xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man9/pool.9 (revision bdc22b2e01993381dcefeff2bc9b56ca75a4235c)
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30.Dd August 15, 2015
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.Bl -tag -offset indent -width "align_offset"
86.It Fa pp
87The handle identifying the pool resource instance.
88.It Fa size
89Specifies the size of the memory items managed by the pool.
90.It Fa align
91Specifies the memory address alignment of the items returned by
92.Fn pool_get .
93This argument must be a power of two.
94If zero,
95the alignment defaults to an architecture-specific natural alignment.
96.It Fa align_offset
97The offset within an item to which the
98.Fa align
99parameter applies.
100.It Fa flags
101Should be set to zero or
102.Dv PR_NOTOUCH .
103If
104.Dv PR_NOTOUCH
105is given, free items are never used to keep internal state so that
106the pool can be used for non memory backed objects.
107.It Fa wchan
108The
109.Sq wait channel
110passed on to
111.Xr cv_wait 9
112if
113.Fn pool_get
114must wait for items to be returned to the pool.
115.It Fa palloc
116Can be set to
117.Dv NULL
118or
119.Dv pool_allocator_kmem ,
120in which case the default kernel memory allocator will be used.
121It can also be set to
122.Dv pool_allocator_nointr
123when the pool will never be accessed from interrupt context.
124.It Fa ipl
125Specifies an interrupt priority level that will block all interrupt
126handlers that could potentially access the pool.
127.El
128.Ss DESTROYING A POOL
129The function
130.Fn pool_destroy
131destroys a resource pool.
132It takes a single argument
133.Fa pp
134identifying the pool resource instance.
135.Ss ALLOCATING ITEMS FROM A POOL
136.Fn pool_get
137allocates an item from the pool and returns a pointer to it.
138The arguments are:
139.Bl -tag -offset indent -width "flags"
140.It Fa pp
141The handle identifying the pool resource instance.
142.It Fa flags
143The flags can be used to define behaviour in case the pooled resources
144are depleted.
145If no resources are available and
146.Dv PR_NOWAIT
147is given,
148.Fn pool_get
149returns
150.Dv NULL .
151If
152.Dv PR_WAITOK
153is given and allocation is attempted with no resources available,
154the function will sleep until items are returned to the pool.
155.\"Undefined behaviour results if
156.\".Dv PR_MALLOCOK
157.\"is specified on a pool handle that was created using client-provided
158.\"storage.
159.\" a bunch of other flags aren't documented.
160If both
161.Dv PR_LIMITFAIL
162and
163.Dv PR_WAITOK
164are specified, and the pool has reached its hard limit,
165.Fn pool_get
166will return
167.Dv NULL
168without waiting, allowing the caller to do its own garbage collection;
169however, it will still wait if the pool is not yet at its hard limit.
170.El
171.Ss RETURNING ITEMS TO A POOL
172.Fn pool_put
173returns the pool item pointed at by
174.Fa item
175to the resource pool identified by the pool handle
176.Fa pp .
177If the number of available items in the pool exceeds the maximum pool
178size set by
179.Fn pool_sethiwat
180and there are no outstanding requests for pool items,
181the excess items will be returned to the system.
182The arguments to
183.Fn pool_put
184are:
185.Bl -tag -offset indent -width "item"
186.It Fa pp
187The handle identifying the pool resource instance.
188.It Fa item
189A pointer to a pool item previously obtained by
190.Fn pool_get .
191.El
192.Ss PRIMING A POOL
193.Fn pool_prime
194adds items to the pool.
195Storage space for the items is allocated by using the page allocation
196routine specified to
197.Fn pool_create .
198.Pp
199The arguments to
200.Fn pool_prime
201are:
202.Bl -tag -offset indent -width "storage"
203.It Fa pp
204The handle identifying the pool resource instance.
205.It Fa nitems
206The number of items to add to the pool.
207.El
208.Pp
209This function may return
210.Dv ENOMEM
211in case the requested number of items could not be allocated.
212Otherwise,
213the return value is 0.
214.Ss SETTING POOL RESOURCE WATERMARKS AND LIMITS
215A pool will attempt to increase its resource usage to keep up with the demand
216for its items.
217Conversely,
218it will return unused memory to the system should the number of accumulated
219unused items in the pool exceed a programmable limit.
220.Pp
221The limits for the minimum and maximum number of items which a pool should keep
222at hand are known as the high and low
223.Sy watermarks .
224The functions
225.Fn pool_sethiwat
226and
227.Fn pool_setlowat
228set a pool's high and low watermarks, respectively.
229.Pp
230The hard limit represents the maximum number of items a pool is allowed
231to allocate at any given time.
232Unless modified via
233.Fn pool_sethardlimit ,
234the hard limit defaults to
235.Dv UINT_MAX .
236.Pp
237.Fn pool_sethiwat
238.Bl -tag -offset indent -width "flags"
239.It Fa pp
240The handle identifying the pool resource instance.
241.It Fa n
242The maximum number of items to keep in the pool.
243As items are returned and the total number of pages in the pool is larger
244than the maximum set by this function,
245any completely unused pages are released immediately.
246If this function is not used to specify a maximum number of items,
247the pages will remain associated with the pool until the system runs low
248on memory,
249at which point the VM system will try to reclaim unused pages.
250.El
251.Pp
252.Fn pool_setlowat
253.Bl -tag -offset indent -width "flags"
254.It Fa pp
255The handle identifying the pool resource instance.
256.It Fa n
257The minimum number of items to keep in the pool.
258The number pages in the pool will not decrease below the required value to
259accommodate the minimum number of items specified by this function.
260Unlike
261.Fn pool_prime ,
262this function does not allocate the necessary memory up-front.
263.El
264.Pp
265.Fn pool_sethardlimit
266.Bl -tag -offset indent -width "flags"
267.It Fa pp
268The handle identifying the pool resource instance.
269.It Fa n
270The maximum number of items to be allocated from the pool (i.e. the
271hard limit).
272.It Fa warnmess
273The warning message that will be logged when the hard limit is reached.
274.It Fa ratecap
275The minimal interval (in seconds) after which another warning message
276is issued when the pool hits its hard limit again.
277.El
278.Ss POTENTIAL PITFALLS
279Note that undefined behaviour results when mixing the storage providing
280methods supported by the pool resource routines.
281.Pp
282The pool resource code uses a per-pool lock to protect its internal state.
283If any pool functions are called in an interrupt context,
284the caller must block all interrupts that might cause the
285code to be reentered.
286Additionally, the functions
287.Fn pool_init
288and
289.Fn pool_destroy
290should never be called in interrupt context.
291.Ss DIAGNOSTICS
292Pool usage logs can be enabled by defining the compile-time option
293.Dv POOL_DIAGNOSTIC .
294.\" .Sh RETURN VALUES
295.\" .Sh EXAMPLES
296.Sh CODE REFERENCES
297The pool manager is implemented in the file
298.Pa sys/kern/subr_pool.c .
299.\" .Sh AUTHOR
300.Sh SEE ALSO
301.Xr free 9 ,
302.Xr malloc 9 ,
303.Xr memoryallocators 9 ,
304.Xr pool_cache 9 ,
305.Xr uvm 9
306.Sh HISTORY
307The
308.Nx
309pool manager appeared in
310.Nx 1.4 .
311