[ntp:hackers] [Gpsd-dev] Possible shm problem: Structure alignment?

Dave Hart hart at ntp.org
Fri Mar 25 23:51:58 UTC 2011


On Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 20:56 UTC, Terje Mathisen <terje at tmsw.no> wrote:
> OK, there is already an attempt underway (started by Håkan from Sweden) to
> define a new (POSIX?) shm interface with ns support, merging that work with
> this effort to get a much more portable/stable interface would be good.

Juergen Perlinger also has proposed changes to ntpd's refclock_shm.c
in the form of a tarball and an html to-do list in
http://support.ntp.org/people/perlinger/

Here's an attempt to itemize the various improvements suggested.

0.  Leave existing reflcock_shm.c shared memory structure definition
in place for backwards compat, allow user to control which variant to
use via ntp.conf.  I'm not sure what the default should be.
1.  Ensure 32-bit and 64-bit clients use the same layout expressed in
fixed-size types
2.  Use 64-bit wide storage where atomic access is required, declared
as a union of u_int32[2], a double to force 64-bit alignment on 32-bit
platforms lacking u_int64, and a u_int64, accessed through a member
name aliased to the u_int64 on 64-bit, and the least significant
u_int32 on 32-bit.  This accomodates any 64-bit architectures where
32-bit access is not atomic.  Even if there is no such architecture
today, I believe it's worthwhile future-proofing.
3.  Similarly for time_t containers, use a union of time_t,
u_int32[2], and a double to force 64-bit storage and alignment.
4.  Switch to nanosecond resolution for timestamps.
5.  Arrange the members to avoid compiler padding for alignment.
6.  Switch from sysv to POSIX named shared memory to broaden supported
platforms.  Assumption here is there are no interesting systems which
support sysv shared memory but not POSIX.
7.  Mark all members volatile to bar access re-ordering by the
compiler.  Guard the declaration with extern "C" when pulled into C++
code to use C volatile semantics.
8.  Come to agreement on the consistency protocol for one writer,
multiple readers, including use of memory barriers where available,
but do not require memory barrier support from the compiler, as (IIUC)
x86/x64 do not need them for volatile atomic accesses to be coherent
across processors, and the ovewhelming majority of current
refclock_shm users are on x86 or x64.

I have a feeling I've omitted at least one suggested improvement,
please followup with any others that come to mind.

If your message is rejected by either list, feel free to forward it to
me with a request to repost to that list.

Thanks for all the lively participation.  I think we've come a long
way towards consensus.

Cheers,
Dave Hart


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