Module Netsys_sem

module Netsys_sem: sig .. end

Generic anonymous semaphores

This module purely exists to also support "kind of anonymous" sempahores on MacOS X (which only has named semaphores). On other OS, it is just a wrapper for the functions in Netsys_posix.

Note that on OS X named semaphores have a max name length of 31 characters (including the / at the beginning), and that Netsys_sem uses 9 characters for its own purposes, leaving 22 characters for the prefix. (On other OS this is less restricted.)

val have_anon_semaphores : unit -> bool

Returns true if anonymous semaphores are supported on this system, either natively or emulated via named semaphores.

Constants.

val sem_value_max : int

The maximum value of a semaphore, but at most max_int

val sem_size : int

The size of an anonymous semaphore in bytes (sizeof(sem_t))

Types.

type container

The container of the semaphore is the shared memory object

type prefix = string

A name starting with a slash. Must not contain further slashes

type anon_semaphore

type sem_open_flag = Netsys_posix.sem_open_flag =

`\|`	`SEM_O_CREAT`
`\|`	`SEM_O_EXCL`

Container functions.

val container : prefix -> container

container prefix: The prefix shall identify the container uniquely. Once can e.g. use the path of the shared memory object. The prefix is used to construct names for persistent objects.

Note that containers have kernel persistence! They are not automatically deleted when the process finishes. Call drop to delete containers, or create_container to force their creation as fresh objects.

If the container does not exist yet, it is created. Otherwise the container is just opened.

val create_container : prefix -> container

create_container prefix: Like container, but the container is always created. A previous instance is first deleted.

val prefix : container -> prefix

Return the prefix

val drop : container -> unit

Drop the semaphores in this container, and delete the container.

This function is a no-op if the OS supports anonymous semaphores directly (because in this case the deletion of the container will automatically destroy the semaphores).

Note that there is a general problem when a container is deleted or dropped by a process while it is still being used by another one. This will generally not generate errors, but can cause a lot of confusion, because the processes will partly access the same semaphores, and partly different semaphores.

val unlink : prefix -> unit

Unlinks the identified container if it exists, and unlinks all possible named semaphores.

Semaphore functions.

val sem_init : container ->
       Netsys_types.memory -> int -> bool -> int -> anon_semaphore

sem_init cont mem pos pshared init_value: Initializes the memory at position pos to pos + sem_size() - 1 as anonymous semaphore. If pshared the semaphore is shared between processes. init_value is the initial non-negative value (max is sem_value_max).

val sem_destroy : container -> anon_semaphore -> unit

Destroys the anonymous semaphore

val as_sem : container ->
       Netsys_types.memory -> int -> anon_semaphore

as_sem mem pos: Interprets the memory at position pos to pos + sem_size() - 1 as anonymous semaphore. The memory region must already have been initialized.

val sem_getvalue : anon_semaphore -> int

Returns the value of the semaphore. If the value is bigger than what can be represented as int, an EINVAL error is returned.

The returned value is non-negative - if the underlying POSIX function reports a negative value zero is returned instead.

Unavailable on MacOS.

val sem_post : anon_semaphore -> unit

Unlocks the semaphore (increases the value by 1)

type sem_wait_behavior = Netsys_posix.sem_wait_behavior =

`\|`	`SEM_WAIT_BLOCK`
`\|`	`SEM_WAIT_NONBLOCK`

val sem_wait : anon_semaphore -> sem_wait_behavior -> unit

Locks the semaphore (decreases the value by 1). If the semaphore value is already zero, and SEM_WAIT_BLOCK is given, the function waits until another process or thread posts. If SEM_WAIT_NONBLOCK the error EAGAIN is returned.

sem_wait may be interrupted by signals.

module Debug: sig .. end

This web site is published by Informatikbüro Gerd Stolpmann

Plasma	GitLab	Archive
Projects	Blog	Knowledge