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authorupstream source tree <ports@midipix.org>2015-03-15 20:14:05 -0400
committerupstream source tree <ports@midipix.org>2015-03-15 20:14:05 -0400
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+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 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 read --wrap dlopen --wrap pthread_create \
+ --wrap pthread_join --wrap pthread_detach \
+ --wrap pthread_sigmask --wrap sleep
+
+ (for gcc) -Wl,--wrap -Wl,read -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,sleep
+
+ 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 fails in seemingly random places. This hasn't been tracked
+ down yet, but is perhaps not completely astonishing. The thread package
+ uses malloc, and thus can presumably get SIGSEGVs while inside the
+ package. There is no real guarantee that signals are handled properly
+ at that point.
+
+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.)
+
+
+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 <sys/mman.h>
+#include <signal.h>
+#include <unistd.h>
+#include <stdio.h>
+#include <stdlib.h>
+
+
+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);
+}
+
+