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authorAkinori Ito <aito@eie.yz.yamagata-u.ac.jp>2001-11-08 05:14:08 +0000
committerAkinori Ito <aito@eie.yz.yamagata-u.ac.jp>2001-11-08 05:14:08 +0000
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treec2adb06a909a8594445e4a3f8587c4bad46e3ecd /gc/README.linux
downloadw3m-68a07bf03b7624c9924065cce9ffa45497225834.tar.gz
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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
+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.
+
+Incremental GC is supported on Intel IA32 and M68K.
+
+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 with Linux threads. We have seen
+intermittent hangs in sem_wait. So far we have been unable to reproduce
+these unless the process was being debugged or traced. Thus it's
+possible that the only real issue is that the debugger loses
+signals on rare occasions.
+
+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 (which are included in libc6).
+
+ The collector relies on some implementation details of the LinuxThreads
+ package. It is unlikely that this code will work on other
+ pthread implementations (in particular it will *not* work with
+ MIT pthreads).
+
+2) You must compile the collector with -DLINUX_THREADS and -D_REENTRANT
+ specified in the Makefile.
+
+3) Every file that makes thread calls should define 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.
+
+4) Currently dlopen() is probably not safe. The collector must traverse
+ the list of libraries maintained by the runtime loader. That can
+ probably be an inconsistent state when a thread calling the loader is
+ is stopped for GC. (It's possible that this is fixable in the
+ same way it is handled for SOLARIS_THREADS, with GC_dlopen.)
+
+5) The combination of 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.