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Date:      Wed, 22 Aug 2018 08:42:49 +0200
From:      Sebastian Huber <sebastian.huber@embedded-brains.de>
To:        FreeBSD <freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org>
Cc:        Matthew Macy <mmacy@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: epoch(9) background information?
Message-ID:  <15e3f080-2f82-a243-80e9-f0a916445828@embedded-brains.de>
In-Reply-To: <fc088eb4-f306-674c-7404-ebe17a60a5f8@embedded-brains.de>
References:  <db397431-2c4c-64de-634a-20f38ce6a60e@embedded-brains.de> <CALX0vxBAN6nckuAnYR3_mOfwbCjJCjHGuuOFh9njpxO%2BGUzo3w@mail.gmail.com> <fc088eb4-f306-674c-7404-ebe17a60a5f8@embedded-brains.de>

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On 22/08/18 08:34, Sebastian Huber wrote:
> On 21/08/18 15:38, Jacques Fourie wrote:
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Aug 21, 2018 at 8:33 AM, Sebastian Huber=20
>> <sebastian.huber@embedded-brains.de=20
>> <mailto:sebastian.huber@embedded-brains.de>> wrote:
>>
>> =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 Hello,
>>
>> =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 I update currently a port of the FreeBSD network st=
ack, etc. to
>> =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 the real-time operating system RTEMS from the head =
version at
>> =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 2017-04-04 to the head version of today. I noticed =
that some
>> =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 read-write locks are replaced by a relatively new s=
tuff called
>> =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 EPOCH(9). Is there some background information avai=
lable for this?
>> =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 The man page is a bit vague and searching for somet=
hing named
>> =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 epoch on the internet is not really great. For exam=
ple, what is
>> =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 the motivation for this change? How is this related=
 to
>> =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 read-copy-update (RCU)?
>>
>> =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 -- =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 Sebastian Huber, embedded bra=
ins GmbH
>>
>> =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 Address : Dornierstr. 4, D-82178 Puchheim, Germany
>> <https://maps.google.com/?q=3DDornierstr.+4,+D-82178+Puchheim,+Germany=
&entry=3Dgmail&source=3Dg>
>> =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 Phone=C2=A0 =C2=A0: +49 89 189 47 41-16
>> =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 Fax=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0: +49 89 189 47 41-09
>> =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 E-Mail=C2=A0 : sebastian.huber@embedded-brains.de
>> =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 <mailto:sebastian.huber@embedded-brains.de>
>> =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 PGP=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0: Public key available on re=
quest.
>>
>> =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 Diese Nachricht ist keine gesch=C3=A4ftliche Mittei=
lung im Sinne des=20
>> EHUG.
>>
>> =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 _______________________________________________
>> =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org <mailto:freebsd-hackers=
@freebsd.org>
>> =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 mailing list
>> =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 https://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-=
hackers
>> <https://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hackers>;
>> =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 To unsubscribe, send any mail to
>> =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 "freebsd-hackers-unsubscribe@freebsd.org
>> =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 <mailto:freebsd-hackers-unsubscribe@freebsd.org>"
>>
>>
>> Additional information is available here :=20
>> http://concurrencykit.org/presentations/ebr.pdf=20
>> <http://concurrencykit.org/presentations/ebr.pdf>. The way I=20
>> understand it is that it is mostly used in place of read locks to=20
>> provide liveness guarantees without using atomics. Additional detail=20
>> is available in the commit messages. As an example see r333813 for=20
>> some performance data.
>>
>
> Thanks, for the reference. The "epoch reclamation" are good keywords=20
> to find more information.
>
> What is the right mailing list to ask questions about the epoch=20
> implementation of the FreeBSD kernel?
>
> To support this machinery in RTEMS is a bit difficult (in particular=20
> EPOCH_LOCKED). Since RTEMS is supposed to be a real-time operating=20
> system it supports only fixed-priority and job-level fixed priority=20
> (EDF) schedulers. To allow some scaling to larger SMP systems it=20
> supports clustered scheduling together with the mutual exclusion=20
> locking protocols MrsP=20
> (http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~burns/MRSPpaper.pdf) and OMIP=20
> (http://www.mpi-sws.org/~bbb/papers/pdf/ecrts13b.pdf). This makes the=20
> thread pinning hard to implement (which is very easy to support in=20
> FreeBSD). The locking protocols may temporarily move a thread which=20
> owns a mutex to a foreign scheduler instance, e.g. a thread which=20
> wants to obtain the mutex helps the owner to make progress if it was=20
> pre-empted in its home scheduler instance. Due to a timeout of the=20
> helper the owner may loose the right to execute in the foreign=20
> scheduler instance. This would make it impossible to fulfil the=20
> processor pinning constraint (e.g. the thread priority in the foreign=20
> scheduler instance is undefined).
>
> It would save me a lot of trouble if I could assume that EPOCH_LOCKED=20
> is an exotic feature which is unlikely to get used in FreeBSD.
>

Another question, is it a common use case to call epoch_enter_preempt()=20
and epoch_exit_preempt() while owning a mutex?

--=20
Sebastian Huber, embedded brains GmbH

Address : Dornierstr. 4, D-82178 Puchheim, Germany
Phone   : +49 89 189 47 41-16
Fax     : +49 89 189 47 41-09
E-Mail  : sebastian.huber@embedded-brains.de
PGP     : Public key available on request.

Diese Nachricht ist keine gesch=C3=A4ftliche Mitteilung im Sinne des EHUG=
.




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