[take25 1/6] kevent: Description.

Evgeniy Polyakov
2006-11-21T16:31:42Z

Description.

diff --git a/Documentation/kevent.txt b/Documentation/kevent.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..49e1cc2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/kevent.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,230 @@
+Description.
+
+int kevent_init(struct kevent_ring *ring, unsigned int ring_size);
+
+num - size of the ring buffer in events
+ring - pointer to allocated ring buffer
+
+Return value: kevent control file descriptor or negative error value.
+
+ struct kevent_ring
+ {
+ unsigned int ring_kidx, ring_uidx, ring_over;
+ struct ukevent event[0];
+ }
+
+ring_kidx - index in the ring buffer where kernel will put new events
+ when kevent_wait() or kevent_get_events() is called
+ring_uidx - index of the first entry userspace can start reading from
+ring_over - number of overflows of ring_uidx happend from the start.
+ Overflow counter is used to prevent situation when two threads
+ are going to free the same events, but one of them was scheduled
+ away for too long, so ring indexes were wrapped, so when that
+ thread will be awakened, it will free not those events, which
+ it suppose to free.
+
+Example userspace code (ring_buffer.c) can be found on project's homepage.
+
+Each kevent syscall can be so called cancellation point in glibc, i.e. when
+thread has been cancelled in kevent syscall, thread can be safely removed
+and no events will be lost, since each syscall (kevent_wait() or
+kevent_get_events()) will copy event into special ring buffer, accessible
+from other threads or even processes (if shared memory is used).
+
+When kevent is removed (not dequeued when it is ready, but just removed),
+even if it was ready, it is not copied into ring buffer, since if it is
+removed, no one cares about it (otherwise user would wait until it becomes
+ready and got it through usual way using kevent_get_events() or kevent_wait())
+and thus no need to copy it to the ring buffer.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+int kevent_ctl(int fd, unsigned int cmd, unsigned int num, struct ukevent *arg);
+
+fd - is the file descriptor referring to the kevent queue to manipulate.
+It is created by opening "/dev/kevent" char device, which is created with
+dynamic minor number and major number assigned for misc devices.
+
+cmd - is the requested operation. It can be one of the following:
+ KEVENT_CTL_ADD - add event notification
+ KEVENT_CTL_REMOVE - remove event notification
+ KEVENT_CTL_MODIFY - modify existing notification
+
+num - number of struct ukevent in the array pointed to by arg
+arg - array of struct ukevent
+
+Return value:
+ number of events processed or negative error value.
+
+When called, kevent_ctl will carry out the operation specified in the
+cmd parameter.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+ int kevent_get_events(int ctl_fd, unsigned int min_nr, unsigned int max_nr,
+ __u64 timeout, struct ukevent *buf, unsigned flags);
+
+ctl_fd - file descriptor referring to the kevent queue
+min_nr - minimum number of completed events that kevent_get_events will block
+ waiting for
+max_nr - number of struct ukevent in buf
+timeout - number of nanoseconds to wait before returning less than min_nr
+ events. If this is -1, then wait forever.
+buf - pointer to an array of struct ukevent.
+flags - unused
+
+Return value:
+ number of events copied or negative error value.
+
+kevent_get_events will wait timeout milliseconds for at least min_nr completed
+events, copying completed struct ukevents to buf and deleting any
+KEVENT_REQ_ONESHOT event requests. In nonblocking mode it returns as many
+events as possible, but not more than max_nr. In blocking mode it waits until
+timeout or if at least min_nr events are ready.
+
+This function copies event into ring buffer if it was initialized, if ring buffer
+is full, KEVENT_RET_COPY_FAILED flag is set in ret_flags field.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+ int kevent_wait(int ctl_fd, unsigned int num, __u64 timeout);
+
+ctl_fd - file descriptor referring to the kevent queue
+num - number of processed kevents
+timeout - this timeout specifies number of nanoseconds to wait until there is
+ free space in kevent queue
+
+Return value:
+ number of events copied into ring buffer or negative error value.
+
+This syscall waits until either timeout expires or at least one event becomes
+ready. It also copies events into special ring buffer. If ring buffer is full,
+it waits until there are ready events and then return.
+If kevent is one-shot kevent it is removed in this syscall.
+If kevent is edge-triggered (KEVENT_REQ_ET flag is set in 'req_flags') it is
+requeued in this syscall for performance reasons.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+ int kevent_commit(int ctl_fd, unsigned int start,
+ unsigned int num, unsigned int over);
+
+ctl_fd - file descriptor referring to the kevent queue
+start - index of the first index in the ring buffer to start to commit from
+num - number of kevents to commit
+over - overflow count for given $start value
+
+Return value:
+ number of committed kevents or negative error value.
+
+This function commits, i.e. marks as empty, slots in the ring buffer, so
+they can be reused when userspace completes that entries processing.
+
+Overflow counter is used to prevent situation when two threads are going
+to free the same events, but one of them was scheduled away for too long,
+so ring indexes were wrapped, so when that thread will be awakened, it
+will free not those events, which it suppose to free.
+
+It is possible that returned number of committed events will be smaller than
+requested number - it is possible when several threads try to commit the
+same events.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+The bulk of the interface is entirely done through the ukevent struct.
+It is used to add event requests, modify existing event requests,
+specify which event requests to remove, and return completed events.
+
+struct ukevent contains the following members:
+
+struct kevent_id id
+ Id of this request, e.g. socket number, file descriptor and so on
+__u32 type
+ Event type, e.g. KEVENT_SOCK, KEVENT_INODE, KEVENT_TIMER and so on
+__u32 event
+ Event itself, e.g. SOCK_ACCEPT, INODE_CREATED, TIMER_FIRED
+__u32 req_flags
+ Per-event request flags,
+
+ KEVENT_REQ_ONESHOT
+ event will be removed when it is ready
+
+ KEVENT_REQ_WAKEUP_ALL
+ Kevent wakes up only first thread interested in given event,
+ or all threads if this flag is set.
+
+ KEVENT_REQ_ET
+ Edge Triggered behaviour. It is an optimisation which allows to move
+ ready and dequeued (i.e. copied to userspace) event to move into set
+ of interest for given storage (socket, inode and so on) again. It is
+ very usefull for cases when the same event should be used many times
+ (like reading from pipe). It is similar to epoll()'s EPOLLET flag.
+
+ KEVENT_REQ_LAST_CHECK
+ if set allows to perform the last check on kevent (call appropriate
+ callback) when kevent is marked as ready and has been removed from
+ ready queue. If it will be confirmed that kevent is ready
+ (k->callbacks.callback(k) returns true) then kevent will be copied
+ to userspace, otherwise it will be requeued back to storage.
+ Second (checking) call is performed with this bit cleared, so callback
+ can detect when it was called from kevent_storage_ready() - bit is set,
+ or kevent_dequeue_ready() - bit is cleared. If kevent will be requeued,
+ bit will be set again.
+
+ KEVENT_REQ_ALWAYS_QUEUE
+ If this flag is set kevent will be queued into ready queue if it is
+ ready at enqueue time, otherwise it will be copied back to userspace
+ and will not be queued into the storage.
+
+__u32 ret_flags
+ Per-event return flags
+
+ KEVENT_RET_BROKEN
+ Kevent is broken
+
+ KEVENT_RET_DONE
+ Kevent processing was finished successfully
+
+ KEVENT_RET_COPY_FAILED
+ Kevent was not copied into ring buffer due to some error conditions.
+
+__u32 ret_data
+ Event return data. Event originator fills it with anything it likes
+ (for example timer notifications put number of milliseconds when timer
+ has fired
+union { __u32 user[2]; void *ptr; }
+ User's data. It is not used, just copied to/from user. The whole structure
+ is aligned to 8 bytes already, so the last union is aligned properly.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Usage
+
+For KEVENT_CTL_ADD, all fields relevant to the event type must be filled
+(id, type, event, req_flags).
+After kevent_ctl(..., KEVENT_CTL_ADD, ...) returns each struct's ret_flags
+should be checked to see if the event is already broken or done.
+
+For KEVENT_CTL_MODIFY, the id, req_flags, and user and event fields must be
+set and an existing kevent request must have matching id and user fields. If
+match is found, req_flags and event are replaced with the newly supplied
+values and requeueing is started, so modified kevent can be checked and
+probably marked as ready immediately. If a match can't be found, the
+passed in ukevent's ret_flags has KEVENT_RET_BROKEN set. KEVENT_RET_DONE is
+always set.
+
+For KEVENT_CTL_REMOVE, the id and user fields must be set and an existing
+kevent request must have matching id and user fields. If a match is found,
+the kevent request is removed. If a match can't be found, the passed in
+ukevent's ret_flags has KEVENT_RET_BROKEN set. KEVENT_RET_DONE is always set.
+
+For kevent_get_events, the entire structure is returned.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Usage cases
+
+kevent_timer
+struct ukevent should contain following fields:
+ type - KEVENT_TIMER
+ event - KEVENT_TIMER_FIRED
+ req_flags - KEVENT_REQ_ONESHOT if you want to fire that timer only once
+ id.raw[0] - number of seconds after commit when this timer shout expire
+ id.raw[0] - additional to number of seconds number of nanoseconds