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-<sect1 id="manual.ext.allocator.mt" xreflabel="mt allocator">
-<?dbhtml filename="mt_allocator.html"?>
-
-<sect1info>
- <keywordset>
- <keyword>
- ISO C++
- </keyword>
- <keyword>
- allocator
- </keyword>
- </keywordset>
-</sect1info>
-
-<title>mt_allocator</title>
-
-<para>
-</para>
-
-<sect2 id="allocator.mt.intro" xreflabel="allocator.mt.intro">
-<title>Intro</title>
-
-<para>
- The mt allocator [hereinafter referred to simply as "the allocator"]
- is a fixed size (power of two) allocator that was initially
- developed specifically to suit the needs of multi threaded
- applications [hereinafter referred to as an MT application]. Over
- time the allocator has evolved and been improved in many ways, in
- particular it now also does a good job in single threaded
- applications [hereinafter referred to as a ST application]. (Note:
- In this document, when referring to single threaded applications
- this also includes applications that are compiled with gcc without
- thread support enabled. This is accomplished using ifdef's on
- __GTHREADS). This allocator is tunable, very flexible, and capable
- of high-performance.
-</para>
-
-<para>
- The aim of this document is to describe - from an application point of
- view - the "inner workings" of the allocator.
-</para>
-
-</sect2>
-
-
-<sect2 id="allocator.mt.design_issues" xreflabel="allocator.mt.design_issues">
-<title>Design Issues</title>
-
-<sect3 id="allocator.mt.overview" xreflabel="allocator.mt.overview">
-<title>Overview</title>
-
-
-<para> There are three general components to the allocator: a datum
-describing the characteristics of the memory pool, a policy class
-containing this pool that links instantiation types to common or
-individual pools, and a class inheriting from the policy class that is
-the actual allocator.
-</para>
-
-<para>The datum describing pools characteristics is
-</para>
-<programlisting>
- template&lt;bool _Thread&gt;
- class __pool
-</programlisting>
-<para> This class is parametrized on thread support, and is explicitly
-specialized for both multiple threads (with <code>bool==true</code>)
-and single threads (via <code>bool==false</code>.) It is possible to
-use a custom pool datum instead of the default class that is provided.
-</para>
-
-<para> There are two distinct policy classes, each of which can be used
-with either type of underlying pool datum.
-</para>
-
-<programlisting>
- template&lt;bool _Thread&gt;
- struct __common_pool_policy
-
- template&lt;typename _Tp, bool _Thread&gt;
- struct __per_type_pool_policy
-</programlisting>
-
-<para> The first policy, <code>__common_pool_policy</code>, implements a
-common pool. This means that allocators that are instantiated with
-different types, say <code>char</code> and <code>long</code> will both
-use the same pool. This is the default policy.
-</para>
-
-<para> The second policy, <code>__per_type_pool_policy</code>, implements
-a separate pool for each instantiating type. Thus, <code>char</code>
-and <code>long</code> will use separate pools. This allows per-type
-tuning, for instance.
-</para>
-
-<para> Putting this all together, the actual allocator class is
-</para>
-<programlisting>
- template&lt;typename _Tp, typename _Poolp = __default_policy&gt;
- class __mt_alloc : public __mt_alloc_base&lt;_Tp&gt;, _Poolp
-</programlisting>
-<para> This class has the interface required for standard library allocator
-classes, namely member functions <code>allocate</code> and
-<code>deallocate</code>, plus others.
-</para>
-
-</sect3>
-</sect2>
-
-<sect2 id="allocator.mt.impl" xreflabel="allocator.mt.impl">
-<title>Implementation</title>
-
-
-<sect3 id="allocator.mt.tune" xreflabel="allocator.mt.tune">
-<title>Tunable Parameters</title>
-
-<para>Certain allocation parameters can be modified, or tuned. There
-exists a nested <code>struct __pool_base::_Tune</code> that contains all
-these parameters, which include settings for
-</para>
- <itemizedlist>
- <listitem><para>Alignment</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>Maximum bytes before calling <code>::operator new</code> directly</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>Minimum bytes</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>Size of underlying global allocations</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>Maximum number of supported threads</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>Migration of deallocations to the global free list</para></listitem>
- <listitem><para>Shunt for global <code>new</code> and <code>delete</code></para></listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
-<para>Adjusting parameters for a given instance of an allocator can only
-happen before any allocations take place, when the allocator itself is
-initialized. For instance:
-</para>
-<programlisting>
-#include &lt;ext/mt_allocator.h&gt;
-
-struct pod
-{
- int i;
- int j;
-};
-
-int main()
-{
- typedef pod value_type;
- typedef __gnu_cxx::__mt_alloc&lt;value_type&gt; allocator_type;
- typedef __gnu_cxx::__pool_base::_Tune tune_type;
-
- tune_type t_default;
- tune_type t_opt(16, 5120, 32, 5120, 20, 10, false);
- tune_type t_single(16, 5120, 32, 5120, 1, 10, false);
-
- tune_type t;
- t = allocator_type::_M_get_options();
- allocator_type::_M_set_options(t_opt);
- t = allocator_type::_M_get_options();
-
- allocator_type a;
- allocator_type::pointer p1 = a.allocate(128);
- allocator_type::pointer p2 = a.allocate(5128);
-
- a.deallocate(p1, 128);
- a.deallocate(p2, 5128);
-
- return 0;
-}
-</programlisting>
-
-</sect3>
-
-<sect3 id="allocator.mt.init" xreflabel="allocator.mt.init">
-<title>Initialization</title>
-
-<para>
-The static variables (pointers to freelists, tuning parameters etc)
-are initialized as above, or are set to the global defaults.
-</para>
-
-<para>
-The very first allocate() call will always call the
-_S_initialize_once() function. In order to make sure that this
-function is called exactly once we make use of a __gthread_once call
-in MT applications and check a static bool (_S_init) in ST
-applications.
-</para>
-
-<para>
-The _S_initialize() function:
-- If the GLIBCXX_FORCE_NEW environment variable is set, it sets the bool
- _S_force_new to true and then returns. This will cause subsequent calls to
- allocate() to return memory directly from a new() call, and deallocate will
- only do a delete() call.
-</para>
-
-<para>
-- If the GLIBCXX_FORCE_NEW environment variable is not set, both ST and MT
- applications will:
- - Calculate the number of bins needed. A bin is a specific power of two size
- of bytes. I.e., by default the allocator will deal with requests of up to
- 128 bytes (or whatever the value of _S_max_bytes is when _S_init() is
- called). This means that there will be bins of the following sizes
- (in bytes): 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128.
-
- - Create the _S_binmap array. All requests are rounded up to the next
- "large enough" bin. I.e., a request for 29 bytes will cause a block from
- the "32 byte bin" to be returned to the application. The purpose of
- _S_binmap is to speed up the process of finding out which bin to use.
- I.e., the value of _S_binmap[ 29 ] is initialized to 5 (bin 5 = 32 bytes).
-</para>
-<para>
- - Create the _S_bin array. This array consists of bin_records. There will be
- as many bin_records in this array as the number of bins that we calculated
- earlier. I.e., if _S_max_bytes = 128 there will be 8 entries.
- Each bin_record is then initialized:
- - bin_record-&gt;first = An array of pointers to block_records. There will be
- as many block_records pointers as there are maximum number of threads
- (in a ST application there is only 1 thread, in a MT application there
- are _S_max_threads).
- This holds the pointer to the first free block for each thread in this
- bin. I.e., if we would like to know where the first free block of size 32
- for thread number 3 is we would look this up by: _S_bin[ 5 ].first[ 3 ]
-
- The above created block_record pointers members are now initialized to
- their initial values. I.e. _S_bin[ n ].first[ n ] = NULL;
-</para>
-
-<para>
-- Additionally a MT application will:
- - Create a list of free thread id's. The pointer to the first entry
- is stored in _S_thread_freelist_first. The reason for this approach is
- that the __gthread_self() call will not return a value that corresponds to
- the maximum number of threads allowed but rather a process id number or
- something else. So what we do is that we create a list of thread_records.
- This list is _S_max_threads long and each entry holds a size_t thread_id
- which is initialized to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and so on up to _S_max_threads.
- Each time a thread calls allocate() or deallocate() we call
- _S_get_thread_id() which looks at the value of _S_thread_key which is a
- thread local storage pointer. If this is NULL we know that this is a newly
- created thread and we pop the first entry from this list and saves the
- pointer to this record in the _S_thread_key variable. The next time
- we will get the pointer to the thread_record back and we use the
- thread_record-&gt;thread_id as identification. I.e., the first thread that
- calls allocate will get the first record in this list and thus be thread
- number 1 and will then find the pointer to its first free 32 byte block
- in _S_bin[ 5 ].first[ 1 ]
- When we create the _S_thread_key we also define a destructor
- (_S_thread_key_destr) which means that when the thread dies, this
- thread_record is returned to the front of this list and the thread id
- can then be reused if a new thread is created.
- This list is protected by a mutex (_S_thread_freelist_mutex) which is only
- locked when records are removed or added to the list.
-</para>
-<para>
- - Initialize the free and used counters of each bin_record:
- - bin_record-&gt;free = An array of size_t. This keeps track of the number
- of blocks on a specific thread's freelist in each bin. I.e., if a thread
- has 12 32-byte blocks on it's freelists and allocates one of these, this
- counter would be decreased to 11.
-
- - bin_record-&gt;used = An array of size_t. This keeps track of the number
- of blocks currently in use of this size by this thread. I.e., if a thread
- has made 678 requests (and no deallocations...) of 32-byte blocks this
- counter will read 678.
-
- The above created arrays are now initialized with their initial values.
- I.e. _S_bin[ n ].free[ n ] = 0;
-</para>
-<para>
- - Initialize the mutex of each bin_record: The bin_record-&gt;mutex
- is used to protect the global freelist. This concept of a global
- freelist is explained in more detail in the section "A multi
- threaded example", but basically this mutex is locked whenever a
- block of memory is retrieved or returned to the global freelist
- for this specific bin. This only occurs when a number of blocks
- are grabbed from the global list to a thread specific list or when
- a thread decides to return some blocks to the global freelist.
-</para>
-
-</sect3>
-
-<sect3 id="allocator.mt.deallocation" xreflabel="allocator.mt.deallocation">
-<title>Deallocation Notes</title>
-
-<para> Notes about deallocation. This allocator does not explicitly
-release memory. Because of this, memory debugging programs like
-valgrind or purify may notice leaks: sorry about this
-inconvenience. Operating systems will reclaim allocated memory at
-program termination anyway. If sidestepping this kind of noise is
-desired, there are three options: use an allocator, like
-<code>new_allocator</code> that releases memory while debugging, use
-GLIBCXX_FORCE_NEW to bypass the allocator's internal pools, or use a
-custom pool datum that releases resources on destruction.
-</para>
-
-<para>
- On systems with the function <code>__cxa_atexit</code>, the
-allocator can be forced to free all memory allocated before program
-termination with the member function
-<code>__pool_type::_M_destroy</code>. However, because this member
-function relies on the precise and exactly-conforming ordering of
-static destructors, including those of a static local
-<code>__pool</code> object, it should not be used, ever, on systems
-that don't have the necessary underlying support. In addition, in
-practice, forcing deallocation can be tricky, as it requires the
-<code>__pool</code> object to be fully-constructed before the object
-that uses it is fully constructed. For most (but not all) STL
-containers, this works, as an instance of the allocator is constructed
-as part of a container's constructor. However, this assumption is
-implementation-specific, and subject to change. For an example of a
-pool that frees memory, see the following
- <ulink url="http://gcc.gnu.org/viewcvs/trunk/libstdc%2B%2B-v3/testsuite/ext/mt_allocator/deallocate_local-6.cc?view=markup">
- example.</ulink>
-</para>
-
-</sect3>
-
-</sect2>
-
-<sect2 id="allocator.mt.example_single" xreflabel="allocator.mt.example_single">
-<title>Single Thread Example</title>
-
-<para>
-Let's start by describing how the data on a freelist is laid out in memory.
-This is the first two blocks in freelist for thread id 3 in bin 3 (8 bytes):
-</para>
-<programlisting>
-+----------------+
-| next* ---------|--+ (_S_bin[ 3 ].first[ 3 ] points here)
-| | |
-| | |
-| | |
-+----------------+ |
-| thread_id = 3 | |
-| | |
-| | |
-| | |
-+----------------+ |
-| DATA | | (A pointer to here is what is returned to the
-| | | the application when needed)
-| | |
-| | |
-| | |
-| | |
-| | |
-| | |
-+----------------+ |
-+----------------+ |
-| next* |&lt;-+ (If next == NULL it's the last one on the list)
-| |
-| |
-| |
-+----------------+
-| thread_id = 3 |
-| |
-| |
-| |
-+----------------+
-| DATA |
-| |
-| |
-| |
-| |
-| |
-| |
-| |
-+----------------+
-</programlisting>
-
-<para>
-With this in mind we simplify things a bit for a while and say that there is
-only one thread (a ST application). In this case all operations are made to
-what is referred to as the global pool - thread id 0 (No thread may be
-assigned this id since they span from 1 to _S_max_threads in a MT application).
-</para>
-<para>
-When the application requests memory (calling allocate()) we first look at the
-requested size and if this is &gt; _S_max_bytes we call new() directly and return.
-</para>
-<para>
-If the requested size is within limits we start by finding out from which
-bin we should serve this request by looking in _S_binmap.
-</para>
-<para>
-A quick look at _S_bin[ bin ].first[ 0 ] tells us if there are any blocks of
-this size on the freelist (0). If this is not NULL - fine, just remove the
-block that _S_bin[ bin ].first[ 0 ] points to from the list,
-update _S_bin[ bin ].first[ 0 ] and return a pointer to that blocks data.
-</para>
-<para>
-If the freelist is empty (the pointer is NULL) we must get memory from the
-system and build us a freelist within this memory. All requests for new memory
-is made in chunks of _S_chunk_size. Knowing the size of a block_record and
-the bytes that this bin stores we then calculate how many blocks we can create
-within this chunk, build the list, remove the first block, update the pointer
-(_S_bin[ bin ].first[ 0 ]) and return a pointer to that blocks data.
-</para>
-
-<para>
-Deallocation is equally simple; the pointer is casted back to a block_record
-pointer, lookup which bin to use based on the size, add the block to the front
-of the global freelist and update the pointer as needed
-(_S_bin[ bin ].first[ 0 ]).
-</para>
-
-<para>
-The decision to add deallocated blocks to the front of the freelist was made
-after a set of performance measurements that showed that this is roughly 10%
-faster than maintaining a set of "last pointers" as well.
-</para>
-
-</sect2>
-
-<sect2 id="allocator.mt.example_multi" xreflabel="allocator.mt.example_multi">
-<title>Multiple Thread Example</title>
-
-<para>
-In the ST example we never used the thread_id variable present in each block.
-Let's start by explaining the purpose of this in a MT application.
-</para>
-
-<para>
-The concept of "ownership" was introduced since many MT applications
-allocate and deallocate memory to shared containers from different
-threads (such as a cache shared amongst all threads). This introduces
-a problem if the allocator only returns memory to the current threads
-freelist (I.e., there might be one thread doing all the allocation and
-thus obtaining ever more memory from the system and another thread
-that is getting a longer and longer freelist - this will in the end
-consume all available memory).
-</para>
-
-<para>
-Each time a block is moved from the global list (where ownership is
-irrelevant), to a threads freelist (or when a new freelist is built
-from a chunk directly onto a threads freelist or when a deallocation
-occurs on a block which was not allocated by the same thread id as the
-one doing the deallocation) the thread id is set to the current one.
-</para>
-
-<para>
-What's the use? Well, when a deallocation occurs we can now look at
-the thread id and find out if it was allocated by another thread id
-and decrease the used counter of that thread instead, thus keeping the
-free and used counters correct. And keeping the free and used counters
-corrects is very important since the relationship between these two
-variables decides if memory should be returned to the global pool or
-not when a deallocation occurs.
-</para>
-
-<para>
-When the application requests memory (calling allocate()) we first
-look at the requested size and if this is &gt;_S_max_bytes we call new()
-directly and return.
-</para>
-
-<para>
-If the requested size is within limits we start by finding out from which
-bin we should serve this request by looking in _S_binmap.
-</para>
-
-<para>
-A call to _S_get_thread_id() returns the thread id for the calling thread
-(and if no value has been set in _S_thread_key, a new id is assigned and
-returned).
-</para>
-
-<para>
-A quick look at _S_bin[ bin ].first[ thread_id ] tells us if there are
-any blocks of this size on the current threads freelist. If this is
-not NULL - fine, just remove the block that _S_bin[ bin ].first[
-thread_id ] points to from the list, update _S_bin[ bin ].first[
-thread_id ], update the free and used counters and return a pointer to
-that blocks data.
-</para>
-
-<para>
-If the freelist is empty (the pointer is NULL) we start by looking at
-the global freelist (0). If there are blocks available on the global
-freelist we lock this bins mutex and move up to block_count (the
-number of blocks of this bins size that will fit into a _S_chunk_size)
-or until end of list - whatever comes first - to the current threads
-freelist and at the same time change the thread_id ownership and
-update the counters and pointers. When the bins mutex has been
-unlocked, we remove the block that _S_bin[ bin ].first[ thread_id ]
-points to from the list, update _S_bin[ bin ].first[ thread_id ],
-update the free and used counters, and return a pointer to that blocks
-data.
-</para>
-
-<para>
-The reason that the number of blocks moved to the current threads
-freelist is limited to block_count is to minimize the chance that a
-subsequent deallocate() call will return the excess blocks to the
-global freelist (based on the _S_freelist_headroom calculation, see
-below).
-</para>
-
-<para>
-However if there isn't any memory on the global pool we need to get
-memory from the system - this is done in exactly the same way as in a
-single threaded application with one major difference; the list built
-in the newly allocated memory (of _S_chunk_size size) is added to the
-current threads freelist instead of to the global.
-</para>
-
-<para>
-The basic process of a deallocation call is simple: always add the
-block to the front of the current threads freelist and update the
-counters and pointers (as described earlier with the specific check of
-ownership that causes the used counter of the thread that originally
-allocated the block to be decreased instead of the current threads
-counter).
-</para>
-
-<para>
-And here comes the free and used counters to service. Each time a
-deallocation() call is made, the length of the current threads
-freelist is compared to the amount memory in use by this thread.
-</para>
-
-<para>
-Let's go back to the example of an application that has one thread
-that does all the allocations and one that deallocates. Both these
-threads use say 516 32-byte blocks that was allocated during thread
-creation for example. Their used counters will both say 516 at this
-point. The allocation thread now grabs 1000 32-byte blocks and puts
-them in a shared container. The used counter for this thread is now
-1516.
-</para>
-
-<para>
-The deallocation thread now deallocates 500 of these blocks. For each
-deallocation made the used counter of the allocating thread is
-decreased and the freelist of the deallocation thread gets longer and
-longer. But the calculation made in deallocate() will limit the length
-of the freelist in the deallocation thread to _S_freelist_headroom %
-of it's used counter. In this case, when the freelist (given that the
-_S_freelist_headroom is at it's default value of 10%) exceeds 52
-(516/10) blocks will be returned to the global pool where the
-allocating thread may pick them up and reuse them.
-</para>
-
-<para>
-In order to reduce lock contention (since this requires this bins
-mutex to be locked) this operation is also made in chunks of blocks
-(just like when chunks of blocks are moved from the global freelist to
-a threads freelist mentioned above). The "formula" used can probably
-be improved to further reduce the risk of blocks being "bounced back
-and forth" between freelists.
-</para>
-
-</sect2>
-
-</sect1> \ No newline at end of file