X-Git-Url: http://wien.tomnetworks.com/gitweb/?p=hs-boehmgc.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=gc-7.2%2Fdoc%2FREADME.linux;fp=gc-7.2%2Fdoc%2FREADME.linux;h=dc0fa543dc2377f4f13c6e9c85b134e93d1dbfa0;hp=0000000000000000000000000000000000000000;hb=324587ba93dc77f37406d41fd2a20d0e0d94fb1d;hpb=2a4ea609491b225a1ceb06da70396e93916f137a diff --git a/gc-7.2/doc/README.linux b/gc-7.2/doc/README.linux new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dc0fa54 --- /dev/null +++ b/gc-7.2/doc/README.linux @@ -0,0 +1,129 @@ +See README.alpha for Linux on DEC AXP info. + +This file applies mostly to Linux/Intel IA32. Ports to Linux on an M68K, IA64, +SPARC, MIPS, Alpha and PowerPC are also integrated. They should behave +similarly, except that the PowerPC port lacks incremental GC support, and +it is unknown to what extent the Linux threads code is functional. +See below for M68K specific notes. + +Incremental GC is generally supported. + +Dynamic libraries are supported on an ELF system. A static executable +should be linked with the gcc option "-Wl,-defsym,_DYNAMIC=0". + +The collector appears to work reliably with Linux threads, but beware +of older versions of glibc and gdb. + +The garbage collector uses SIGPWR and SIGXCPU if it is used with +Linux threads. These should not be touched by the client program. + +To use threads, you need to abide by the following requirements: + +1) You need to use LinuxThreads or NPTL (which are included in libc6). + + The collector relies on some implementation details of the LinuxThreads + package. This code may not work on other + pthread implementations (in particular it will *not* work with + MIT pthreads). + +2) You must compile the collector with -DGC_LINUX_THREADS (or + just -DGC_THREADS) and -D_REENTRANT specified in the Makefile. + +3a) Every file that makes thread calls should define GC_LINUX_THREADS and + _REENTRANT and then include gc.h. Gc.h redefines some of the + pthread primitives as macros which also provide the collector with + information it requires. + +3b) A new alternative to (3a) is to build the collector and compile GC clients + with -DGC_USE_LD_WRAP, and to link the final program with + + (for ld) --wrap dlopen --wrap pthread_create \ + --wrap pthread_join --wrap pthread_detach \ + --wrap pthread_sigmask --wrap pthread_exit --wrap pthread_cancel + + (for gcc) -Wl,--wrap -Wl,dlopen -Wl,--wrap -Wl,pthread_create \ + -Wl,--wrap -Wl,pthread_join -Wl,--wrap -Wl,pthread_detach \ + -Wl,--wrap -Wl,pthread_sigmask -Wl,--wrap -Wl,pthread_exit \ + -Wl,--wrap -Wl,pthread_cancel + + In any case, _REENTRANT should be defined during compilation. + +4) Dlopen() disables collection during its execution. (It can't run + concurrently with the collector, since the collector looks at its + data structures. It can't acquire the allocator lock, since arbitrary + user startup code may run as part of dlopen().) Under unusual + conditions, this may cause unexpected heap growth. + +5) The combination of GC_LINUX_THREADS, REDIRECT_MALLOC, and incremental + collection is probably not fully reliable, though it now seems to work + in simple cases. + +6) Thread local storage may not be viewed as part of the root set by the + collector. This probably depends on the linuxthreads version. For the + time being, any collectable memory referenced by thread local storage should + also be referenced from elsewhere, or be allocated as uncollectable. + (This is really a bug that should be fixed somehow. The current GC + version probably gets things right if there are not too many tls locations + and if dlopen is not used.) + + +M68K LINUX: +(From Richard Zidlicky) +The bad news is that it can crash every linux-m68k kernel on a 68040, +so an additional test is needed somewhere on startup. I have meanwhile +patches to correct the problem in 68040 buserror handler but it is not +yet in any standard kernel. + +Here is a simple test program to detect whether the kernel has the +problem. It could be run as a separate check in configure or tested +upon startup. If it fails (return !0) than mprotect can't be used +on that system. + +/* + * test for bug that may crash 68040 based Linux + */ + +#include +#include +#include +#include +#include + + +char *membase; +int pagesize=4096; +int pageshift=12; +int x_taken=0; + +int sighandler(int sig) +{ + mprotect(membase,pagesize,PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE); + x_taken=1; +} + +main() +{ + long l; + + signal(SIGSEGV,sighandler); + l=(long)mmap(NULL,pagesize,PROT_READ,MAP_PRIVATE | MAP_ANON,-1,0); + if (l==-1) + { + perror("mmap/malloc"); + abort(); + } + membase=(char*)l; + *(long*)(membase+sizeof(long))=123456789; + if (*(long*)(membase+sizeof(long)) != 123456789 ) + { + fprintf(stderr,"writeback failed !\n"); + exit(1); + } + if (!x_taken) + { + fprintf(stderr,"exception not taken !\n"); + exit(1); + } + fprintf(stderr,"vmtest Ok\n"); + exit(0); +}