freebsd/share/man/man9/mutex.9

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.\"	from BSDI $Id: mutex.4,v 1.1.2.3 1998/04/27 22:53:13 ewv Exp $
.\" $FreeBSD$
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.Dd February 12, 2001
.Dt MUTEX 9
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm mutex ,
.Nm mtx_init ,
.Nm mtx_lock ,
.Nm mtx_lock_spin ,
.Nm mtx_lock_flags ,
.Nm mtx_lock_spin_flags ,
.Nm mtx_trylock ,
.Nm mtx_trylock_flags ,
.Nm mtx_unlock ,
.Nm mtx_unlock_spin ,
.Nm mtx_unlock_flags ,
.Nm mtx_unlock_spin_flags ,
.Nm mtx_destroy ,
.Nm mtx_initialized ,
.Nm mtx_owned ,
.Nm mtx_recursed ,
.Nm mtx_assert
.Nd kernel synchronization primitives
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Fd #include <sys/param.h>
.Fd #include <sys/lock.h>
.Fd #include <sys/mutex.h>
.Ft void
.Fn mtx_init "struct mtx *mutex" "const char *description" "int opts"
.Ft void
.Fn mtx_lock "struct mtx *mutex"
.Ft void
.Fn mtx_lock_spin "struct mtx *mutex"
.Ft void
.Fn mtx_lock_flags "struct mtx *mutex" "int flags"
.Ft void
.Fn mtx_lock_spin_flags "struct mtx *mutex" "int flags"
.Ft int
.Fn mtx_trylock "struct mtx *mutex"
.Ft int
.Fn mtx_trylock_flags "struct mtx *mutex" "int flags"
.Ft void
.Fn mtx_unlock "struct mtx *mutex"
.Ft void
.Fn mtx_unlock_spin "struct mtx *mutex"
.Ft void
.Fn mtx_unlock_flags "struct mtx *mutex" "int flags"
.Ft void
.Fn mtx_unlock_spin_flags "struct mtx *mutex" "int flags"
.Ft void
.Fn mtx_destroy "struct mtx *mutex"
.Ft int
.Fn mtx_initialized "struct mtx *mutex"
.Ft int
.Fn mtx_owned "struct mtx *mutex"
.Ft int
.Fn mtx_recursed "struct mtx *mutex"
.Ft void
.Fn mtx_assert "struct mtx *mutex" "int what"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
Mutexes are the most basic and primary method of process synchronization.
The major design considerations for mutexes are:
.Bl -enum
.It
Acquiring and releasing uncontested mutexes should be as cheap
as possible.
.It
They must have the information and storage space to support
priority propagation.
.It
A process must be able to recursively acquire a mutex,
provided that the mutex is initialized to support recursion.
.El
.Pp
There are currently two flavors of mutexes, those that context switch
when they block and those that do not.
.Pp
By default,
.Dv MTX_DEF
mutexes will context switch when they are already held.
As a machine dependent optimization they may spin for some amount
of time before context switching.
It is important to remember that since a process may be preempted at any time,
the possible context switch introduced by acquiring a mutex is guaranteed
to not break anything that isn't already broken.
.Pp
Mutexes which do not context switch are
.Dv MTX_SPIN
mutexes.
These should only be used to protect data shared with any devices that
require non-preemptive interrupts, and low level scheduling code.
In most/all architectures both acquiring and releasing of a
uncontested spin mutex is more expensive than the same operation
on a non spin mutex.
In order to protect an interrupt service routine from blocking
against itself all interrupts are blocked on a processor while
holding a spin lock.
It is permissible to hold multiple spin mutexes.
In this case it is a required that they be released in the opposite
order to that which they were acquired.
.Pp
Once a spin mutex has been acquired it is not permissible to acquire a
blocking mutex.
.Pp
The storage needed to implement a mutex is provided by a
.Vt struct mtx .
In general this should be treated as an opaque object and
referenced only with the mutex primitives.
.Pp
The
.Fn mtx_init
function must be used to initialize a mutex
before it can be passed to
.Fn mtx_lock .
The
.Fa description
argument is used by the witness code
to classify a mutex when doing checks of lock ordering.
The pointer passed in as the
.Fa description
is saved rather than the data it points to.
The data pointed to must remain stable
until the mutex is destroyed.
The
.Fa opts 
argument is used to set the type of mutex.
It may contain either
.Dv MTX_DEF
or
.Dv MTX_SPIN
but not both.
Optionally, it may also contain the
.Dv MTX_RECURSE
bit, which signifies that the mutex will be allowed to recurse.
It is not permissible to pass the same
.Fa mutex
to
.Fn mtx_init
multiple times without intervening calls to
.Fn mtx_destroy .
.Pp
The
.Fn mtx_lock
function acquires a
.Dv MTX_DEF
mutual exclusion lock
on behalf of the currently running kernel thread.
If another kernel thread is holding the mutex,
the caller will be disconnected from the CPU
until the mutex is available
(i.e. it will sleep).
.Pp
The
.Fn mtx_lock_spin
function acquires a
.Dv MTX_SPIN
mutual exclusion lock
on behalf of the currently running kernel thread.
If another kernel thread is holding the mutex,
the caller will spin until the mutex becomes available.
Interrupts are disabled during the spin and remain disabled
following the acquiring of the lock.
.Pp
It is possible for the same thread to recursively acquire a mutex
with no ill effects, provided that the
.Dv MTX_RECURSE
bit was passed to
.Fn mtx_init
during the initialization of the mutex.
.Pp
The
.Fn mtx_lock_flags
and
.Fn mtx_lock_spin_flags
functions acquire a
.Dv MTX_DEF
or
.Dv MTX_SPIN
lock, respectively, and also accept a
.Fa flags
argument.
In both cases, the only flag presently available for lock acquires is
.Dv MTX_QUIET .
If the
.Dv MTX_QUIET
bit is turned on in the
.Fa flags
argument, then if
.Dv KTR_LOCK
tracing is being done,
it will be silenced during the lock acquire.
.Pp
The
.Fn mtx_trylock
function is used to acquire exclusive access
to those objects protected by the mutex
pointed to by
.Fa mutex .
If the mutex can not be immediately acquired
.Fn mtx_trylock
will return 0,
otherwise the mutex will be acquired
and a non-zero value will be returned.
.Pp
The
.Fn mtx_trylock_flags
function has the same behavior as
.Fn mtx_trylock
but should be used when the caller desires to pass in a
.Fa flags
value.
Presently, the only valid value in the
.Fn mtx_trylock
case is
.Dv MTX_QUIET ,
and its effects are identical to those described for 
.Fn mtx_lock
and
.Fn mtx_lock_spin
above.
.Pp
The
.Fn mtx_unlock
function releases a
.Dv MTX_DEF
mutual exclusion lock;
if a higher priority thread is waiting for the mutex,
the releasing thread will be disconnected
to allow the higher priority thread to acquire the mutex and run.
.Pp
The
.Fn mtx_unlock_spin
function releases a
.Dv MTX_SPIN
mutual exclusion lock;
interrupt state prior to the acquiring of the lock is restored.
.Pp
The
.Fn mtx_unlock_flags
and
.Fn mtx_unlock_spin_flags
functions behave in exactly the same way as do the standard mutex
unlock routines above, while also allowing a
.Fa flags
argument which may only be
.Dv MTX_QUIET
in the
.Fn mtx_unlock_spin_flags
case, and may be one or more of
.Dv MTX_QUIET
and
.Dv MTX_NOSWITCH
in the
.Fn mtx_unlock_flags
case.
The behavior of
.Dv MTX_QUIET
is identical to its behavior in the mutex lock routines.
The
.Dv MTX_NOSWITCH
flag bit signifies,
for a
.Dv MTX_DEF
mutex only,
that the releasing thread is not to be disconnected from the CPU following
the release of the mutex.
.Pp
The
.Fn mtx_destroy
function is used to destroy
.Fa mutex
so the data associated with it may be freed
or otherwise overwritten.
Any mutex which is destroyed
must previously have been initialized with
.Fn mtx_init .
It is permissible to have a single hold count
on a mutex when it is destroyed.
It is not permissible to hold the mutex recursively,
or have another process blocked on the mutex
when it is destroyed.
.Pp
The
.Fn mtx_initialized
function returns non-zero if
.Fa mutex
has been initialized and zero otherwise.
.Pp
The
.Fn mtx_owned
function returns non-zero
if the current process holds
.Fa mutex .
If the current process does not hold
.Fa mutex
zero is returned.
.Pp
The
.Fn mtx_recursed
function returns non-zero if the
.Fa mutex
is recursed.
This check should only be made if the running thread already owns
.Fa mutex .
.Pp
The
.Fn mtx_assert
function allows assertions to be made about
.Fa mutex .
If the assertions are not true and the kernel is compiled with
.Dv INVARIANTS
then the kernel will panic.
Currently the following assertions are supported:
.Bl -tag -width MA_NOTRECURSED
.It Dv MA_OWNED
Assert that the current thread
holds the mutex
pointed to by the first argument.
.It Dv MA_NOTOWNED
Assert that the current thread
does not hold the mutex
pointed to by the first argument.
.It Dv MA_RECURSED
Assert that the current thread has recursed on the mutex
pointed to by the first argument.
This assertion is only valid in conjuction with
.Dv MA_OWNED .
.It Dv MA_NOTRECURSED
Assert that the current thread has not recursed on the mutex
pointed to by the first argument.
This assertion is only valid in conjuction with
.Dv MA_OWNED .
.El
.Ss The Default Mutex Type
Most kernel code should use the default lock type,
.Dv MTX_DEF ;
the default lock type will allow the thread
to be disconnected from the CPU
if it cannot get the lock.
The machine dependent implementation
may treat the lock as a short term spin lock
under some circumstances.
However, it is always safe to use these forms of locks
in an interrupt thread
without fear of deadlock
against an interrupted thread on the same CPU.
.Ss The Spin Mutex Type
A 
.Dv MTX_SPIN
mutex will not relinquish the CPU
when it cannot immediately get the requested lock,
but will loop, waiting for the mutex to be released by another CPU.
This could result in deadlock
if a thread interrupted the thread which held a mutex
and then tried to acquire the mutex;
for this reason spin locks will disable all interrupts
(on the local CPU only).
.Pp
Spin locks are fairly specialized locks
that are intended to be held for very short periods of time;
their primary purpose is to protect portions of the code
that implement default (i.e. sleep) locks.
.Ss Initialization Options
The options passed in the
.Fa opts
argument of
.Fn mtx_init
specify the mutex type.
The possibilities are:
.Bl -tag -width MTX_NOWITNESS
.It Dv MTX_DEF
Default lock type;
will always allow the current thread to be suspended
to avoid deadlock conditions against interrupt threads.
The machine dependent implementation of this lock type
may spin for a while before suspending the current thread.
If this flag is specified, clearly
.Dv MTX_SPIN
must NOT be specified.
.It Dv MTX_SPIN
Spin lock type;
will never relinquish the CPU.
All interrupts are disabled on the local CPU
while any spin lock is held.
.It Dv MTX_RECURSE
Recursion option bit;
specifies that the initialized mutex is allowed to recurse.
This bit must be present if the mutex is going to be permitted to recurse.
.It Dv MTX_QUIET
Do not log any mutex operations for this lock.
.It Dv MTX_NOWITNESS
Instruct
.Xr witness 4
to ignore this lock.
.El
.Ss Lock and Unlock Flags
The flags passed to the
.Fn mtx_lock_flags ,
.Fn mtx_lock_spin_flags ,
.Fn mtx_unlock_flags ,
and
.Fn mtx_unlock_spin_flags 
functions provide some basic options to the caller,
and are often used only under special circumstances to modify lock or
unlock behavior.
Standard locking and unlocking should be performed with the
.Fn mtx_lock ,
.Fn mtx_lock_spin ,
.Fn mtx_unlock ,
and
.Fn mtx_unlock_spin
functions.
If one of these flags is required then, and only then,
should the corresponding flags-accepting routines be used.
.Pp
Options that modify mutex behavior:
.Bl -tag -width MTX_NOSWITCH
.It Dv MTX_NOSWITCH
When releasing a
.Dv MTX_DEF
mutex,
this flag prevents a thread switch that might occur
if another higher priority thread was waiting for the mutex.
This may cause priority inversion and should be used carefully.
This flag can only be passed to
.Fn mtx_unlock_flags .
.Pp
This flag is used internally by the lock code.
It should not be used in general kernel code
and is documented here for completeness only.
.It Dv MTX_QUIET
This option is used to quiet logging messages during individual mutex
operations.
This can be used to trim superfluous logging messages for debugging purposes.
.El
.Sh HISTORY
These
functions appeared in
.Tn BSD/OS
4.1 and
.Fx 5.0 .