wiki:kernel_locks

Version 8 (modified by alain, 10 years ago) (diff)

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GIET-VM / Locks access functions

The locks.c and locks.h files define the functions used by the kernel to take & release locks protecting exclusive access to a shared resource.

The GIET_VM kernel define two types of spin-lock:

  • The spin_lock_t implements a spin-lock with a waiting queue (based on a ticket allocator scheme), to enforce fairness and avoid live-lock situations. The GIET_LOCK_MAX_TICKET define the wrapping value for the ticket allocator.
  • The simple_lock_t implements a spin-lock without waiting queue. It is only used by the TTY0 access functions, to get exclusive access to the TTY0 kernel terminal

The lock access functions are prefixed by "_" to remind that they can only be executed by a processor in kernel mode.

Both the spin_lock_t and simple_lock_t structures are implemented to have one single lock in a 64 bytes cache line, and should be aligned on a cache line boundary.

unsigned int _atomic_increment( unsigned int * shared , unsigned int increment )

This blocking function use a LL/SC to atomically increment a shared variable.

  • shared : pointer on the shared variable
  • increment : increment value

void _lock_init( spin_lock_t * lock )

This function initializes the spin lock ticket allocator.

void _lock_acquire( spin_lock_t * lock )

This blocking function uses the atomic_increment() function, to implement a ticket allocator and provide ordered access to the protected resource. It returns only when the lock as been granted.

void _lock_release( spin_lock_t * lock )

This function releases the lock. It must always be called after a successful _lock_acquire().

void _simple_lock_acquire( simple_lock_t * lock )

This blocking function does not implement any ordered allocation. It returns only when the lock as been granted.

void _simple_lock_release( simple_lock_t * lock )

This function releases the lock. It must always be called after a successful _simple_lock_acquire().