xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man9/pool.9 (revision 413d532bcc3f62d122e56d92e13ac64825a40baf)
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30.Dd November 14, 2011
31.Dt POOL 9
32.Os
33.Sh NAME
34.Nm pool_init ,
35.Nm pool_destroy ,
36.Nm pool_get ,
37.Nm pool_put ,
38.Nm pool_prime ,
39.Nm pool_sethiwat ,
40.Nm pool_setlowat ,
41.Nm pool_sethardlimit
42.Nd resource-pool manager
43.Sh SYNOPSIS
44.In sys/pool.h
45.Ft void
46.Fo pool_init
47.Fa "struct pool *pp"
48.Fa "size_t size"
49.Fa "u_int align"
50.Fa "u_int align_offset"
51.Fa "int flags"
52.Fa "const char *wchan"
53.Fa "struct pool_allocator *palloc"
54.Fa "int ipl"
55.Fc
56.Ft void
57.Fn pool_destroy "struct pool *pp"
58.Ft void *
59.Fn pool_get "struct pool *pp" "int flags"
60.Ft void
61.Fn pool_put "struct pool *pp" "void *item"
62.Ft int
63.Fn pool_prime "struct pool *pp" "int nitems"
64.Ft void
65.Fn pool_sethiwat "struct pool *pp" "int n"
66.Ft void
67.Fn pool_setlowat "struct pool *pp" "int n"
68.Ft void
69.Fn pool_sethardlimit "struct pool *pp" "int n" \
70"const char *warnmess" "int ratecap"
71.Sh DESCRIPTION
72These utility routines provide management of pools of fixed-sized
73areas of memory.
74Resource pools set aside an amount of memory for exclusive use by the resource
75pool owner.
76This can be used by applications to guarantee the availability of a minimum
77amount of memory needed to continue operation independent of the memory
78resources currently available from the system-wide memory allocator
79.Pq Xr malloc 9 .
80.Ss INITIALIZING A POOL
81The function
82.Fn pool_init
83initializes a resource pool.
84The arguments are:
85.Pp
86.Bl -tag -offset indent -width "align_offset"
87.It Fa pp
88The handle identifying the pool resource instance.
89.It Fa size
90Specifies the size of the memory items managed by the pool.
91.It Fa align
92Specifies the memory address alignment of the items returned by
93.Fn pool_get .
94This argument must be a power of two.
95If zero,
96the alignment defaults to an architecture-specific natural alignment.
97.It Fa align_offset
98The offset within an item to which the
99.Fa align
100parameter applies.
101.It Fa flags
102Should be set to zero or
103.Dv PR_NOTOUCH .
104If
105.Dv PR_NOTOUCH
106is given, free items are never used to keep internal state so that
107the pool can be used for non memory backed objects.
108.It Fa wchan
109The
110.Sq wait channel
111passed on to
112.Xr cv_wait 9
113if
114.Fn pool_get
115must wait for items to be returned to the pool.
116.It Fa palloc
117Can be set to
118.Dv NULL
119or
120.Dv pool_allocator_kmem ,
121in which case the default kernel memory allocator will be used.
122It can also be set to
123.Dv pool_allocator_nointr
124when the pool will never be accessed from interrupt context.
125.It Fa ipl
126Specifies an interrupt priority level that will block all interrupt
127handlers that could potentially access the pool.
128.El
129.Pp
130The
131.Fn POOL_INIT
132macro can be used to both declare and initialize a resource pool.
133The
134.Fn POOL_INIT
135macro has the same arguments as the
136.Fn pool_init
137function and the resource pool will be initialized automatically
138during system startup.
139.Ss DESTROYING A POOL
140The function
141.Fn pool_destroy
142destroys a resource pool.
143It takes a single argument
144.Fa pp
145identifying the pool resource instance.
146.Ss ALLOCATING ITEMS FROM A POOL
147.Fn pool_get
148allocates an item from the pool and returns a pointer to it.
149The arguments are:
150.Bl -tag -offset indent -width "flags"
151.It Fa pp
152The handle identifying the pool resource instance.
153.It Fa flags
154The flags can be used to define behaviour in case the pooled resources
155are depleted.
156If no resources are available and
157.Dv PR_NOWAIT
158is given,
159.Fn pool_get
160returns
161.Dv NULL .
162If
163.Dv PR_WAITOK
164is given and allocation is attempted with no resources available,
165the function will sleep until items are returned to the pool.
166.\"Undefined behaviour results if
167.\".Dv PR_MALLOCOK
168.\"is specified on a pool handle that was created using client-provided
169.\"storage.
170.\" a bunch of other flags aren't documented.
171If both
172.Dv PR_LIMITFAIL
173and
174.Dv PR_WAITOK
175are specified, and the pool has reached its hard limit,
176.Fn pool_get
177will return
178.Dv NULL
179without waiting, allowing the caller to do its own garbage collection;
180however, it will still wait if the pool is not yet at its hard limit.
181.El
182.Ss RETURNING ITEMS TO A POOL
183.Fn pool_put
184returns the pool item pointed at by
185.Fa item
186to the resource pool identified by the pool handle
187.Fa pp .
188If the number of available items in the pool exceeds the maximum pool
189size set by
190.Fn pool_sethiwat
191and there are no outstanding requests for pool items,
192the excess items will be returned to the system.
193The arguments to
194.Fn pool_put
195are:
196.Bl -tag -offset indent -width "item"
197.It Fa pp
198The handle identifying the pool resource instance.
199.It Fa item
200A pointer to a pool item previously obtained by
201.Fn pool_get .
202.El
203.Ss PRIMING A POOL
204.Fn pool_prime
205adds items to the pool.
206Storage space for the items is allocated by using the page allocation
207routine specified to
208.Fn pool_create .
209.Pp
210The arguments to
211.Fn pool_prime
212are:
213.Bl -tag -offset indent -width "storage"
214.It Fa pp
215The handle identifying the pool resource instance.
216.It Fa nitems
217The number of items to add to the pool.
218.El
219.Pp
220This function may return
221.Dv ENOMEM
222in case the requested number of items could not be allocated.
223Otherwise,
224the return value is 0.
225.Ss SETTING POOL RESOURCE WATERMARKS AND LIMITS
226A pool will attempt to increase its resource usage to keep up with the demand
227for its items.
228Conversely,
229it will return unused memory to the system should the number of accumulated
230unused items in the pool exceed a programmable limit.
231.Pp
232The limits for the minimum and maximum number of items which a pool should keep
233at hand are known as the high and low
234.Sy watermarks .
235The functions
236.Fn pool_sethiwat
237and
238.Fn pool_setlowat
239set a pool's high and low watermarks, respectively.
240.Pp
241The hard limit represents the maximum number of items a pool is allowed
242to allocate at any given time.
243Unless modified via
244.Fn pool_sethardlimit ,
245the hard limit defaults to
246.Dv UINT_MAX .
247.Pp
248.Fn pool_sethiwat
249.Bl -tag -offset indent -width "flags"
250.It Fa pp
251The handle identifying the pool resource instance.
252.It Fa n
253The maximum number of items to keep in the pool.
254As items are returned and the total number of pages in the pool is larger
255than the maximum set by this function,
256any completely unused pages are released immediately.
257If this function is not used to specify a maximum number of items,
258the pages will remain associated with the pool until the system runs low
259on memory,
260at which point the VM system will try to reclaim unused pages.
261.El
262.Pp
263.Fn pool_setlowat
264.Bl -tag -offset indent -width "flags"
265.It Fa pp
266The handle identifying the pool resource instance.
267.It Fa n
268The minimum number of items to keep in the pool.
269The number pages in the pool will not decrease below the required value to
270accommodate the minimum number of items specified by this function.
271Unlike
272.Fn pool_prime ,
273this function does not allocate the necessary memory up-front.
274.El
275.Pp
276.Fn pool_sethardlimit
277.Bl -tag -offset indent -width "flags"
278.It Fa pp
279The handle identifying the pool resource instance.
280.It Fa n
281The maximum number of items to be allocated from the pool (i.e. the
282hard limit).
283.It Fa warnmess
284The warning message that will be logged when the hard limit is reached.
285.It Fa ratecap
286The minimal interval (in seconds) after which another warning message
287is issued when the pool hits its hard limit again.
288.El
289.Ss POTENTIAL PITFALLS
290Note that undefined behaviour results when mixing the storage providing
291methods supported by the pool resource routines.
292.Pp
293The pool resource code uses a per-pool lock to protect its internal state.
294If any pool functions are called in an interrupt context,
295the caller must block all interrupts that might cause the
296code to be reentered.
297Additionally, the functions
298.Fn pool_init
299and
300.Fn pool_destroy
301should never be called in interrupt context.
302.Ss DIAGNOSTICS
303Pool usage logs can be enabled by defining the compile-time option
304.Dv POOL_DIAGNOSTIC .
305.\" .Sh RETURN VALUES
306.\" .Sh EXAMPLES
307.Sh CODE REFERENCES
308The pool manager is implemented in the file
309.Pa sys/kern/subr_pool.c .
310.\" .Sh AUTHOR
311.Sh SEE ALSO
312.Xr free 9 ,
313.Xr malloc 9 ,
314.Xr memoryallocators 9 ,
315.Xr pool_cache 9 ,
316.Xr uvm 9
317.Sh HISTORY
318The
319.Nx
320pool manager appeared in
321.Nx 1.4 .
322