path: root/share/man/man9/lock.9

.\"     $OpenBSD: lock.9,v 1.16 2007/05/31 19:20:00 jmc Exp $
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.Dd $Mdocdate: May 31 2007 $
.Dt LOCK 9
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm lock ,
.Nm simple_lock_init ,
.Nm simple_lock ,
.Nm simple_lock_try ,
.Nm simple_unlock ,
.Nm lockinit ,
.Nm lockmgr ,
.Nm lockstatus ,
.Nm lockmgr_printinfo ,
.Nd kernel lock functions
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Fd #include <sys/lock.h>
.Ft void
.Fn simple_lock_init "struct simplelock *slock"
.Ft void
.Fn simple_lock "struct simplelock *slock"
.Ft int
.Fn simple_lock_try "struct simplelock *slock"
.Ft void
.Fn simple_unlock "struct simplelock *slock"
.Ft void
.Fn lockinit "struct lock *lock" "int prio" "const char *wmesg" \
"int timo" "int flags"
.Ft int
.Fn lockmgr "struct lock *lock" "u_int flags" "struct simplelock *slock"
.Ft int
.Fn lockstatus "struct lock *lock"
.Ft void
.Fn lockmgr_printinfo "struct lock *lock"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
functions provide synchronisation in the kernel by preventing multiple
processes from simultaneously executing critical sections of code
accessing shared data.
A number of different locks are available:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It struct simplelock
Provides a simple spinning mutex.
A processor will busy-wait while trying to acquire a simplelock.
The simplelock operations are
implemented with machine-dependent locking primitives.
.Pp
Simplelocks are usually used only by the high-level lock manager and
to protect short, critical sections of code.
Simplelocks are the only
locks that can be used inside an interrupt handler.
For a simplelock to be used in an interrupt handler, care must be taken to
disable the interrupt, acquire the lock, do any processing, release
the simplelock and re-enable the interrupt.
This procedure is necessary to avoid deadlock between the interrupt handler
and other processes executing on the same processor.
.It struct lock
Provides a high-level lock supporting sleeping/spinning until the lock
can be acquired.
The lock manager supplies both exclusive-access and
shared-access locks, with recursive exclusive-access locks within a
single process.
It also allows upgrading a shared-access lock to an
exclusive-access lock, as well as downgrading an exclusive-access lock
to a shared-access lock.
.El
.Pp
If the kernel option LOCKDEBUG is enabled, additional facilities
are provided to record additional lock information.
These facilities are provided to assist in determining deadlock occurrences.
.Sh FUNCTIONS
The functions which operate on simplelocks are:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fn simple_lock_init "slock"
The simplelock
.Fa slock
is initialised to the unlocked state.
A statically allocated simplelock also can be initialised with the macro
SIMPLELOCK_INITIALIZER.
The effect is the same as the dynamic initialisation by a call to
simple_lock_init.
For example,
.Pp
.Dl struct simplelock slock = SIMPLELOCK_INITIALIZER;
.It Fn simple_lock "slock"
The simplelock
.Fa slock
is locked.
If the simplelock is held then execution will
spin until the simplelock is acquired.
Care must be taken that the calling process does not already hold
the simplelock.
In this case, the simplelock can never be acquired.
If kernel option LOCKDEBUG is enabled, a "locking against myself" panic
will occur.
.It Fn simple_lock_try "slock"
Try to acquire the simplelock
.Fa slock
without spinning.
If the simplelock is held by another process then the return value is 0.
If the simplelock was acquired successfully then the return value is 1.
.It Fn simple_unlock "slock"
The simplelock
.Fa slock
is unlocked.
The simplelock must be locked and the calling process must
be the one that last acquired the simplelock.
If the calling process does not hold the simplelock, the simplelock
will be released but the kernel behaviour is undefined.
.El
.Pp
The functions which operate on locks are:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fn lockinit "lock" "prio" "wmesg" "timo" "flags"
The lock
.Fa lock
is initialised according to the parameters provided.
Arguments are as follows:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact
.It Fa lock
The lock.
.It Fa prio
The process priority when it is woken up after sleeping on the lock.
.It Fa wmesg
A sleep message used when a process goes to sleep waiting for the lock, so
that the exact reason it is sleeping can easily be identified.
.It Fa timo
The maximum sleep time.
Used by
.Xr tsleep 9 .
.It Fa flags
Flags to specify the lock behaviour permanently over the lifetime of
the lock.
Valid lock flags are:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "LK_CANRECURSEXX" -compact
.It LK_NOWAIT
Processes should not sleep when attempting to acquire the lock.
.It LK_SLEEPFAIL
Processes should sleep, then return failure when acquiring the lock.
.It LK_CANRECURSE
Processes can acquire the lock recursively.
.El
.El
.It Fn lockmgr "lock" "flags" "slock"
Set, change or release a lock according to the parameters provided.
Arguments are as follows:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact
.It Fa lock
The lock.
.It Fa flags
Flags to specify the lock request type.
In addition to the flags specified above, the following flags are valid:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It LK_SHARED
Get one of many possible shared-access locks.
If a process holding an exclusive-access lock requests a shared-access lock,
the exclusive-access lock is downgraded to a shared-access lock.
.It LK_EXCLUSIVE
Stop further shared-access locks, when they are cleared, grant a
pending upgrade if it exists, then grant an exclusive-access lock.
Only one exclusive-access lock may exist at a time, except that a
process holding an exclusive-access lock may get additional
exclusive-access locks if it explicitly sets the LK_CANRECURSE flag in
the lock request, or if the LK_CANRECURSE flag was set when the lock
was initialised.
.It LK_RELEASE
Release one instance of a lock.
.It LK_DRAIN
Wait for all activity on the lock to end, then mark it decommissioned.
This feature is used before freeing a lock that is part of a piece of
memory that is about to be freed.
.It LK_RECURSEFAIL
Attempt at recursive lock fails.
.It LK_INTERLOCK
Unlock the simplelock
.Fa slock
when the lock is acquired.
.El
.Pp
.It Fa slock
Simplelock interlock.
If the flag LK_INTERLOCK is set in
.Fa flags ,
.Fa slock
is a simplelock held by the caller.
When the lock
.Fa lock
is acquired, the simplelock is released.
If the flag LK_INTERLOCK is not set,
.Fa slock
is ignored.
.El
.It Fn lockstatus "lock"
Determine the status of lock
.Fa lock .
Returns LK_EXCLUSIVE or LK_SHARED for exclusive-access and
shared-access locks respectively.
.It Fn lockmgr_printinfo "lock"
Print out information about state of lock
.Fa lock .
.El
.Sh RETURN VALUES
Successfully acquired locks return 0.
A failed lock attempt always returns a non-zero error value.
No lock is held after an error return.
Locks will always succeed unless one of the following is true:
.Bl -tag -width Er
.It Bq Er EBUSY
LK_NOWAIT is set and a sleep would be required.
.It Bq Er ENOLCK
LK_SLEEPFAIL is set and a sleep was done.
.It Bq Er EINTR
PCATCH is set in lock priority and a signal arrives to interrupt
a system call.
.It Bq Er ERESTART
PCATCH is set in lock priority and a signal arrives so that
the system call is restarted.
.It Bq Er EWOULDBLOCK
Non-null lock timeout and timeout expires.
.El
.Sh CODE REFERENCES
This section describes places within the
.Ox
source tree where actual code implementing or utilising the locking
framework can be found.
All pathnames are relative to
.Pa /usr/src .
.Pp
The locking framework itself is implemented within the file
.Pa sys/kern/kern_lock.c .
Data structures and function prototypes for the framework are located
in
.Pa sys/sys/lock.h .
.\"Machine-dependent simplelock primitives are implemented within the
.\"file
.\".Pa sys/arch/\*[Lt]arch\*[Gt]/include/lock.h .
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr mutex 9 ,
.Xr pmap 9 ,
.Xr rwlock 9 ,
.Xr spl 9 ,
.Xr tsleep 9 ,
.Xr uvm 9
.Sh HISTORY
The kernel locking API first appeared in
.Bx 4.4 -lite2 .
It was progressively deprecated in favor of
.Xr rwlock 9 .