xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man9/xcall.9 (revision b1c86f5f087524e68db12794ee9c3e3da1ab17a0)
1.\"     $NetBSD: xcall.9,v 1.6 2010/05/16 05:18:35 jruoho Exp $
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30.Dd May 16, 2010
31.Dt XCALL 9
32.Os
33.Sh NAME
34.Nm xcall ,
35.Nm xc_broadcast ,
36.Nm xc_unicast ,
37.Nm xc_wait
38.Nd cross-call interface
39.Sh SYNOPSIS
40.In sys/xcall.h
41.Vt typedef void (*xcfunc_t)(void *, void *);
42.Ft uint64_t
43.Fn xc_broadcast "u_int flags" "xcfunc_t func" "void *arg1" "void *arg2"
44.Ft uint64_t
45.Fn xc_unicast "u_int flags" "xcfunc_t func" "void *arg1" "void *arg2" "struct cpu_info *ci"
46.Ft void
47.Fn xc_wait "uint64_t where"
48.Sh DESCRIPTION
49The machine-independent
50.Nm
51interface allows any CPU in the system to request that an arbitrary
52function be executed on any other CPU.
53.Pp
54Sometimes it is necessary to modify hardware state that is tied
55directly to individual CPUs
56.Po
57such as a CPU's local timer
58.Pc ,
59and these updates can not be done remotely by another CPU.
60The LWP requesting the update may be unable to guarantee that it
61will be running on the CPU where the update must occur, when the
62update occurs.
63.Pp
64Additionally, it is sometimes necessary to modify per-CPU software
65state from a remote CPU.
66Where these update operations are so rare or the access to the
67per-CPU data so frequent that the cost of using locking or atomic
68operations to provide coherency is prohibitive, another way must
69be found.
70.Pp
71Cross calls help to solve these types of problem.
72However, since this facility is heavyweight, it is expected that
73it will not be used often.
74.Pp
75.Nm
76provides a mechanism for making
77.Dq "low priority"
78cross calls.
79The function to be executed runs on the remote CPU within a thread
80context, and not from a software interrupt, so it can ensure that it is
81not interrupting other code running on the CPU, and so has exclusive
82access to the CPU.
83Keep in mind that unless disabled, it may cause a kernel preemption.
84.Sh NOTES
85Functions being called should be relatively lightweight.
86They may block on locks, but carefully and minimally, to not interfere
87with other cross calls in the system.
88.Sh FUNCTIONS
89.Bl -tag -width compact
90.It Fn xc_broadcast "flags" "func" "arg1" "arg2"
91Call
92.Fo "(*func)"
93.Fa "arg1"
94.Fa "arg2"
95.Fc
96on all CPUs in the system.
97Return a
98.Vt uint64_t
99.Dq ticket
100to
101.Fn xc_wait
102on for the cross-call to complete.
103.Fa flags
104should be 0.
105.Fn xc_broadcast
106should not be called from interrupt context.
107.It Fn xc_unicast "flags" "func" "arg1" "arg2" "ci"
108Like
109.Fn xc_broadcast ,
110but call
111.Fn "(*func)"
112on only the CPU indicated by
113.Fa ci .
114.Fn xc_unicast
115also returns a
116.Dq ticket .
117.It Fn xc_wait "where"
118Wait on the
119.Dq ticket
120returned by a prior
121.Fn xc_broadcast
122or
123.Fn xc_unicast
124for the corresponding cross-call to complete.
125.El
126.Sh CODE REFERENCES
127This section describes places within the
128.Nx
129source tree where actual code implementing the
130.Nm
131interface
132can be found.
133All pathnames are relative to
134.Pa /usr/src .
135.Pp
136The
137.Nm
138interface is implemented within the file
139.Pa sys/kern/subr_xcall.c .
140.\" .Sh EXAMPLES
141.Sh SEE ALSO
142.Xr kpreempt 9 ,
143.Xr percpu 9
144.Sh HISTORY
145The
146.Nm
147interface first appeared in
148.Nx 5.0 .
149.Sh AUTHORS
150.An Andrew Doran Aq ad@NetBSD.org
151