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authorRickard Green <[email protected]>2018-03-07 01:17:21 +0100
committerRickard Green <[email protected]>2018-03-21 10:27:03 +0100
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Implementation of true asynchronous signaling between processes
Communication between Erlang processes has conceptually always been performed through asynchronous signaling. The runtime system implementation has however previously preformed most operation synchronously. In a system with only one true thread of execution, this is not problematic (often the opposite). In a system with multiple threads of execution (as current runtime system implementation with SMP support) it becomes problematic. This since it often involves locking of structures when updating them which in turn cause resource contention. Utilizing true asynchronous communication often avoids these resource contention issues. The case that triggered this change was contention on the link lock due to frequent updates of the monitor trees during communication with a frequently used server. The signal order delivery guarantees of the language makes it hard to change the implementation of only some signals to use true asynchronous signaling. Therefore the implementations of (almost) all signals have been changed. Currently the following signals have been implemented as true asynchronous signals: - Message signals - Exit signals - Monitor signals - Demonitor signals - Monitor triggered signals (DOWN, CHANGE, etc) - Link signals - Unlink signals - Group leader signals All of the above already defined as asynchronous signals in the language. The implementation of messages signals was quite asynchronous to begin with, but had quite strict delivery constraints due to the ordering guarantees of signals between a pair of processes. The previously used message queue partitioned into two halves has been replaced by a more general signal queue partitioned into three parts that service all kinds of signals. More details regarding the signal queue can be found in comments in the erl_proc_sig_queue.h file. The monitor and link implementations have also been completely replaced in order to fit the new asynchronous signaling implementation as good as possible. More details regarding the new monitor and link implementations can be found in the erl_monitor_link.h file.
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