since timer_create is no longer allocating a structure for the timer_t
and simply using the kernel timer id, it was impossible to specify the
timer_t as the argument to the signal handler. the solution is to pass
the null sigevent pointer on to the kernel, rather than filling it in
userspace, so that the kernel does the right thing. however, that
precludes the clever timerid-versus-threadid encoding we were doing.
instead, just assume timerids are below 1M and thread pointers are
above 1M. (in perspective: timerids are sequentially allocated and
seem limited to 32k, and thread pointers are at roughly 3G.)
instead of allocating a userspace structure for signal-based timers,
simply use the kernel timer id. we use the fact that thread pointers
will always be zero in the low bit (actually more) to encode integer
timerid values as pointers.
also, this change ensures that the timer_destroy syscall has completed
before the library timer_destroy function returns, in case it matters.
the major idea of this patch is not to depend on having the timer
pointer delivered to the signal handler, and instead use the thread
pointer to get the callback function address and argument. this way,
the parent thread can make the timer_create syscall while the child
thread is starting, and it should never have to block waiting for the
barrier.
this implementation is superior to the glibc/nptl implementation, in
that it gives true realtime behavior. there is no risk of timer
expiration events being lost due to failed thread creation or failed
malloc, because the thread is created as time creation time, and
reused until the timer is deleted.
this commit addresses two issues:
1. a race condition, whereby a cancellation request occurring after a
syscall returned from kernelspace but before the subsequent
CANCELPT_END would cause cancellable resource-allocating syscalls
(like open) to leak resources.
2. signal handlers invoked while the thread was blocked at a
cancellation point behaved as if asynchronous cancellation mode wer in
effect, resulting in potentially dangerous state corruption if a
cancellation request occurs.
the glibc/nptl implementation of threads shares both of these issues.
with this commit, both are fixed. however, cancellation points
encountered in a signal handler will not be acted upon if the signal
was received while the thread was already at a cancellation point.
they will of course be acted upon after the signal handler returns, so
in real-world usage where signal handlers quickly return, it should
not be a problem. it's possible to solve this problem too by having
sigaction() wrap all signal handlers with a function that uses a
pthread_cleanup handler to catch cancellation, patch up the saved
context, and return into the cancellable function that will catch and
act upon the cancellation. however that would be a lot of complexity
for minimal if any benefit...
with this patch, the syscallN() functions are no longer needed; a
variadic syscall() macro allows syscalls with anywhere from 0 to 6
arguments to be made with a single macro name. also, manually casting
each non-integer argument with (long) is no longer necessary; the
casts are hidden in the macros.
some source files which depended on being able to define the old macro
SYSCALL_RETURNS_ERRNO have been modified to directly use __syscall()
instead of syscall(). references to SYSCALL_SIGSET_SIZE and SYSCALL_LL
have also been changed.
x86_64 has not been tested, and may need a follow-up commit to fix any
minor bugs/oversights.
these functions are specified inconsistent in whether they're
specified to return an error value, or return -1 and set errno.
hopefully now they all match what POSIX requires.
Rich Felker