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authorFlorian Weimer <fweimer@redhat.com>2021-12-09 09:49:32 +0100
committerFlorian Weimer <fweimer@redhat.com>2021-12-09 09:49:32 +0100
commitc901c3e764d7c7079f006b4e21e877d5036eb4f5 (patch)
treeed5a2defd04179a354f4581b0b94b50b6634751e /manual
parente3e589829d16af9f7e73c7b70f74f3c5d5003e45 (diff)
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nptl: Add public rseq symbols and <sys/rseq.h>
The relationship between the thread pointer and the rseq area
is made explicit.  The constant offset can be used by JIT compilers
to optimize rseq access (e.g., for really fast sched_getcpu).

Extensibility is provided through __rseq_size and __rseq_flags.
(In the future, the kernel could request a different rseq size
via the auxiliary vector.)

Co-Authored-By: Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@efficios.com>
Reviewed-by: Szabolcs Nagy <szabolcs.nagy@arm.com>
Diffstat (limited to 'manual')
-rw-r--r--manual/threads.texi81
1 files changed, 81 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/manual/threads.texi b/manual/threads.texi
index 06b6b277a1..ab44a92ca0 100644
--- a/manual/threads.texi
+++ b/manual/threads.texi
@@ -629,6 +629,8 @@ the standard.
 * Waiting with Explicit Clocks::          Functions for waiting with an
                                           explicit clock specification.
 * Single-Threaded::                       Detecting single-threaded execution.
+* Restartable Sequences::                 Linux-specific restartable sequences
+                                          integration.
 @end menu
 
 @node Default Thread Attributes
@@ -958,6 +960,85 @@ application-created thread because future versions of @theglibc{} may
 create background threads after the first thread has been created, and
 the application has no way of knowning that these threads are present.
 
+@node Restartable Sequences
+@subsubsection Restartable Sequences
+
+This section describes restartable sequences integration for
+@theglibc{}.  This functionality is only available on Linux.
+
+@deftp {Data Type} {struct rseq}
+@standards{Linux, sys/rseq.h}
+The type of the restartable sequences area.  Future versions
+of Linux may add additional fields to the end of this structure.
+
+
+Users need to obtain the address of the restartable sequences area using
+the thread pointer and the @code{__rseq_offset} variable, described
+below.
+
+One use of the restartable sequences area is to read the current CPU
+number from its @code{cpu_id} field, as an inline version of
+@code{sched_getcpu}.  @Theglibc{} sets the @code{cpu_id} field to
+@code{RSEQ_CPU_ID_REGISTRATION_FAILED} if registration failed or was
+explicitly disabled.
+
+Furthermore, users can store the address of a @code{struct rseq_cs}
+object into the @code{rseq_cs} field of @code{struct rseq}, thus
+informing the kernel that the thread enters a restartable sequence
+critical section.  This pointer and the code areas it itself points to
+must not be left pointing to memory areas which are freed or re-used.
+Several approaches can guarantee this.  If the application or library
+can guarantee that the memory used to hold the @code{struct rseq_cs} and
+the code areas it refers to are never freed or re-used, no special
+action must be taken.  Else, before that memory is re-used of freed, the
+application is responsible for setting the @code{rseq_cs} field to
+@code{NULL} in each thread's restartable sequence area to guarantee that
+it does not leak dangling references.  Because the application does not
+typically have knowledge of libraries' use of restartable sequences, it
+is recommended that libraries using restartable sequences which may end
+up freeing or re-using their memory set the @code{rseq_cs} field to
+@code{NULL} before returning from library functions which use
+restartable sequences.
+
+The manual for the @code{rseq} system call can be found
+at @uref{https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/libs/librseq/librseq.git/tree/doc/man/rseq.2}.
+@end deftp
+
+@deftypevar {int} __rseq_offset
+@standards{Linux, sys/rseq.h}
+This variable contains the offset between the thread pointer (as defined
+by @code{__builtin_thread_pointer} or the thread pointer register for
+the architecture) and the restartable sequences area.  This value is the
+same for all threads in the process.  If the restartable sequences area
+is located at a lower address than the location to which the thread
+pointer points, the value is negative.
+@end deftypevar
+
+@deftypevar {unsigned int} __rseq_size
+@standards{Linux, sys/rseq.h}
+This variable is either zero (if restartable sequence registration
+failed or has been disabled) or the size of the restartable sequence
+registration.  This can be different from the size of @code{struct rseq}
+if the kernel has extended the size of the registration.  If
+registration is successful, @code{__rseq_size} is at least 32 (the
+initial size of @code{struct rseq}).
+@end deftypevar
+
+@deftypevar {unsigned int} __rseq_flags
+@standards{Linux, sys/rseq.h}
+The flags used during restartable sequence registration with the kernel.
+Currently zero.
+@end deftypevar
+
+@deftypevr Macro int RSEQ_SIG
+@standards{Linux, sys/rseq.h}
+Each supported architecture provides a @code{RSEQ_SIG} macro in
+@file{sys/rseq.h} which contains a signature.  That signature is
+expected to be present in the code before each restartable sequences
+abort handler.  Failure to provide the expected signature may terminate
+the process with a segmentation fault.
+@end deftypevr
+
 @c FIXME these are undocumented:
 @c pthread_atfork
 @c pthread_attr_destroy