<!-- $Id: locking.sgml,v 1.2 2003/05/06 14:11:39 janakj Exp $ -->
<!DOCTYPE Book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V4.2//EN" [
<!ENTITY ser "SIP Express Router">
<!ENTITY moddir "/usr/lib/ser/modules">
]>

<book>
    <chapter>
	<title>Locking Interface</title>
	<section>
	    <title>Why use it ?</title>
	    <para>
		The main reason in creating it was to have a single transparent interface to various
		locking methods. For example right now &ser; uses the following locking methods,
		depending on their availability on the target system.
	    </para>
	    <itemizedlist>
		<listitem>
		    <simpara><emphasis>FAST_LOCK</emphasis></simpara>
		    <simpara>
			Fast inline assembly locks, defined in <filename
			moreinfo="none">fast_lock.h</filename>. They are currently available for
			x86, sparc64, strongarm (amv4l) and ppc (external untested contributed
			code). In general if the assembly code exists for a given architecture and
			the compiler knows inline assembly (for example sun cc does not) FAST_LOCK
			is prefered. The main advantage of using FAST_LOCK is very low memory
			overhead and extremely fast lock/unlock operations (like 20 times faster
			then SYSV semaphores on linux & 40 times on solaris). The only thing that
			comes close to them are pthread mutexes (which are about 3-4 times slower).
		    </simpara>
		</listitem>
		<listitem>
		    <simpara><emphasis>PHTREAD_MUTEX</emphasis></simpara>
		    <simpara>
			Uses pthread_mutex_lock/unlock. They are quite fast but they work between
			processes only on some systems (they do not work on linux).
		    </simpara>
		</listitem>
		<listitem>
		    <simpara><emphasis>POSIX_SEM</emphasis></simpara>
		    <simpara>
			Uses posix semaphores (<function
			moreinfo="none">sem_wait</function>/<function
			moreinfo="none">sem_post</function>). They are slower then the previous
			methods but still way faster then SYSV sempahores. Unfortunately they also
			do not work on all the systems (e.g. linux).
		    </simpara>
		</listitem>
		<listitem>
		    <simpara><emphasis>SYSV_SEM</emphasis></simpara>
		    <simpara>
			This is the most portable but also the slowest locking method. Another
			problem is that the number of semaphores that can be alocated by a process
			is limited. One also has to free them before exiting.
		    </simpara>
		</listitem>
	    </itemizedlist>
	</section>
	<section>
	    <title>How to use it ?</title>
	    <simpara>
		First of all you have to include <filename
		moreinfo="none">locking.h</filename>. Then when compiling the code one or all of
		FAST_LOCK, USE_PTHREAD_MUTEX, USE_PTHREAD_SEM or USE_SYSV_SEM must be defined (the
		ser <filename moreinfo="none">Makefile.defs</filename> takes care of this, you
		should need to change it only for new architectures or compilers). <filename
		moreinfo="none">locking.h</filename> defines 2 new types:
		<structname>gen_lock_t</structname> and <structname>lock_set_t</structname>.
	    </simpara>
	</section>
	<section>
	    <title>Simple Locks</title>
	    <simpara>
		The simple locks are simple mutexes. The type is
		<structname>gen_lock_t</structname>.
	    </simpara>
	    <warning>
		<simpara>
		    Do not make any assumptions on <structname>gen_lock_t</structname> base type, it
		    does not have to be always an int.
		</simpara>
	    </warning>
	    <section>
		<title>Allocation & Initialization</title>
		<simpara>
		    The locks are allocated with: <function moreinfo="none">gen_lock_t*
		    lock_alloc()</function> and initialized with <function
		    moreinfo="none">gen_lock_t* lock_init(gen_lock_t* lock)</function>. Both
		    functions return 0 on failure. The locks must be initialized before use. A
		    proper alloc/init sequence looks like:
		</simpara>
		<programlisting format="linespecific">
gen_lock_t* lock;

lock=lock_alloc();
if (lock==0) goto error;
if (lock_init(lock)==0){
   lock_dealloc(lock);
   goto error; /* could not init lock*/
}
...
</programlisting>
		<simpara>
		    Lock allocation can be skipped in some cases: if the lock is already in shared
		    memory you don't need to allocate it again, you can initialize it directly, but
		    keep in mind that the lock <emphasis>MUST</emphasis> be in shared memory.
		</simpara>
		<simpara>
		    Example:
		</simpara>
		<programlisting format="linespecific">
struct s {
    int foo;
    gen_lock_t lock;
} bar;

bar=shm_malloc(sizeof struct s); /* we allocate it in the shared memory */
if (lock_init(&amp;bar->lock)==0){
 /* error initializing the lock */
 ...
}
</programlisting>
	    </section>
	    <section>
		<title>Destroying & Deallocating the Locks</title>
		<funcsynopsis>
		    <!-- one of (FUNCPROTOTYPE FUNCSYNOPSISINFO) -->
		    <funcprototype>
			<funcdef>void <function moreinfo="none">lock_destroy</function></funcdef>
			<paramdef><parameter moreinfo="none">gen_lock_t* lock</parameter></paramdef>
		    </funcprototype>
		    <funcprototype>
			<funcdef>void <function moreinfo="none">lock_dealloc</function></funcdef>
			<paramdef><parameter moreinfo="none">gen_lock_t* lock</parameter></paramdef>
		    </funcprototype>
		</funcsynopsis>
		<simpara>
		    The <function moreinfo="none">lock_destroy</function> function must be called
		    first. It removes the resources associated with the lock, but it does not also
		    free the lock shared memory part. Think of sysv <command
		    moreinfo="none">rmid</command>.  Please don't forget to call this function, or
		    you can leave allocated resources in some cases (e.g sysv semaphores). Be
		    carefull to call it in your module destroy function if you use any global module
		    locks.
		</simpara>
		<simpara>
		    Example:
		</simpara>
		<programlisting format="linespecific">
lock_destroy(lock);
lock_dealloc(lock);
</programlisting>
		<simpara>
		    Of course you don't need to call <function
		    moreinfo="none">lock_dealloc</function> if your lock was not allocated with
		    <function moreinfo="none">lock_alloc</function>l.
		</simpara>
	    </section>
	    <section>
		<title>Locking & Unlocking</title>
		<funcsynopsis>
		    <funcprototype>
			<funcdef>void <function moreinfo="none">lock_get</function></funcdef>
			<paramdef><parameter moreinfo="none">gen_lock_t* lock</parameter></paramdef>
		    </funcprototype>
		    <funcprototype>
			<funcdef>void <function moreinfo="none">lock_release</function></funcdef>
			<paramdef><parameter moreinfo="none">gen_lock_t* lock</parameter></paramdef>
		    </funcprototype>
		</funcsynopsis>
	    </section>
	</section>
	<section>
	    <title>Lock Sets</title>
	    <simpara>
		The lock sets are kind of sysv semaphore sets equivalent. The type is
		<structname>lock_set_t</structname>.  Use them when you need a lot of mutexes. In
		some cases they waste less system resources than arrays of
		<structname>gen_lock_t</structname> (e.g. sys v semaphores).
	    </simpara>
	    <section>
		<title>Allocating & Initializing</title>
		<funcsynopsis>
		    <funcprototype>
			<funcdef>lock_set_t* lock_set_alloc</funcdef>
			<paramdef><parameter moreinfo="none">int no</parameter></paramdef>
		    </funcprototype>
		    <funcprototype>
			<funcdef>lock_set_t* lock_set_init</funcdef>
			<paramdef><parameter moreinfo="none">lock_set_t* set</parameter></paramdef>
		    </funcprototype>
		</funcsynopsis>
		<simpara>
		    Both functions return 0 on failure.
		</simpara>
		<warning>
		    <simpara>
			Expect the allocation function to fail for large numbers. It depends on the
			locking method used & the system available resources (again the sysv
			semaphores example).
		    </simpara>
		</warning>
		<simpara>
		    Example:
		</simpara>
		<programlisting format="linespecific">
lock_set_t *lock_set;

lock_set=lock_set_alloc(100);
if (lock_set==0) goto error;
if (lock_set_init(lock_set)==0){
   lock_set_dealloc(lock_set);
   goto error;
}
</programlisting>
	    </section>
	    <section>
		<title>Destroying & Deallocating</title>
		<funcsynopsis>
		    <funcprototype>
			<funcdef>void <function moreinfo="none">lock_set_destroy</function></funcdef>
			<paramdef><parameter moreinfo="none">lock_set_t* s</parameter></paramdef>
		    </funcprototype>
		    <funcprototype>
			<funcdef>void <function moreinfo="none">lock_set_dealloc</function></funcdef>
			<paramdef><parameter moreinfo="none">lock_set_t* s</parameter></paramdef>
		    </funcprototype>
		</funcsynopsis>
		<simpara>
		    Again don't forget to "destroy" the locks.
		</simpara>
	    </section>
	    <section>
		<title>Locking & Unlocking</title>
		<funcsynopsis>
		    <funcprototype>
			<funcdef>void <function moreinfo="none">lock_set_get</function></funcdef>
			<paramdef>
			    <parameter moreinfo="none">lock_set_t* s</parameter>
			    <parameter moreinfo="none">int i</parameter>
			</paramdef>
		    </funcprototype>
		    <funcprototype>
			<funcdef>void <function moreinfo="none">lock_set_release</function></funcdef>
			<paramdef>
			    <parameter moreinfo="none">lock_set_t* s</parameter>
			    <parameter moreinfo="none">int i</parameter>
			</paramdef>
		    </funcprototype>
		</funcsynopsis>
		<simpara>
		    Example:
		</simpara>
		<programlisting format="linespecific">
lock_set_get(lock_set, 2);
/* do something */
lock_set_release(lock_set, 2);
</programlisting>
	    </section>
	</section>
    </chapter>
</book>
