SX - reference manual online

SX(9)                             BSD Kernel Developer's Manual                             SX(9)

NAME
     sx, sx_init, sx_init_flags, sx_destroy, sx_slock, sx_xlock, sx_slock_sig, sx_xlock_sig,
     sx_try_slock, sx_try_xlock, sx_sunlock, sx_xunlock, sx_unlock, sx_try_upgrade, sx_downgrade,
     sx_sleep, sx_xholder, sx_xlocked, sx_assert, SX_SYSINIT — kernel shared/exclusive lock

SYNOPSIS
     #include <sys/param.h>
     #include <sys/lock.h>
     #include <sys/sx.h>

     void
     sx_init(struct sx *sx, const char *description);

     void
     sx_init_flags(struct sx *sx, const char *description, int opts);

     void
     sx_destroy(struct sx *sx);

     void
     sx_slock(struct sx *sx);

     void
     sx_xlock(struct sx *sx);

     int
     sx_slock_sig(struct sx *sx);

     int
     sx_xlock_sig(struct sx *sx);

     int
     sx_try_slock(struct sx *sx);

     int
     sx_try_xlock(struct sx *sx);

     void
     sx_sunlock(struct sx *sx);

     void
     sx_xunlock(struct sx *sx);

     void
     sx_unlock(struct sx *sx);

     int
     sx_try_upgrade(struct sx *sx);

     void
     sx_downgrade(struct sx *sx);

     int
     sx_sleep(void *chan, struct sx *sx, int priority, const char *wmesg, int timo);

     struct thread *
     sx_xholder(struct sx *sx);

     int
     sx_xlocked(const struct sx *sx);

     options INVARIANTS
     options INVARIANT_SUPPORT

     void
     sx_assert(const struct sx *sx, int what);

     #include <sys/kernel.h>

     SX_SYSINIT(name, struct sx *sx, const char *description);

DESCRIPTION
     Shared/exclusive locks are used to protect data that are read far more often than they are
     written.  Shared/exclusive locks do not implement priority propagation like mutexes and
     reader/writer locks to prevent priority inversions, so shared/exclusive locks should be used
     prudently.

     Shared/exclusive locks are created with either sx_init() or sx_init_flags() where sx is a
     pointer to space for a struct sx, and description is a pointer to a null-terminated charac‐
     ter string that describes the shared/exclusive lock.  The opts argument to sx_init_flags()
     specifies a set of optional flags to alter the behavior of sx.  It contains one or more of
     the following flags:

     SX_NOADAPTIVE  If the kernel is not compiled with options NO_ADAPTIVE_SX, then lock opera‐
                    tions for sx will spin instead of sleeping while an exclusive lock holder is
                    executing on another CPU.

     SX_DUPOK       Witness should not log messages about duplicate locks being acquired.

     SX_NOWITNESS   Instruct witness(4) to ignore this lock.

     SX_NOPROFILE   Do not profile this lock.

     SX_RECURSE     Allow threads to recursively acquire exclusive locks for sx.

     SX_QUIET       Do not log any operations for this lock via ktr(4).

     Shared/exclusive locks are destroyed with sx_destroy().  The lock sx must not be locked by
     any thread when it is destroyed.

     Threads acquire and release a shared lock by calling sx_slock(), sx_slock_sig() or
     sx_try_slock() and sx_sunlock() or sx_unlock().  Threads acquire and release an exclusive
     lock by calling sx_xlock(), sx_xlock_sig() or sx_try_xlock() and sx_xunlock() or
     sx_unlock().  A thread can attempt to upgrade a currently held shared lock to an exclusive
     lock by calling sx_try_upgrade().  A thread that has an exclusive lock can downgrade it to a
     shared lock by calling sx_downgrade().

     sx_try_slock() and sx_try_xlock() will return 0 if the shared/exclusive lock cannot be
     acquired immediately; otherwise the shared/exclusive lock will be acquired and a non-zero
     value will be returned.

     sx_try_upgrade() will return 0 if the shared lock cannot be upgraded to an exclusive lock
     immediately; otherwise the exclusive lock will be acquired and a non-zero value will be
     returned.

     sx_slock_sig() and sx_xlock_sig() do the same as their normal versions but performing an
     interruptible sleep.  They return a non-zero value if the sleep has been interrupted by a
     signal or an interrupt, otherwise 0.

     A thread can atomically release a shared/exclusive lock while waiting for an event by call‐
     ing sx_sleep().  For more details on the parameters to this function, see sleep(9).

     When compiled with options INVARIANTS and options INVARIANT_SUPPORT, the sx_assert() func‐
     tion tests sx for the assertions specified in what, and panics if they are not met.  One of
     the following assertions must be specified:

     SA_LOCKED    Assert that the current thread has either a shared or an exclusive lock on the
                  sx lock pointed to by the first argument.

     SA_SLOCKED   Assert that the current thread has a shared lock on the sx lock pointed to by
                  the first argument.

     SA_XLOCKED   Assert that the current thread has an exclusive lock on the sx lock pointed to
                  by the first argument.

     SA_UNLOCKED  Assert that the current thread has no lock on the sx lock pointed to by the
                  first argument.

     In addition, one of the following optional assertions may be included with either an
     SA_LOCKED, SA_SLOCKED, or SA_XLOCKED assertion:

     SA_RECURSED     Assert that the current thread has a recursed lock on sx.

     SA_NOTRECURSED  Assert that the current thread does not have a recursed lock on sx.

     sx_xholder() will return a pointer to the thread which currently holds an exclusive lock on
     sx.  If no thread holds an exclusive lock on sx, then NULL is returned instead.

     sx_xlocked() will return non-zero if the current thread holds the exclusive lock; otherwise,
     it will return zero.

     For ease of programming, sx_unlock() is provided as a macro frontend to the respective func‐
     tions, sx_sunlock() and sx_xunlock().  Algorithms that are aware of what state the lock is
     in should use either of the two specific functions for a minor performance benefit.

     The SX_SYSINIT() macro is used to generate a call to the sx_sysinit() routine at system
     startup in order to initialize a given sx lock.  The parameters are the same as sx_init()
     but with an additional argument, name, that is used in generating unique variable names for
     the related structures associated with the lock and the sysinit routine.

     A thread may not hold both a shared lock and an exclusive lock on the same lock simultane‐
     ously; attempting to do so will result in deadlock.

CONTEXT
     A thread may hold a shared or exclusive lock on an sx lock while sleeping.  As a result, an
     sx lock may not be acquired while holding a mutex.  Otherwise, if one thread slept while
     holding an sx lock while another thread blocked on the same sx lock after acquiring a mutex,
     then the second thread would effectively end up sleeping while holding a mutex, which is not
     allowed.

SEE ALSO
     locking(9), lock(9), mutex(9), panic(9), rwlock(9), sema(9)

BUGS
     Currently there is no way to assert that a lock is not held.  This is not possible in the
     non-WITNESS case for asserting that this thread does not hold a shared lock.  In the
     non-WITNESS case, the SA_LOCKED and SA_SLOCKED assertions merely check that some thread
     holds a shared lock.  They do not ensure that the current thread holds a shared lock.

BSD                                     November 16, 2011                                     BSD