diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'erts/doc/src/erl_driver.xml')
| -rw-r--r-- | erts/doc/src/erl_driver.xml | 57 |
1 files changed, 47 insertions, 10 deletions
diff --git a/erts/doc/src/erl_driver.xml b/erts/doc/src/erl_driver.xml index 187c263b60..e16fd744c0 100644 --- a/erts/doc/src/erl_driver.xml +++ b/erts/doc/src/erl_driver.xml @@ -34,6 +34,32 @@ <lib>erl_driver</lib> <libsummary>API functions for an Erlang driver</libsummary> <description> + <p>An Erlang driver is a library containing a set of native driver + callback functions that the Erlang VM calls when certain + events occur. There may be multiple instances of a driver, each + instance is associated with an Erlang port.</p> + <marker id="WARNING"/> + <warning><p><em>Use this functionality with extreme care!</em></p> + <p>A driver callback is executed as a direct extension of the + native code of the VM. Execution is not made in a safe environment. + The VM can <em>not</em> provide the same services as provided when + executing Erlang code, such as preemptive scheduling or memory + protection. If the driver callback function doesn't behave well, + the whole VM will misbehave.</p> + <list> + <item><p>A driver callback that crash will crash the whole VM.</p></item> + <item><p>An erroneously implemented driver callback might cause + a VM internal state inconsistency which may cause a crash of the VM, + or miscellaneous misbehaviors of the VM at any point after the call + to the driver callback.</p></item> + <item><p>A driver callback that do <seealso marker="#lengthy_work">lengthy + work</seealso> before returning will degrade responsiveness of the VM, + and may cause miscellaneous strange behaviors. Such strange behaviors + include, but are not limited to, extreme memory usage, and bad load + balancing between schedulers. Strange behaviors that might occur due + to lengthy work may also vary between OTP releases.</p></item> + </list> + </warning> <p>As of erts version 5.5.3 the driver interface has been extended (see <seealso marker="driver_entry#extended_marker">extended marker</seealso>). The extended interface introduce @@ -53,16 +79,12 @@ <p>The driver calls back to the emulator, using the API functions declared in <c>erl_driver.h</c>. They are used for outputting data from the driver, using timers, etc.</p> - <p>A driver is a library with a set of function that the emulator - calls, in response to Erlang functions and message - sending. There may be multiple instances of a driver, each - instance is connected to an Erlang port. Every port has a port - owner process. Communication with the port is normally done - through the port owner process.</p> - <p>Most of the functions take the <c>port</c> handle as an - argument. This identifies the driver instance. Note that this - port handle must be stored by the driver, it is not given when - the driver is called from the emulator (see + <p>Each driver instance is associated with a port. Every port + has a port owner process. Communication with the port is normally + done through the port owner process. Most of the functions take + the <c>port</c> handle as an argument. This identifies the driver + instance. Note that this port handle must be stored by the driver, + it is not given when the driver is called from the emulator (see <seealso marker="driver_entry#emulator">driver_entry</seealso>).</p> <p>Some of the functions take a parameter of type <c>ErlDrvBinary</c>, a driver binary. It should be both @@ -129,6 +151,21 @@ are <em>only</em> thread safe when used in a runtime system with SMP support.</p> </note> + <p><marker id="lengthy_work"/> + As mentioned in the <seealso marker="#WARNING">warning</seealso> text at + the beginning of this document it is of vital importance that a driver callback + does return relatively fast. It is hard to give an exact maximum amount + of time that a driver callback is allowed to work, but as a rule of thumb + a well behaving driver callback should return before a millisecond has + passed. This can be achieved using different approaches. + If you have full control over the code that are to execute in the driver + callback, the best approach is to divide the work into multiple chunks of + work and trigger multiple calls to the + <seealso marker="driver_entry#timeout">timeout callback</seealso> using + zero timeouts. This might, however, not always be possible, e.g. when + calling third party libraries. In this case you typically want to dispatch + the work to another thread. Information about thread primitives can be + found below.</p> </description> <section> |