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Commit b88c926a authored by André Almeida's avatar André Almeida
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futex2: Documentation: Document futex_waitv() uAPI


Create userspace documentation for futex_waitv() syscall, detailing how
the arguments are used.

Signed-off-by: default avatarAndré Almeida <andrealmeid@collabora.com>
parent 8067fd6d
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.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
======
futex2
======
:Author: André Almeida <andrealmeid@collabora.com>
futex, or fast user mutex, is a set of syscalls to allow userspace to create
performant synchronization mechanisms, such as mutexes, semaphores and
conditional variables in userspace. C standard libraries, like glibc, uses it
as a means to implement more high level interfaces like pthreads.
futex2 is a followup version of the initial futex syscall, designed to overcome
limitations of the original interface.
User API
========
``futex_waitv()``
-----------------
Wait on an array of futexes, wake on any::
futex_waitv(struct futex_waitv *waiters, unsigned int nr_futexes, unsigned int flags, struct timespec *timo)
struct futex_waitv {
__u64 val;
__u64 uaddr;
__u32 flags;
__u32 __reserved;
};
Userspace set an array of struct futex_waitv (up to a max of 128 entries),
using ``uaddr`` for the address to wait for, ``val`` for the expected value
and ``flags`` to specify the type (shared, private) and size of futex.
``__reserved`` is here for explicit padding in 32 and 64-bit platforms. It can
be used for future extensions, but currently it should be always 0.
``uaddr`` uses a 64-bit unsigned integer to store the userspace address. Given
signal extension and promotion rules, platforms that uses 32-bit pointers should
explicit cast the address value. Casting using ``(uintptr_t)`` solves the
problem and make the code work on both 64 and 32-bit platforms without further
tweaks::
waitv[i].uaddr = (uintptr_t) uaddr;
The pointer for the first item of the array is passed as ``waiters``. An invalid
address for ``waiters`` or for any ``uaddr`` returns ``-EFAULT``.
``nr_futexes`` specifies the size of the array. Numbers out of [1, 128]
interval will make the syscall return ``-EINVAL``.
``flags`` can be used to set the timeout clock.
For each entry in ``waiters`` array, the current value at ``uaddr`` is compared
to ``val``. If it's different, the syscall undo all the work done so far and
return ``-EAGAIN``. If all tests and verifications succeeds, syscall waits until
one of the following happens:
- The timeout expires, returning ``-ETIMEOUT``.
- A signal was sent to the sleeping task, returning ``-ERESTARTSYS``.
- Some futex at the list was awaken, returning the index of some waked futex.
An example of how to use the interface can be found at ``tools/testing/selftests/futex/futenctional/futex_waitv.c``.
Timeout
-------
For every operation that has a ``struct timespec timo`` argument, it is an
optional argument that points to an absolute timeout. By default, it's measured
against ``CLOCK_MONOTONIC``, but the flag ``FUTEX_CLOCK_REALTIME`` can be used
to measure it against ``CLOCK_REALTIME``. This syscall accepts only 64bit
timespec structs.
Types of futex
--------------
A futex can be either private or shared. Private is used for processes that
shares the same memory space and the virtual address of the futex will be the
same for all processes. This allows for optimizations in the kernel and is the
default type of a futex. To use private futexes, set the flag
``FUTEX_PRIVATE_FLAG``. For processes that doesn't share the same memory space
and therefore can have different virtual addresses for the same futex (using,
for instance, a file-backed shared memory) requires different internal
mechanisms to be get properly enqueued in the kernel. This is the default mode.
Futexes can be of different sizes: 8, 16, 32 or 64 bits. Currently, the only
supported one is 32 bit sized futex, and it need to be specified using
``FUTEX_32`` flag.
......@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ place where this information is gathered.
media/index
sysfs-platform_profile
vduse
futex2
.. only:: subproject and html
......
......@@ -7723,6 +7723,7 @@ L: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
S: Maintained
T: git git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip.git locking/core
F: Documentation/locking/*futex*
F: Documentation/userspace-api/futex2.rst
F: include/asm-generic/futex.h
F: include/linux/futex.h
F: include/uapi/linux/futex.h
......
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