NAME
rmlock, rm_init, rm_init_flags, rm_destroy, rm_rlock, rm_wlock,
rm_runlock, rm_wunlock, rm_wowned, RM_SYSINIT - kernel reader/writer lock
optimized for mostly read access patterns
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/param.h>
#include <sys/lock.h>
#include <sys/rmlock.h>
void
rm_init(struct rmlock *rm, const char *name);
void
rm_init_flags(struct rmlock *rm, const char *name, int opts);
void
rm_destroy(struct rmlock *rm);
void
rm_rlock(struct rmlock *rm, struct rm_priotracker* tracker);
void
rm_wlock(struct rmlock *rm);
void
rm_runlock(struct rmlock *rm, struct rm_priotracker* tracker);
void
rm_wunlock(struct rmlock *rm);
int
rm_wowned(struct rmlock *rm);
#include <sys/kernel.h>
RM_SYSINIT(name, struct rmlock *rm, const char *desc, int opts);
DESCRIPTION
Mostly reader locks allow shared access to protected data by multiple
threads, or exclusive access by a single thread. The threads with shared
access are known as readers since they only read the protected data. A
thread with exclusive access is known as a writer since it can modify
protected data.
Read mostly locks are designed to be efficient for locks almost
exclusively used as reader locks and as such should be used for
protecting data that rarely changes. Acquiring an exclusive lock after
the lock had been locked for shared access is an expensive operation.
Although reader/writer locks look very similar to sx(9) locks, their
usage pattern is different. Reader/writer locks can be treated as
mutexes (see mutex(9)) with shared/exclusive semantics. Unlike sx(9), an
rmlock can be locked while holding a non-spin mutex, and an rmlock cannot
be held while sleeping. The rmlock locks have full priority propagation
like mutexes. The rm_priotracker structure argument supplied in
rm_rlock() and rm_runlock() is used to keep track of the read owner(s).
Another important property is that shared holders of rmlock can recurse
if the lock has been initialized with the LO_RECURSABLE option, however
exclusive locks are not allowed to recurse.
Macros and Functions
rm_init(struct rmlock *rm, const char *name)
Initialize structure located at rm as mostly reader lock,
described by name. The name description is used solely for
debugging purposes. This function must be called before any
other operations on the lock.
rm_init_flags(struct rmlock *rm, const char *name, int opts)
Initialize the rm lock just like the rm_init() function, but
specifying a set of optional flags to alter the behaviour of rm,
through the opts argument. It contains one or more of the
following flags:
RM_NOWITNESS Instruct witness(4) to ignore this lock.
RM_RECURSE Allow threads to recursively acquire exclusive
locks for rm.
rm_rlock(struct rmlock *rm, struct rm_priotracker* tracker)
Lock rm as a reader. Using tracker to track read owners of a
lock for priority propagation. This data structure is only used
internally by rmlock and must persist until rm_runlock() has been
called. This data structure can be allocated on the stack since
rmlocks cannot be held while sleeping. If any thread holds this
lock exclusively, the current thread blocks, and its priority is
propagated to the exclusive holder. If the lock was initialized
with the LO_RECURSABLE option the rm_rlock() function can be
called when the thread has already acquired reader access on rm.
This is called “recursing on a lock”.
rm_wlock(struct rmlock *rm)
Lock rm as a writer. If there are any shared owners of the lock,
the current thread blocks. The rm_wlock() function cannot be
called recursively.
rm_runlock(struct rmlock *rm, struct rm_priotracker* tracker)
This function releases a shared lock previously acquired by
rm_rlock(). The tracker argument must match the tracker argument
used for acquiring the shared lock
rm_wunlock(struct rmlock *rm)
This function releases an exclusive lock previously acquired by
rm_wlock().
rm_destroy(struct rmlock *rm)
This functions destroys a lock previously initialized with
rm_init(). The rm lock must be unlocked.
rm_wowned(struct rmlock *rm)
This function returns a non-zero value if the current thread owns
an exclusive lock on rm.
SEE ALSO
locking(9), mutex(9), panic(9), rwlock(9), sema(9), sx(9)
HISTORY
These functions appeared in FreeBSD 7.0.
AUTHORS
The rmlock facility was written by Stephan Uphoff. This manual page was
written by Gleb Smirnoff for rwlock and modified to reflect rmlock by
Stephan Uphoff.
BUGS
The rmlock implementation is currently not optimized for single processor
systems.
The rmlock implementation uses a single per CPU list shared by all
rmlocks in the system. If rmlocks become popular, hashing to multiple
per CPU queues may be needed to speed up the writer lock process.
The rmlock can currently not be used as a lock argument for condition
variable wait functions.