8sa1-gcc/gcc/objc/THREADS

This file describes in little detail the modifications to the
Objective-C runtime needed to make it thread safe. 

First off, kudos to Galen Hunt who is the author of this great work.

If you have an comments or just want to know where to
send me money to express your undying graditude for threading the
Objective-C runtime you can reach Galen at:

	gchunt@cs.rochester.edu

Any questions, comments, bug reports, etc. should send email either to the
GCC bug account or to:

	Scott Christley <scottc@ocbi.com>

* Sarray Threading:

The most critical component of the Objective-C runtime is the sparse array
structure (sarray).  Sarrays store object selectors and implementations.  
Following in the tradition of the Objective-C runtime, my threading
support assumes that fast message dispatching is far more important
than *ANY* and *ALL* other operations.  The message dispatching thus
uses *NO* locks on any kind.  In fact, if you look in sarray.h, you
will notice that the message dispatching has not been modified.
Instead, I have modified the sarray management functions so that all
updates to the sarray data structure can be made in parallel will
message dispatching.  

To support concurrent message dispatching, no dynamically allocated
sarray data structures are freed while more than one thread is
operational.  Sarray data structures that are no longer in use are
kept in a linked list of garbage and are released whenever the program
is operating with a single thread.  The programmer can also flush the 
garbage list by calling sarray_remove_garbage when the programmer can
ensure that no message dispatching is taking place concurrently.  The
amount of un-reclaimed sarray garbage should normally be extremely
small in a real program as sarray structures are freed only when using
the "poseAs" functionality and early in program initialization, which
normally occurs while the program is single threaded.

******************************************************************************
* Static Variables:

The following variables are either statically or globally defined. This list 
does not include variables which are internal to implementation dependent 
versions of thread-*.c.

The following threading designations are used:
	SAFE   : Implicitly thread safe.
	SINGLE : Must only be used in single thread mode.
	MUTEX  : Protected by single global mutex objc_runtime_mutex.
	UNUSED : Not used in the runtime.

Variable Name:			Usage:  Defined:	Also used in:
===========================	======	============	=====================
__objc_class_hash		MUTEX	class.c
__objc_class_links_resolved	UNUSED	class.c		runtime.h
__objc_class_number		MUTEX	class.c
__objc_dangling_categories	UNUSED	init.c
__objc_module_list		MUTEX	init.c
__objc_selector_array		MUTEX	selector.c
__objc_selector_hash		MUTEX	selector.c
__objc_selector_max_index	MUTEX	selector.c	sendmsg.c runtime.h
__objc_selector_names		MUTEX	selector.c
__objc_thread_exit_status	SAFE	thread.c
__objc_uninstalled_dtable	MUTEX	sendmsg.c	selector.c
_objc_load_callback		SAFE	init.c		objc-api.h
_objc_lookup_class		SAFE	class.c		objc-api.h
_objc_object_alloc		SINGLE	objects.c	objc-api.h
_objc_object_copy		SINGLE	objects.c	objc-api.h
_objc_object_dispose		SINGLE	objects.c	objc-api.h
frwd_sel			SAFE2	sendmsg.c
idxsize				MUTEX	sarray.c	sendmsg.c sarray.h
initialize_sel			SAFE2	sendmsg.c
narrays				MUTEX	sarray.c	sendmsg.c sarray.h
nbuckets			MUTEX	sarray.c	sendmsg.c sarray.h
nindices			MUTEX	sarray.c	sarray.h
previous_constructors		SAFE1	init.c
proto_class			SAFE1	init.c
unclaimed_categories		MUTEX	init.c
unclaimed_proto_list		MUTEX	init.c
uninitialized_statics		MUTEX	init.c

Notes:
1) Initialized once in unithread mode.
2) Initialized value will always be same, guaranteed by lock on selector 
   hash table.

******************************************************************************
* Linking:

On Solaris, you must link with -lthread to include the system
thread library.  We use its low level thread and mutex implementations.

On OSF/1, you must link with -lpthreads to include the pthreads library.

On WIN32, thread support is built-in to the WIN32 API; refer to your
compiler documentation for the appropriate library.

******************************************************************************
* Threads:

The thread system attempts to create multiple threads using whatever
operating system or library thread support is available.  It does
assume that all system functions are thread safe.  Notably this means
that the system implementation of malloc and free must be thread safe.
If a system has multiple processors, the threads are configured for
full parallel processing.

__objc_init_thread_system(void), int
	Initialize the thread subsystem.  Call once by __objc_exec_class.

__objc_fini_thread_system(void), int
	Closes the thread subsystem.

objc_thread_detach(SEL selector, id object, id argument), int
	Creates and detaches a new thread.  The new thread starts by
	sending the given selector with a single argument to the
	given object.

objc_thread_set_priority(int priority), int
	Sets a threads relative priority within the program.  Valid
	options are:
	
	OBJC_THREAD_INTERACTIVE_PRIORITY
	OBJC_THREAD_BACKGROUND_PRIORITY
	OBJC_THREAD_LOW_PRIORITY

objc_thread_get_priority(void), int
	Query a threads priority.

objc_thread_yield(void), void
	Yields processor to another thread with equal or higher
	priority.  It is up to the system scheduler to determine if
	the processor is taken or not.

objc_thread_exit(void), int
	Terminates a thread.  If this is the last thread executing
	then the program will terminate.

objc_thread_id(void), int
	Returns the current thread's id.

objc_thread_set_data(void *value), int
	Set a pointer to the thread's local storage.  Local storage is
	thread specific.

objc_thread_get_data(void), void *
	Returns the pointer to the thread's local storage.

******************************************************************************
* Mutexs:

Mutexs can be locked recursively.  Each mutex locked mutex remembers
its owner (by thread id) and how many times it has been locked.  The
last unlock on a mutex removes the system lock and allows other
threads to access the mutex.

objc_mutex_allocate(void), Mutex_t
	Allocates a new mutex.  Mutex is initially unlocked.

objc_mutex_deallocate(Mutex_t mutex), int
	Free a mutex.  Before freeing the mutex, makes sure that no
	one else is using it.

objc_mutex_lock(Mutex_t mutex), int
	Locks a mutex.  As mentioned earlier, the same thread may call
	this routine repeatedly.
	
objc_mutex_trylock(Mutex_t mutex), int
	Attempts to lock a mutex.  Returns -1 if failed.  If lock on
	mutex can be acquired then function operates exactly as
	objc_mutex_lock.

objc_mutex_unlock(Mutex_t mutex), int
	Unlocks the mutex by one level.  Other threads may not acquire
	the mutex until this thread has released all locks on it.

******************************************************************************
* Sample run of thread-test/checks/test01.m

<< program started >>				-- Program started
__objc_exec_class(Object.m)			-- Initialize once 
__objc_init_mutex_system
__objc_init_thread_system
__objc_init_selector_tables()  
__objc_init_class_tables()  
__objc_init_dispatch_tables() 
__objc_exec_class(Protocol.m)			-- Called repeatedly
__objc_init_protocols(0x000746d4) 		-- Called repeatedly
class_add_method_list(0x74718, 0x74208) 	-- Called repeatedly
<< main called >>				-- Main called
__objc_init_install_dtable(0x6d980, 0x6d5c0)    -- Called repeatedly
<< delegatePool filled, count=10 >>		-- Code in secondary function
__objc_init_install_dtable(0x76268, 0x70614)    -- Called repeatedly
Array: count=1					-- More secondary code.
EltNodeCollector: count=1
<< end of program >>				-- End of program