From 5f8e2cbd4a4917b0444447c1c73905bef9341c0d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Yoshua Wuyts Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2019 00:34:27 +0100 Subject: [PATCH 1/2] add mod level docs for sync Signed-off-by: Yoshua Wuyts --- src/sync/mod.rs | 143 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 143 insertions(+) diff --git a/src/sync/mod.rs b/src/sync/mod.rs index 3ad2776..0fe7322 100644 --- a/src/sync/mod.rs +++ b/src/sync/mod.rs @@ -4,6 +4,149 @@ //! //! [`std::sync`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/sync/index.html //! +//! ## The need for synchronization +//! +//! Conceptually, a Rust program is a series of operations which will +//! be executed on a computer. The timeline of events happening in the +//! program is consistent with the order of the operations in the code. +//! +//! Consider the following code, operating on some global static variables: +//! +//! ```rust +//! static mut A: u32 = 0; +//! static mut B: u32 = 0; +//! static mut C: u32 = 0; +//! +//! fn main() { +//! unsafe { +//! A = 3; +//! B = 4; +//! A = A + B; +//! C = B; +//! println!("{} {} {}", A, B, C); +//! C = A; +//! } +//! } +//! ``` +//! +//! It appears as if some variables stored in memory are changed, an addition +//! is performed, result is stored in `A` and the variable `C` is +//! modified twice. +//! +//! When only a single thread is involved, the results are as expected: +//! the line `7 4 4` gets printed. +//! +//! As for what happens behind the scenes, when optimizations are enabled the +//! final generated machine code might look very different from the code: +//! +//! - The first store to `C` might be moved before the store to `A` or `B`, +//! _as if_ we had written `C = 4; A = 3; B = 4`. +//! +//! - Assignment of `A + B` to `A` might be removed, since the sum can be stored +//! in a temporary location until it gets printed, with the global variable +//! never getting updated. +//! +//! - The final result could be determined just by looking at the code +//! at compile time, so [constant folding] might turn the whole +//! block into a simple `println!("7 4 4")`. +//! +//! The compiler is allowed to perform any combination of these +//! optimizations, as long as the final optimized code, when executed, +//! produces the same results as the one without optimizations. +//! +//! Due to the [concurrency] involved in modern computers, assumptions +//! about the program's execution order are often wrong. Access to +//! global variables can lead to nondeterministic results, **even if** +//! compiler optimizations are disabled, and it is **still possible** +//! to introduce synchronization bugs. +//! +//! Note that thanks to Rust's safety guarantees, accessing global (static) +//! variables requires `unsafe` code, assuming we don't use any of the +//! synchronization primitives in this module. +//! +//! [constant folding]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constant_folding +//! [concurrency]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concurrency_(computer_science) +//! +//! ## Out-of-order execution +//! +//! Instructions can execute in a different order from the one we define, due to +//! various reasons: +//! +//! - The **compiler** reordering instructions: If the compiler can issue an +//! instruction at an earlier point, it will try to do so. For example, it +//! might hoist memory loads at the top of a code block, so that the CPU can +//! start [prefetching] the values from memory. +//! +//! In single-threaded scenarios, this can cause issues when writing +//! signal handlers or certain kinds of low-level code. +//! Use [compiler fences] to prevent this reordering. +//! +//! - A **single processor** executing instructions [out-of-order]: +//! Modern CPUs are capable of [superscalar] execution, +//! i.e., multiple instructions might be executing at the same time, +//! even though the machine code describes a sequential process. +//! +//! This kind of reordering is handled transparently by the CPU. +//! +//! - A **multiprocessor** system executing multiple hardware threads +//! at the same time: In multi-threaded scenarios, you can use two +//! kinds of primitives to deal with synchronization: +//! - [memory fences] to ensure memory accesses are made visible to +//! other CPUs in the right order. +//! - [atomic operations] to ensure simultaneous access to the same +//! memory location doesn't lead to undefined behavior. +//! +//! [prefetching]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cache_prefetching +//! [compiler fences]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/sync/atomic/fn.compiler_fence.html +//! [out-of-order]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-of-order_execution +//! [superscalar]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superscalar_processor +//! [memory fences]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/sync/atomic/fn.fence.html +//! [atomic operations]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/sync/atomic/index.html +//! +//! ## Higher-level synchronization objects +//! +//! Most of the low-level synchronization primitives are quite error-prone and +//! inconvenient to use, which is why async-std also exposes some +//! higher-level synchronization objects. +//! +//! These abstractions can be built out of lower-level primitives. +//! For efficiency, the sync objects in async-std are usually +//! implemented with help from the scheduler, which is +//! able to reschedule the tasks while they are blocked on acquiring +//! a lock. +//! +//! The following is an overview of the available synchronization +//! objects: +//! +//! - [`Arc`]: Atomically Reference-Counted pointer, which can be used +//! in multithreaded environments to prolong the lifetime of some +//! data until all the threads have finished using it. +//! +//! - [`Barrier`]: Ensures multiple threads will wait for each other +//! to reach a point in the program, before continuing execution all +//! together. +//! +//! - [`channel`]: Multi-producer, multi-consumer queues, used for +//! message-based communication. Can provide a lightweight +//! inter-task synchronisation mechanism, at the cost of some +//! extra memory. +//! +//! - [`Mutex`]: Mutual Exclusion mechanism, which ensures that at +//! most one task at a time is able to access some data. +//! +//! - [`RwLock`]: Provides a mutual exclusion mechanism which allows +//! multiple readers at the same time, while allowing only one +//! writer at a time. In some cases, this can be more efficient than +//! a mutex. +//! +//! [`Arc`]: crate::sync::Arc +//! [`Barrier`]: crate::sync::Barrier +//! [`Condvar`]: crate::sync::Condvar +//! [`channel`]: fn.channel.html +//! [`Mutex`]: crate::sync::Mutex +//! [`Once`]: crate::sync::Once +//! [`RwLock`]: crate::sync::RwLock +//! //! # Examples //! //! Spawn a task that updates an integer protected by a mutex: From 3a06a1211b0f8787854d32e3cf5eb0d8fdd769c8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Yoshua Wuyts Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2019 10:56:33 +0100 Subject: [PATCH 2/2] Add feedback from review Signed-off-by: Yoshua Wuyts --- src/sync/mod.rs | 3 +++ 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+) diff --git a/src/sync/mod.rs b/src/sync/mod.rs index 0fe7322..d10e6bd 100644 --- a/src/sync/mod.rs +++ b/src/sync/mod.rs @@ -6,6 +6,9 @@ //! //! ## The need for synchronization //! +//! async-std's sync primitives are scheduler-aware, making it possible to +//! `.await` their operations - for example the locking of a [`Mutex`]. +//! //! Conceptually, a Rust program is a series of operations which will //! be executed on a computer. The timeline of events happening in the //! program is consistent with the order of the operations in the code.