xref: /dragonfly/share/man/man9/atomic.9 (revision 5868d2b9)
1.\" Copyright (c) 2000-2001 John H. Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org>
2.\" All rights reserved.
3.\"
4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
6.\" are met:
7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
8.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
10.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
11.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
12.\"
13.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE DEVELOPERS ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR
14.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES
15.\" OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.
16.\" IN NO EVENT SHALL THE DEVELOPERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
17.\" INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT
18.\" NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
19.\" DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY
20.\" THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
21.\" (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF
22.\" THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
23.\"
24.\" $FreeBSD: src/share/man/man9/atomic.9,v 1.17 2010/05/27 13:56:27 uqs Exp $
25.\"
26.Dd June 13, 2012
27.Dt ATOMIC 9
28.Os
29.Sh NAME
30.Nm atomic_add ,
31.Nm atomic_clear ,
32.Nm atomic_cmpset ,
33.Nm atomic_fetchadd ,
34.Nm atomic_load ,
35.Nm atomic_readandclear ,
36.Nm atomic_set ,
37.Nm atomic_subtract ,
38.Nm atomic_store
39.Nd atomic operations
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.In sys/types.h
42.In machine/atomic.h
43.Ft void
44.Fn atomic_add_[acq_|rel_]<type> "volatile <type> *p" "<type> v"
45.Ft void
46.Fn atomic_clear_[acq_|rel_]<type> "volatile <type> *p" "<type> v"
47.Ft int
48.Fo atomic_cmpset_[acq_|rel_]<type>
49.Fa "volatile <type> *dst"
50.Fa "<type> old"
51.Fa "<type> new"
52.Fc
53.Ft <type>
54.Fn atomic_fetchadd_<type> "volatile <type> *p" "<type> v"
55.Ft <type>
56.Fn atomic_load_acq_<type> "volatile <type> *p"
57.Ft <type>
58.Fn atomic_readandclear_<type> "volatile <type> *p"
59.Ft void
60.Fn atomic_set_[acq_|rel_]<type> "volatile <type> *p" "<type> v"
61.Ft void
62.Fn atomic_subtract_[acq_|rel_]<type> "volatile <type> *p" "<type> v"
63.Ft void
64.Fn atomic_store_rel_<type> "volatile <type> *p" "<type> v"
65.Sh DESCRIPTION
66Each of the atomic operations is guaranteed to be atomic in the presence of
67interrupts.
68They can be used to implement reference counts or as building blocks for more
69advanced synchronization primitives such as mutexes.
70.Ss Types
71Each atomic operation operates on a specific
72.Fa type .
73The type to use is indicated in the function name.
74The available types that can be used are:
75.Pp
76.Bl -tag -offset indent -width short -compact
77.It Li cpumask
78CPU mask (cpumask_t)
79.It Li int
80unsigned integer
81.It Li long
82unsigned long integer
83.It Li ptr
84unsigned integer the size of a pointer
85.It Li 32
86unsigned 32-bit integer
87.\".It Li 64
88.\"unsigned 64-bit integer
89.El
90.Pp
91For example, the function to atomically add two integers is called
92.Fn atomic_add_int .
93.Pp
94Certain architectures also provide operations for types smaller than
95.Dq Li int .
96.Pp
97.Bl -tag -offset indent -width short -compact
98.It Li char
99unsigned character
100.It Li short
101unsigned short integer
102.It Li 8
103unsigned 8-bit integer
104.It Li 16
105unsigned 16-bit integer
106.El
107.Pp
108These must not be used in MI code because the instructions to implement them
109efficiently may not be available.
110.Ss Memory Barriers
111Memory barriers are used to guarantee the order of data accesses in
112two ways.
113First, they specify hints to the compiler to not re-order or optimize the
114operations.
115Second, on architectures that do not guarantee ordered data accesses,
116special instructions or special variants of instructions are used to indicate
117to the processor that data accesses need to occur in a certain order.
118As a result, most of the atomic operations have three variants in order to
119include optional memory barriers.
120The first form just performs the operation without any explicit barriers.
121The second form uses a read memory barrier, and the third variant uses a write
122memory barrier.
123.Pp
124The second variant of each operation includes a read memory barrier.
125This barrier ensures that the effects of this operation are completed before the
126effects of any later data accesses.
127As a result, the operation is said to have acquire semantics as it acquires a
128pseudo-lock requiring further operations to wait until it has completed.
129To denote this, the suffix
130.Dq Li _acq
131is inserted into the function name immediately prior to the
132.Dq Li _ Ns Aq Fa type
133suffix.
134For example, to subtract two integers ensuring that any later writes will
135happen after the subtraction is performed, use
136.Fn atomic_subtract_acq_int .
137.Pp
138The third variant of each operation includes a write memory barrier.
139This ensures that all effects of all previous data accesses are completed
140before this operation takes place.
141As a result, the operation is said to have release semantics as it releases
142any pending data accesses to be completed before its operation is performed.
143To denote this, the suffix
144.Dq Li _rel
145is inserted into the function name immediately prior to the
146.Dq Li _ Ns Aq Fa type
147suffix.
148For example, to add two long integers ensuring that all previous
149writes will happen first, use
150.Fn atomic_add_rel_long .
151.Pp
152A practical example of using memory barriers is to ensure that data accesses
153that are protected by a lock are all performed while the lock is held.
154To achieve this, one would use a read barrier when acquiring the lock to
155guarantee that the lock is held before any protected operations are performed.
156Finally, one would use a write barrier when releasing the lock to ensure that
157all of the protected operations are completed before the lock is released.
158.Ss Multiple Processors
159The current set of atomic operations do not necessarily guarantee atomicity
160across multiple processors.
161To guarantee atomicity across processors, not only does the individual
162operation need to be atomic on the processor performing the operation, but
163the result of the operation needs to be pushed out to stable storage and the
164caches of all other processors on the system need to invalidate any cache
165lines that include the affected memory region.
166On the
167.Tn i386
168architecture, the cache coherency model requires that the hardware perform
169this task, thus the atomic operations are atomic across multiple processors.
170.\"On the
171.\".Tn ia64
172.\"architecture, coherency is only guaranteed for pages that are configured to
173.\"using a caching policy of either uncached or write back.
174.Ss Semantics
175This section describes the semantics of each operation using a C like notation.
176.Bl -hang
177.It Fn atomic_add p v
178.Bd -literal -compact
179*p += v;
180.Ed
181.El
182.Pp
183The
184.Fn atomic_add
185functions are not implemented for the type
186.Dq Li cpumask .
187.Bl -hang
188.It Fn atomic_clear p v
189.Bd -literal -compact
190*p &= ~v;
191.Ed
192.It Fn atomic_cmpset dst old new
193.Bd -literal -compact
194if (*dst == old) {
195	*dst = new;
196	return 1;
197} else
198	return 0;
199.Ed
200.El
201.Pp
202The
203.Fn atomic_cmpset
204functions are not implemented for the types
205.Dq Li char ,
206.Dq Li short ,
207.Dq Li 8 ,
208and
209.Dq Li 16 .
210.Bl -hang
211.It Fn atomic_fetchadd p v
212.Bd -literal -compact
213tmp = *p;
214*p += v;
215return tmp;
216.Ed
217.El
218.Pp
219The
220.Fn atomic_fetchadd
221functions are only implemented for the types
222.Dq Li int ,
223.Dq Li long
224and
225.Dq Li 32
226and do not have any variants with memory barriers at this time.
227.Bl -hang
228.It Fn atomic_load addr
229.Bd -literal -compact
230return (*addr)
231.Ed
232.El
233.Pp
234The
235.Fn atomic_load
236functions are only provided with acquire memory barriers.
237.Bl -hang
238.It Fn atomic_readandclear addr
239.Bd -literal -compact
240temp = *addr;
241*addr = 0;
242return (temp);
243.Ed
244.El
245.Pp
246The
247.Fn atomic_readandclear
248functions are not implemented for the types
249.Dq Li char ,
250.Dq Li short ,
251.Dq Li ptr ,
252.Dq Li 8 ,
253.Dq Li 16 ,
254and
255.Dq Li cpumask
256and do
257not have any variants with memory barriers at this time.
258.Bl -hang
259.It Fn atomic_set p v
260.Bd -literal -compact
261*p |= v;
262.Ed
263.It Fn atomic_subtract p v
264.Bd -literal -compact
265*p -= v;
266.Ed
267.El
268.Pp
269The
270.Fn atomic_subtract
271functions are not implemented for the type
272.Dq Li cpumask .
273.Bl -hang
274.It Fn atomic_store p v
275.Bd -literal -compact
276*p = v;
277.Ed
278.El
279.Pp
280The
281.Fn atomic_store
282functions are only provided with release memory barriers.
283.\".Pp
284.\"The type
285.\".Dq Li 64
286.\"is currently not implemented for any of the atomic operations on the
287.\".Tn arm ,
288.\".Tn i386 ,
289.\"and
290.\".Tn powerpc
291.\"architectures.
292.Sh RETURN VALUES
293The
294.Fn atomic_cmpset
295function
296returns the result of the compare operation.
297The
298.Fn atomic_fetchadd ,
299.Fn atomic_load ,
300and
301.Fn atomic_readandclear
302functions
303return the value at the specified address.
304.\".Sh EXAMPLES
305.\"This example uses the
306.\".Fn atomic_cmpset_acq_ptr
307.\"and
308.\".Fn atomic_set_ptr
309.\"functions to obtain a sleep mutex and handle recursion.
310.\"Since the
311.\".Va mtx_lock
312.\"member of a
313.\".Vt "struct mtx"
314.\"is a pointer, the
315.\".Dq Li ptr
316.\"type is used.
317.\".Bd -literal
318.\"/* Try to obtain mtx_lock once. */
319.\"#define _obtain_lock(mp, tid)						\\
320.\"	atomic_cmpset_acq_ptr(&(mp)->mtx_lock, MTX_UNOWNED, (tid))
321.\"
322.\"/* Get a sleep lock, deal with recursion inline. */
323.\"#define _get_sleep_lock(mp, tid, opts, file, line) do {			\\
324.\"	uintptr_t _tid = (uintptr_t)(tid);				\\
325.\"									\\
326.\"	if (!_obtain_lock(mp, tid)) {					\\
327.\"		if (((mp)->mtx_lock & MTX_FLAGMASK) != _tid)		\\
328.\"			_mtx_lock_sleep((mp), _tid, (opts), (file), (line));\\
329.\"		else {							\\
330.\"			atomic_set_ptr(&(mp)->mtx_lock, MTX_RECURSE);	\\
331.\"			(mp)->mtx_recurse++;				\\
332.\"		}							\\
333.\"	}								\\
334.\"} while (0)
335.\".Ed
336.Sh HISTORY
337The
338.Fn atomic_add ,
339.Fn atomic_clear ,
340.Fn atomic_set ,
341and
342.Fn atomic_subtract
343operations were first introduced in
344.Fx 3.0 .
345This first set only supported the types
346.Dq Li char ,
347.Dq Li short ,
348.Dq Li int ,
349and
350.Dq Li long .
351The
352.Fn atomic_cmpset ,
353.Fn atomic_load ,
354.Fn atomic_readandclear ,
355and
356.Fn atomic_store
357operations were added in
358.Fx 5.0 .
359The types
360.Dq Li 8 ,
361.Dq Li 16 ,
362.Dq Li 32 ,
363.\".Dq Li 64 ,
364and
365.Dq Li ptr
366and all of the acquire and release variants
367were added in
368.Fx 5.0
369as well.
370The
371.Fn atomic_fetchadd
372operations were added in
373.Fx 6.0 .
374