xref: /dpdk/doc/guides/sample_app_ug/timer.rst (revision 3e0ceb9f17fff027fc6c8f18de35e11719ffa61e)
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30
31Timer Sample Application
32========================
33
34The Timer sample application is a simple application that demonstrates the use of a timer in a DPDK application.
35This application prints some messages from different lcores regularly, demonstrating the use of timers.
36
37Compiling the Application
38-------------------------
39
40To compile the sample application see :doc:`compiling`.
41
42The application is located in the ``timer`` sub-directory.
43
44Running the Application
45-----------------------
46
47To run the example in linuxapp environment:
48
49.. code-block:: console
50
51    $ ./build/timer -l 0-3 -n 4
52
53Refer to the *DPDK Getting Started Guide* for general information on running applications and
54the Environment Abstraction Layer (EAL) options.
55
56Explanation
57-----------
58
59The following sections provide some explanation of the code.
60
61Initialization and Main Loop
62~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
63
64In addition to EAL initialization, the timer subsystem must be initialized, by calling the rte_timer_subsystem_init() function.
65
66.. code-block:: c
67
68    /* init EAL */
69
70    ret = rte_eal_init(argc, argv);
71    if (ret < 0)
72        rte_panic("Cannot init EAL\n");
73
74    /* init RTE timer library */
75
76    rte_timer_subsystem_init();
77
78After timer creation (see the next paragraph),
79the main loop is executed on each slave lcore using the well-known rte_eal_remote_launch() and also on the master.
80
81.. code-block:: c
82
83    /* call lcore_mainloop() on every slave lcore  */
84
85    RTE_LCORE_FOREACH_SLAVE(lcore_id) {
86        rte_eal_remote_launch(lcore_mainloop, NULL, lcore_id);
87    }
88
89    /* call it on master lcore too */
90
91    (void) lcore_mainloop(NULL);
92
93The main loop is very simple in this example:
94
95.. code-block:: c
96
97    while (1) {
98        /*
99         *   Call the timer handler on each core: as we don't
100         *   need a very precise timer, so only call
101         *   rte_timer_manage() every ~10ms (at 2 GHz). In a real
102         *   application, this will enhance performances as
103         *   reading the HPET timer is not efficient.
104        */
105
106        cur_tsc = rte_rdtsc();
107
108        diff_tsc = cur_tsc - prev_tsc;
109
110        if (diff_tsc > TIMER_RESOLUTION_CYCLES) {
111            rte_timer_manage();
112            prev_tsc = cur_tsc;
113        }
114    }
115
116As explained in the comment, it is better to use the TSC register (as it is a per-lcore register) to check if the
117rte_timer_manage() function must be called or not.
118In this example, the resolution of the timer is 10 milliseconds.
119
120Managing Timers
121~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
122
123In the main() function, the two timers are initialized.
124This call to rte_timer_init() is necessary before doing any other operation on the timer structure.
125
126.. code-block:: c
127
128    /* init timer structures */
129
130    rte_timer_init(&timer0);
131    rte_timer_init(&timer1);
132
133Then, the two timers are configured:
134
135*   The first timer (timer0) is loaded on the master lcore and expires every second.
136    Since the PERIODICAL flag is provided, the timer is reloaded automatically by the timer subsystem.
137    The callback function is timer0_cb().
138
139*   The second timer (timer1) is loaded on the next available lcore every 333 ms.
140    The SINGLE flag means that the timer expires only once and must be reloaded manually if required.
141    The callback function is timer1_cb().
142
143.. code-block:: c
144
145    /* load timer0, every second, on master lcore, reloaded automatically */
146
147    hz = rte_get_hpet_hz();
148
149    lcore_id = rte_lcore_id();
150
151    rte_timer_reset(&timer0, hz, PERIODICAL, lcore_id, timer0_cb, NULL);
152
153    /* load timer1, every second/3, on next lcore, reloaded manually */
154
155    lcore_id = rte_get_next_lcore(lcore_id, 0, 1);
156
157    rte_timer_reset(&timer1, hz/3, SINGLE, lcore_id, timer1_cb, NULL);
158
159The callback for the first timer (timer0) only displays a message until a global counter reaches 20 (after 20 seconds).
160In this case, the timer is stopped using the rte_timer_stop() function.
161
162.. code-block:: c
163
164    /* timer0 callback */
165
166    static void
167    timer0_cb( attribute ((unused)) struct rte_timer *tim, __attribute ((unused)) void *arg)
168    {
169        static unsigned counter = 0;
170
171        unsigned lcore_id = rte_lcore_id();
172
173        printf("%s() on lcore %u\n", FUNCTION , lcore_id);
174
175        /* this timer is automatically reloaded until we decide to stop it, when counter reaches 20. */
176
177        if ((counter ++) == 20)
178            rte_timer_stop(tim);
179    }
180
181The callback for the second timer (timer1) displays a message and reloads the timer on the next lcore, using the
182rte_timer_reset() function:
183
184.. code-block:: c
185
186    /* timer1 callback */
187
188    static void
189    timer1_cb( attribute ((unused)) struct rte_timer *tim, _attribute ((unused)) void *arg)
190    {
191        unsigned lcore_id = rte_lcore_id();
192        uint64_t hz;
193
194        printf("%s() on lcore %u\\n", FUNCTION , lcore_id);
195
196        /* reload it on another lcore */
197
198        hz = rte_get_hpet_hz();
199
200        lcore_id = rte_get_next_lcore(lcore_id, 0, 1);
201
202        rte_timer_reset(&timer1, hz/3, SINGLE, lcore_id, timer1_cb, NULL);
203    }
204