __tl_sync primitive is
offered, with a signature that will allow it to be enhanced for quick
return even under contention on the lock, if needed. for now, the
exiting thread always performs a futex wake on its detach_state. a
future change could optimize this out except when there is already a
joiner waiting.
initial/dynamic variants of detached state no longer need to be
tracked separately, since the futex address is always set to the
global list lock, not a thread-local address that could become invalid
on detached thread exit. all detached threads, however, must perform a
second sigprocmask syscall to block implementation-internal signals,
since locking the thread list with them already blocked is not
permissible.
the arch-independent C version of __unmapself no longer needs to take
a lock or setup its own futex address to release the lock, since it
must necessarily be called with the thread list lock already held,
guaranteeing exclusive access to the temporary stack.
changes to libc.threads_minus_1 no longer need to be atomic, since
they are guarded by the thread list lock. it is largely vestigial at
this point, and can be replaced with a cheaper boolean indicating
whether the process is multithreaded at some point in the future.
Rich Felker
8f11e6127f