xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man9/pool.9 (revision a5847cc334d9a7029f6352b847e9e8d71a0f9e0c)
1.\"	$NetBSD: pool.9,v 1.43 2008/04/30 13:10:58 martin Exp $
2.\"
3.\" Copyright (c) 1997, 1998, 2007 The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.
4.\" All rights reserved.
5.\"
6.\" This code is derived from software contributed to The NetBSD Foundation
7.\" by Paul Kranenburg.
8.\"
9.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
10.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
11.\" are met:
12.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
13.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
14.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
15.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
16.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
17.\"
18.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE NETBSD FOUNDATION, INC. AND CONTRIBUTORS
19.\" ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED
20.\" TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
21.\" PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE FOUNDATION OR CONTRIBUTORS
22.\" BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR
23.\" CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF
24.\" SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS
25.\" INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN
26.\" CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE)
27.\" ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE
28.\" POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
29.\"
30.Dd July 25, 2007
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.Nd resource-pool manager
42.Sh SYNOPSIS
43.In sys/pool.h
44.Ft void
45.Fo pool_init
46.Fa "struct pool *pp"
47.Fa "size_t size"
48.Fa "u_int align"
49.Fa "u_int align_offset"
50.Fa "int flags"
51.Fa "const char *wchan"
52.Fa "struct pool_allocator *palloc"
53.Fa "int ipl"
54.Fc
55.Ft void
56.Fn pool_destroy "struct pool *pp"
57.Ft void *
58.Fn pool_get "struct pool *pp" "int flags"
59.Ft void
60.Fn pool_put "struct pool *pp" "void *item"
61.Ft int
62.Fn pool_prime "struct pool *pp" "int nitems"
63.Ft void
64.Fn pool_sethiwat "struct pool *pp" "int n"
65.Ft void
66.Fn pool_setlowat "struct pool *pp" "int n"
67.Sh DESCRIPTION
68These utility routines provide management of pools of fixed-sized
69areas of memory.
70Resource pools set aside an amount of memory for exclusive use by the resource
71pool owner.
72This can be used by applications to guarantee the availability of a minimum
73amount of memory needed to continue operation independent of the memory
74resources currently available from the system-wide memory allocator
75.Pq Xr malloc 9 .
76.Ss INITIALIZING A POOL
77The function
78.Fn pool_init
79initializes a resource pool.
80The arguments are:
81.Pp
82.Bl -tag -offset indent -width "align_offset"
83.It Fa pp
84The handle identifying the pool resource instance.
85.It Fa size
86Specifies the size of the memory items managed by the pool.
87.It Fa align
88Specifies the memory address alignment of the items returned by
89.Fn pool_get .
90This argument must be a power of two.
91If zero,
92the alignment defaults to an architecture-specific natural alignment.
93.It Fa align_offset
94The offset within an item to which the
95.Fa align
96parameter applies.
97.It Fa flags
98Should be set to zero or
99.Dv PR_NOTOUCH .
100If
101.Dv PR_NOTOUCH
102is given, free items are never used to keep internal state so that
103the pool can be used for non memory backed objects.
104.It Fa wchan
105The
106.Sq wait channel
107passed on to
108.Xr cv_wait 9
109if
110.Fn pool_get
111must wait for items to be returned to the pool.
112.It Fa palloc
113Can be set to
114.Dv NULL
115or
116.Dv pool_allocator_kmem ,
117in which case the default kernel memory allocator will be used.
118It can also be set to
119.Dv pool_allocator_nointr
120when the pool will never be accessed from interrupt context.
121.It Fa ipl
122Specifies an interrupt priority level that will block all interrupt
123handlers that could potentially access the pool.
124.El
125.Pp
126The
127.Fn POOL_INIT
128macro can be used to both declare and initialize a resource pool.
129The
130.Fn POOL_INIT
131macro has the same arguments as the
132.Fn pool_init
133function and the resource pool will be initialized automatically
134during system startup.
135.Ss DESTROYING A POOL
136The function
137.Fn pool_destroy
138destroys a resource pool.
139It takes a single argument
140.Fa pp
141identifying the pool resource instance.
142.Ss ALLOCATING ITEMS FROM A POOL
143.Fn pool_get
144allocates an item from the pool and returns a pointer to it.
145The arguments are:
146.Bl -tag -offset indent -width "flags"
147.It Fa pp
148The handle identifying the pool resource instance.
149.It Fa flags
150The flags can be used to define behaviour in case the pooled resources
151are depleted.
152If no resources are available and
153.Dv PR_NOWAIT
154is given,
155.Fn pool_get
156returns
157.Dv NULL .
158If
159.Dv PR_WAITOK
160is given and allocation is attempted with no resources available,
161the function will sleep until items are returned to the pool.
162.\"Undefined behaviour results if
163.\".Dv PR_MALLOCOK
164.\"is specified on a pool handle that was created using client-provided
165.\"storage.
166.\" a bunch of other flags aren't documented.
167If both
168.Dv PR_LIMITFAIL
169and
170.Dv PR_WAITOK
171are specified, and the pool has reached its hard limit,
172.Fn pool_get
173will return
174.Dv NULL
175without waiting, allowing the caller to do its own garbage collection;
176however, it will still wait if the pool is not yet at its hard limit.
177.El
178.Ss RETURNING ITEMS TO A POOL
179.Fn pool_put
180returns the pool item pointed at by
181.Fa item
182to the resource pool identified by the pool handle
183.Fa pp .
184If the number of available items in the pool exceeds the maximum pool
185size set by
186.Fn pool_sethiwat
187and there are no outstanding requests for pool items,
188the excess items will be returned to the system.
189The arguments to
190.Fn pool_put
191are:
192.Bl -tag -offset indent -width "item"
193.It Fa pp
194The handle identifying the pool resource instance.
195.It Fa item
196A pointer to a pool item previously obtained by
197.Fn pool_get .
198.El
199.Ss PRIMING A POOL
200.Fn pool_prime
201adds items to the pool.
202Storage space for the items is allocated by using the page allocation
203routine specified to
204.Fn pool_create .
205.Pp
206The arguments to
207.Fn pool_prime
208are:
209.Bl -tag -offset indent -width "storage"
210.It Fa pp
211The handle identifying the pool resource instance.
212.It Fa nitems
213The number of items to add to the pool.
214.El
215.Pp
216This function may return
217.Dv ENOMEM
218in case the requested number of items could not be allocated.
219Otherwise,
220the return value is 0.
221.Ss SETTING POOL RESOURCE WATERMARKS
222A pool will attempt to increase its resource usage to keep up with the demand
223for its items.
224Conversely,
225it will return unused memory to the system should the number of accumulated
226unused items in the pool exceed a programmable limit.
227The limits for the minimum and maximum number of items which a pool should keep
228at hand are known as the high and low
229.Sy watermarks .
230The functions
231.Fn pool_sethiwat
232and
233.Fn pool_setlowat
234set a pool's high and low watermarks, respectively.
235.Pp
236.Fn pool_sethiwat
237.Bl -tag -offset indent -width "flags"
238.It Fa pp
239The handle identifying the pool resource instance.
240.It Fa n
241The maximum number of items to keep in the pool.
242As items are returned and the total number of pages in the pool is larger
243than the maximum set by this function,
244any completely unused pages are released immediately.
245If this function is not used to specify a maximum number of items,
246the pages will remain associated with the pool until the system runs low
247on memory,
248at which point the VM system will try to reclaim unused pages.
249.El
250.Pp
251.Fn pool_setlowat
252.Bl -tag -offset indent -width "flags"
253.It Fa pp
254The handle identifying the pool resource instance.
255.It Fa n
256The minimum number of items to keep in the pool.
257The number pages in the pool will not decrease below the required value to
258accommodate the minimum number of items specified by this function.
259Unlike
260.Fn pool_prime ,
261this function does not allocate the necessary memory up-front.
262.El
263.Ss POTENTIAL PITFALLS
264Note that undefined behaviour results when mixing the storage providing
265methods supported by the pool resource routines.
266.Pp
267The pool resource code uses a per-pool lock to protect its internal state.
268If any pool functions are called in an interrupt context,
269the caller must block all interrupts that might cause the
270code to be reentered.
271Additionally, the functions
272.Fn pool_init
273and
274.Fn pool_destroy
275should never be called in interrupt context.
276.Ss DIAGNOSTICS
277Pool usage logs can be enabled by defining the compile-time option
278.Dv POOL_DIAGNOSTIC .
279.\" .Sh RETURN VALUES
280.\" .Sh EXAMPLES
281.Sh CODE REFERENCES
282The pool manager is implemented in the file
283.Pa sys/kern/subr_pool.c .
284.\" .Sh AUTHOR
285.Sh SEE ALSO
286.Xr free 9 ,
287.Xr malloc 9 ,
288.Xr memoryallocators 9 ,
289.Xr pool_cache 9 ,
290.Xr uvm 9
291.Sh HISTORY
292The
293.Nx
294pool manager appeared in
295.Nx 1.4 .
296