futex.2: Add brief description of the priority inversion problem

[thirdparty/man-pages.git] / man2 / futex.2

.\" Page by b.hubert
.\" and Copyright (C) 2015, Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
.\" and Copyright (C) 2015, Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
.\"
.\" %%%LICENSE_START(FREELY_REDISTRIBUTABLE)
.\" may be freely modified and distributed
.\" %%%LICENSE_END
.\"
.\" Niki A. Rahimi (LTC Security Development, narahimi@us.ibm.com)
.\" added ERRORS section.
.\"
.\" Modified 2004-06-17 mtk
.\" Modified 2004-10-07 aeb, added FUTEX_REQUEUE, FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE
.\"
.TH FUTEX 2 2014-05-21 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
.SH NAME
futex \- fast user-space locking
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.sp
.B "#include <linux/futex.h>"
.B "#include <sys/time.h>"
.sp
.BI "int futex(int *" uaddr ", int " futex_op ", int " val ,
.BI "          const struct timespec *" timeout , \
" \fR  /* or: \fBu32 \fIval2\fP */ 
.BI "          int *" uaddr2 ", int " val3 );
.fi

.IR Note :
There is no glibc wrapper for this system call; see NOTES.
.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
The
.BR futex ()
system call provides a method for
a program to wait for a value at a given address to change, and a
method to wake up anyone waiting on a particular address.
(While the
virtual addresses for the same memory in separate processes may not be
equal, the kernel maps them internally so that the same memory mapped in
different locations will correspond for
.BR futex ()
calls.)
This system call is typically used to
implement the contended case of a lock in shared memory, as
described in
.BR futex (7).
.PP
When a futex operation did not finish uncontended in user space, a
.BR futex ()
call needs to be made to the kernel to arbitrate.
Arbitration can either mean putting the calling
process to sleep or, conversely, waking a waiting process.
.PP
Callers of
.BR futex ()
are expected to adhere to the semantics described in
.BR futex (7).
As these
semantics involve writing nonportable assembly instructions, this in turn
probably means that most users will in fact be library authors and not
general application developers.
.PP
The
.I uaddr
argument points to an integer which stores the counter (futex).
On all platforms, futexes are four-byte integers that
must be aligned on a four-byte boundary.
The operation to perform on the futex is specified in the
.I futex_op
argument;
.IR val
is a value whose meaning and purpose depends on
.IR futex_op .

The remaining arguments
.RI ( timeout ,
.IR uaddr2 ,
and
.IR val3 )
are required only for certain of the futex operations described below.
Where one of these arguments is not required, it is ignored.

For several blocking operations, the
.I timeout
argument is a pointer to a
.IR timespec
structure that specifies a timeout for the operation.
However,  notwithstanding the prototype shown above, for some operations,
this argument is instead a four-byte integer whose meaning
is determined by the operation.
For these operations, the kernel casts the
.I timeout
value to
.IR u32 ,
and in the remainder of this page, this argument is referred to as
.I val2
when interpreted in this fashion.

Where it is required, the
.IR uaddr2
argument is a pointer to a second futex that is employed by the operation.
The interpretation of the final integer argument,
.IR val3 ,
depends on the operation.

The
.I futex_op
argument consists of two parts:
a command that specifies the operation to be performed,
bit-wise ORed with zero or or more options that
modify the behaviour of the operation.
The options that may be included in
.I futex_op
are as follows:
.TP
.BR FUTEX_PRIVATE_FLAG " (since Linux 2.6.22)"
.\" commit 34f01cc1f512fa783302982776895c73714ebbc2
This option bit can be employed with all futex operations.
It tells the kernel that the futex is process-private and not shared
with another process
(i.e., it is being used for synchronization between threads).
This allows the kernel to choose the fast path for validating
the user-space address and avoids expensive VMA lookups,
taking reference counts on file backing store, and so on.

As a convenience,
.IR <linux/futex.h>
defines a set of constants with the suffix
.BR _PRIVATE
that are equivalents of all of the operations listed below,
.\" except the obsolete FUTEX_FD, for which the "private" flag was
.\" meaningless
but with the
.BR FUTEX_PRIVATE_FLAG
ORed into the constant value.
Thus, there are
.BR FUTEX_WAIT_PRIVATE ,
.BR FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE ,
and so on.
.TP
.BR FUTEX_CLOCK_REALTIME " (since Linux 2.6.28)"
.\" commit 1acdac104668a0834cfa267de9946fac7764d486
This option bit can be employed only with the
.BR FUTEX_WAIT_BITSET
and
.BR FUTEX_WAIT_REQUEUE_PI
operations.

If this option is set, the kernel treats
.I timeout
as an absolute time based on
.BR CLOCK_REALTIME .

If this option is not set, the kernel treats
.I timeout
as relative time,
.\" FIXME I added CLOCK_MONOTONIC here. Is it correct?
measured against the
.BR CLOCK_MONOTONIC
clock.
.PP
The operation specified in
.I futex_op
is one of the following:
.\"
.\""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
.\"
.TP
.BR FUTEX_WAIT " (since Linux 2.6.0)"
.\" Strictly speaking, since some time in 2.5.x
This operation tests that the value at the
location pointed to by the futex address
.I uaddr
still contains the value
.IR val ,
and then sleeps awaiting
.B FUTEX_WAKE
on the futex address.
The test and sleep steps are performed atomically.
If the futex value does not match
.IR val ,
then the call fails immediately with the error
.BR EAGAIN .
.\" FIXME I added the following sentence. Please confirm that it is correct.
The purpose of the test step is to detect races where
another process changes the value of the futex between
the time it was last checked and the time of the
.BR FUTEX_WAIT
operation.

If the
.I timeout
argument is non-NULL, its contents specify a relative timeout for the wait,
.\" FIXME I added CLOCK_MONOTONIC here. Is it correct?
measured according to the
.BR CLOCK_MONOTONIC
clock.
(This interval will be rounded up to the system clock granularity,
and kernel scheduling delays mean that the
blocking interval may overrun by a small amount.)
If
.I timeout
is NULL, the call blocks indefinitely.

The arguments
.I uaddr2
and
.I val3
are ignored.

For
.BR futex (7),
this call is executed if decrementing the count gave a negative value
(indicating contention), and will sleep until another process releases
the futex and executes the
.B FUTEX_WAKE
operation.
.\"
.\""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
.\"
.TP
.BR FUTEX_WAKE " (since Linux 2.6.0)"
.\" Strictly speaking, since Linux 2.5.x
This operation wakes at most
.I val
processes waiting (i.e., inside
.BR FUTEX_WAIT )
on the futex at the address
.IR uaddr .
Most commonly,
.I val
is specified as either 1 (wake up a single waiter) or
.BR INT_MAX
(wake up all waiters).
.\" FIXME Please confirm that the following is correct:
No guarantee is provided about which waiters are awoken
(e.g., a waiter with a higher scheduling priority is not guaranteed
to be awoken in preference to a waiter with a lower priority).

The arguments
.IR timeout ,
.IR uaddr2 ,
and
.I val3
are ignored.

For
.BR futex (7),
this is executed if incrementing the count showed that there were waiters,
.\" FIXME How does "incrementing the count showed that there were waiters"?
once the futex value has been set to 1 (indicating that it is available).
.\"
.\""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
.\"
.TP
.BR FUTEX_FD " (from Linux 2.6.0 up to and including Linux 2.6.25)"
.\" Strictly speaking, from Linux 2.5.x to 2.6.25
This operation creates a file descriptor that is associated with the futex at
.IR uaddr .
The calling process must close the returned file descriptor after use.
When another process performs a
.BR FUTEX_WAKE
on the futex, the file descriptor indicates as being readable with
.BR select (2),
.BR poll (2),
and
.BR epoll (7)

The file descriptor can be used to obtain asynchronous notifications:
if
.I val
is nonzero, then when another process executes a
.BR FUTEX_WAKE ,
the caller will receive the signal number that was passed in
.IR val .

The arguments
.IR timeout ,
.I uaddr2
and
.I val3
are ignored.

To prevent race conditions, the caller should test if the futex has
been upped after
.B FUTEX_FD
returns.

Because it was inherently racy,
.B FUTEX_FD
has been removed
.\" commit 82af7aca56c67061420d618cc5a30f0fd4106b80
from Linux 2.6.26 onward.
.\"
.\""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
.\"
.TP
.BR FUTEX_REQUEUE " (since Linux 2.6.0)"
.\" Strictly speaking: from Linux 2.5.70
.\"
.\" FIXME I added this warning. Okay?
.IR "Avoid using this operation" .
It is broken (unavoidably racy) for its intended purpose.
Use
.BR FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE
instead.

This operation performs the same task as
.BR FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE ,
except that no check is made using the value in
.IR  val3 .
(The argument
.I val3
is ignored.)
.\"
.\""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
.\"
.TP
.BR FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE " (since Linux 2.6.7)"
This operation was added as a replacement for the earlier
.BR FUTEX_REQUEUE ,
because that operation was racy for its intended use.

As with
.BR FUTEX_REQUEUE ,
the
.BR FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE
operation is used to avoid a "thundering herd" effect when
.B FUTEX_WAKE
is used and all processes woken up need to acquire another futex.
It differs from
.BR FUTEX_REQUEUE
in that it first checks whether the location
.I uaddr
still contains the value
.IR val3 .
If not, the operation fails with the error
.BR EAGAIN .
.\" FIXME I added the following sentence on the rationale for
.\"       FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE. Is it correct? Should it be expanded?
This additional feature of
.BR FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE
can be used by the caller to (atomically) detect changes
in the value of the target futex at
.IR uaddr2 .

The operation wakes up a maximum of
.I val
waiters that are waiting on the futex at
.IR uaddr .
If there are more than
.I val
waiters, then the remaining waiters are removed
from the wait queue of the source futex at
.I uaddr
and added to the wait queue of the target futex at
.IR uaddr2 .

The
.I val2
argument specifies an upper limit on the number of waiters
that are requeued to the futex at
.IR uaddr2 .

.\" FIXME Please review the following new paragraph to see if it is
.\"       accurate.
Typical values to specify for
.I val
are 0 or or 1.
(Specifying
.BR INT_MAX
is not useful, because it would make the
.BR FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE
operation equivalent to
.BR FUTEX_WAKE .)
The limit value specified via
.I val2
is typically either 1 or
.BR INT_MAX .
(Specifying the argument as 0 is not useful, because it would make the
.BR FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE
operation equivalent to
.BR FUTEX_WAIT .)
.\"
.\" FIXME Here, it would be helpful to have an example of how
.\"       FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE might be used, at the same time illustrating
.\"       why FUTEX_WAKE is unsuitable for the same use case.
.\"
.\""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
.\"
.\" FIXME I added some FUTEX_WAKE_OP text, and I'd be happy if someone
.\"       checked it.
.TP
.BR FUTEX_WAKE_OP " (since Linux 2.6.14)"
.\" commit 4732efbeb997189d9f9b04708dc26bf8613ed721
.\"	Author: Jakub Jelinek <jakub@redhat.com>
.\"	Date:   Tue Sep 6 15:16:25 2005 -0700
This operation was added to support some user-space use cases
where more than one futex must be handled at the same time.
The most notable example is the implementation of
.BR pthread_cond_signal (3),
which requires operations on two futexes,
the one used to implement the mutex and the one used in the implementation
of the wait queue associated with the condition variable.
.BR FUTEX_WAKE_OP
allows such cases to be implemented without leading to
high rates of contention and context switching.

The
.BR FUTEX_WAIT_OP
operation is equivalent to atomically executing the following code:

.in +4n
.nf
int oldval = *(int *) uaddr2;
*(int *) uaddr2 = oldval \fIop\fP \fIoparg\fP;
futex(uaddr, FUTEX_WAKE, val, 0, 0, 0);
if (oldval \fIcmp\fP \fIcmparg\fP)
    futex(uaddr2, FUTEX_WAKE, val2, 0, 0, 0);
.fi
.in

In other words,
.BR FUTEX_WAIT_OP
does the following:
.RS
.IP * 3
saves the original value of the futex at
.IR uaddr2 ;
.IP *
performs an operation to modify the value of the futex at
.IR uaddr2 ;
.IP *
wakes up a maximum of
.I val
waiters on the futex
.IR uaddr ;
and
.IP *
dependent on the results of a test of the original value of the futex at
.IR uaddr2 ,
wakes up a maximum of
.I val2
waiters on the futex
.IR uaddr2 .
.RE
.IP
The operation and comparison that are to be performed are encoded
in the bits of the argument
.IR val3 .
Pictorially, the encoding is:

.in +8n
.nf
+---+---+-----------+-----------+
|op |cmp|   oparg   |  cmparg   |
+---+---+-----------+-----------+
  4   4       12          12    <== # of bits
.fi
.in

Expressed in code, the encoding is:

.in +4n
.nf
#define FUTEX_OP(op, oparg, cmp, cmparg) \\
                (((op & 0xf) << 28) | \\
                ((cmp & 0xf) << 24) | \\
                ((oparg & 0xfff) << 12) | \\
                (cmparg & 0xfff))
.fi
.in

In the above,
.I op
and
.I cmp
are each one of the codes listed below.
The
.I oparg
and
.I cmparg
components are literal numeric values, except as noted below.

The
.I op
component has one of the following values:

.in +4n
.nf
FUTEX_OP_SET        0  /* uaddr2 = oparg; */
FUTEX_OP_ADD        1  /* uaddr2 += oparg; */
FUTEX_OP_OR         2  /* uaddr2 |= oparg; */
FUTEX_OP_ANDN       3  /* uaddr2 &= ~oparg; */
FUTEX_OP_XOR        4  /* uaddr2 ^= oparg; */
.fi
.in

In addition, bit-wise ORing the following value into
.I op
causes
.IR "(1\ <<\ oparg)"
to be used as the operand:

.in +4n
.nf
FUTEX_OP_ARG_SHIFT  8  /* Use (1 << oparg) as operand */
.fi
.in

The
.I cmp
field is one of the following:

.in +4n
.nf
FUTEX_OP_CMP_EQ     0  /* if (oldval == cmparg) wake */
FUTEX_OP_CMP_NE     1  /* if (oldval != cmparg) wake */
FUTEX_OP_CMP_LT     2  /* if (oldval < cmparg) wake */
FUTEX_OP_CMP_LE     3  /* if (oldval <= cmparg) wake */
FUTEX_OP_CMP_GT     4  /* if (oldval > cmparg) wake */
FUTEX_OP_CMP_GE     5  /* if (oldval >= cmparg) wake */
.fi
.in

The return value of
.BR FUTEX_WAKE_OP
is the sum of the number of waiters woken on the futex
.IR uaddr
plus the number of waiters woken on the futex
.IR uaddr2 .
.\"
.\""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
.\"
.TP
.BR FUTEX_WAIT_BITSET " (since Linux 2.6.25)"
.\" commit cd689985cf49f6ff5c8eddc48d98b9d581d9475d
This operation is like
.BR FUTEX_WAIT
except that
.I val3
is used to provide a 32-bit bitset to the kernel.
This bitset is stored in the kernel-internal state of the waiter.
See the description of
.BR FUTEX_WAKE_BITSET
for further details.

The
.BR FUTEX_WAIT_BITSET
also interprets the
.I timeout
argument differently from
.BR FUTEX_WAIT .
See the discussion of
.BR FUTEX_CLOCK_REALTIME ,
above.

The
.I uaddr2
argument is ignored.
.\"
.\""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
.\"
.TP
.BR FUTEX_WAKE_BITSET " (since Linux 2.6.25)"
.\" commit cd689985cf49f6ff5c8eddc48d98b9d581d9475d
This operation is the same as
.BR FUTEX_WAKE
except that the
.I val3 
argument is used to provide a 32-bit bitset to the kernel.
This bitset is used to select which waiters should be woken up.
The selection is done by a bit-wise AND of the "wake" bitset
(i.e., the value in
.IR val3 )
and the bitset which is stored in the kernel-internal
state of the waiter (the "wait" bitset that is set using
.BR FUTEX_WAIT_BITSET ).
All of the waiters for which the result of the AND is nonzero are woken up;
the remaining waiters are left sleeping.

.\" FIXME Is this paragraph that I added okay?
The effect of
.BR FUTEX_WAIT_BITSET
and
.BR FUTEX_WAKE_BITSET
is to allow selective wake-ups among multiple waiters that are waiting
on the same futex;
since a futex has a size of 32 bits,
these operations provide 32 wakeup "channels".
(The
.BR FUTEX_WAIT
and
.BR FUTEX_WAKE
operations correspond to
.BR FUTEX_WAIT_BITSET
and
.BR FUTEX_WAKE_BITSET
operations where the bitsets are all ones.)
Note, however, that using this bitset multiplexing feature on a
futex is less efficient than simply using multiple futexes,
because employing bitset multiplexing requires the kernel
to check all waiters on a futex,
including those that are not interested in being woken up
(i.e., they do not have the relevant bit set in their "wait" bitset).
.\" According to http://locklessinc.com/articles/futex_cheat_sheet/:
.\"
.\"    "The original reason for the addition of these extensions
.\"     was to improve the performance of pthread read-write locks
.\"     in glibc. However, the pthreads library no longer uses the
.\"     same locking algorithm, and these extensions are not used
.\"     without the bitset parameter being all ones.
.\" 
.\" The page goes on to note that the FUTEX_WAIT_BITSET operation
.\" is nevertheless used (with a bitset of all ones) in order to
.\" obtain the absolute timeout functionality that is useful
.\" for efficiently implementing Pthreads APIs (which use absolute
.\" timeouts); FUTEX_WAIT provides only relative timeouts.

The
.I uaddr2
and
.I timeout
arguments are ignored.
.\"
.\""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
.\"
.SS Priority-inheritance futexes
Linux supports priority-inheritance (PI) futexes in order to handle
priority-inversion problems that can be encountered with
normal futex locks.
Priority inversion is the problem that occurs when a high-priority
process is blocked waiting to acquire a lock held by a low-priority process,
while processes at an intermediate priority continuously preempt
the low-priority process from the CPU.
Consequently, the low-priority process makes no progress toward
releasing the lock, and the high-priority process remains blocked.

.\" FIXME ===== Start of adapted Hart/Guniguntala text =====
.\"       The following text is drawn from the Hart/Guniguntala paper,
.\"       but I have reworded some pieces significantly. Please check it.
.\"
The PI futex operations described below differ from the other
futex operations in that they impose policy on the use of the futex value:
.IP * 3
If the lock is unowned, the futex value shall be 0.
.IP *
If the lock is owned, the futex value shall be the thread ID (TID; see
.BR gettid (2))
of the owning thread.
.IP *
.\" FIXME In the following line, I added "the lock is owned and". Okay?
If the lock is owned and there are threads contending for the lock,
then the
.B FUTEX_WAITERS
bit shall be set in the futex value; in other words, the futex value is:

    FUTEX_WAITERS | TID
.PP
With this policy in place,
a user-space application can acquire an unowned
lock or release an uncontended lock using atomic
.\" FIXME In the following line, I added "user-space". Okay?
instructions executed in user-space (e.g.,
.I cmpxchg
on the x86 architecture).
Locking an unowned lock simply consists of setting
the futex value to the caller's TID.
Releasing an uncontended lock simply requires setting the futex value to 0.

If a futex is currently owned (i.e., has a nonzero value),
waiters must employ the
.B FUTEX_LOCK_PI
operation to acquire the lock.
If a lock is contended (i.e., the
.B FUTEX_WAITERS
bit is set in the futex value), the lock owner must employ the
.B FUTEX_UNLOCK_PI
operation to release the lock.

In the cases where callers are forced into the kernel
(i.e., required to perform a
.BR futex ()
operation),
they then deal directly with a so-called RT-mutex,
a kernel locking mechanism which implements the required
priority-inheritance semantics.
After the RT-mutex is acquired, the futex value is updated accordingly,
before the calling thread returns to user space.
.\" FIXME ===== End of adapted Hart/Guniguntala text =====

It is important to note
.\" FIXME We need some explanation here of *why* it is important to
.\"       note this
that the kernel will update the futex value prior
to returning to user space.
Unlike the other futex operations described above,
the PI futex operations are designed
for the implementation of very specific IPC mechanisms).
.\"
.\" FIXME We don't quite have a definition anywhere of what a PI futex
.\"       is (vs a non-PI futex). Below, we have the information that
.\"       FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PI requeues from a non-PI futex to a
.\"       PI futex, but what determines whether the futex is of one
.\"       kind of the other? We should have such a definition somewhere
.\"       about here.
.\"
.\" FIXME In discussing errors for FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PI, Darren Hart
.\"       made the observation that "EINVAL is returned if the non-pi 
.\"       to pi or op pairing semantics are violated."
.\"       Probably there needs to be a general statement about this
.\"       requirement, probably located at about this point in the page.
.\"
.\" FIXME Somewhere on this page (I guess under the discussion of PI
.\"       futexes) we need a discussion of the FUTEX_OWNER_DIED bit.
.\"       Can someone propose a text?

PI futexes are operated on by specifying one of the following values in
.IR futex_op :
.\"
.\""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
.\"
.TP
.BR FUTEX_LOCK_PI " (since Linux 2.6.18)"
.\" commit c87e2837be82df479a6bae9f155c43516d2feebc
.\"
.\" FIXME I did some significant rewording of tglx's text.
.\"       Please check, in case I injected errors.
.\"
This operation is used after after an attempt to acquire
the futex lock via an atomic user-space instruction failed
because the futex has a nonzero value\(emspecifically,
because it contained the namespace-specific TID of the lock owner.
.\" FIXME In the preceding line, what does "namespace-specific" mean?
.\"       (I kept those words from tglx.)
.\"       That is, what kind of namespace are we talking about?
.\"       (I suppose we are talking PID namespaces here, but I want to
.\"       be sure.)

The operation checks the value of the futex at the address
.IR uaddr .
If the value is 0, then the kernel tries to atomically set
the futex value to the caller's TID.
If that fails,
.\" FIXME What would be the cause of failure?
or the futex value is nonzero,
the kernel atomically sets the
.B FUTEX_WAITERS
bit, which signals the futex owner that it cannot unlock the futex in
user space atomically by setting the futex value to 0.
After that, the kernel tries to find the thread which is
associated with the owner TID,
.\" FIXME Could I get a bit more detail on the next two lines?
.\"       What is "creates or reuses kernel state" about?
creates or reuses kernel state on behalf of the owner
and attaches the waiter to it.
.\" FIXME In the next line, what type of "priority" are we talking about?
.\"       Realtime priorities for SCHED_FIFO and SCHED_RR?
.\"       Or something else?
The enqueueing of the waiter is in descending priority order if more
than one waiter exists.
.\" FIXME What does "bandwidth" refer to in the next line?
The owner inherits either the priority or the bandwidth of the waiter.
.\" FIXME In the preceding line, what determines whether the
.\"       owner inherits the priority versus the bandwidth?
.\"
.\" FIXME Could I get some help translating the next sentence into
.\"       something that user-space developers (and I) can understand?
.\"       In particular, what are "nested locks" in this context?
This inheritance follows the lock chain in the case of
nested locking and performs deadlock detection.

.\" FIXME tglx says "The timeout argument is handled as described in
.\"       FUTEX_WAIT." However, it appears to me that this is not right.
.\"       Is the following formulation correct?
The
.I timeout
argument provides a timeout for the lock attempt.
It is interpreted as an absolute time, measured against the
.BR CLOCK_REALTIME
clock.
If
.I timeout
is NULL, the operation will block indefinitely.

The
.IR uaddr2 ,
.IR val ,
and
.IR val3
arguments are ignored.
.\"
.\""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
.\"
.TP
.BR FUTEX_TRYLOCK_PI " (since Linux 2.6.18)"
.\" commit c87e2837be82df479a6bae9f155c43516d2feebc
This operation tries to acquire the futex at
.IR uaddr .
.\" FIXME I think it would be helpful here to say a few more words about
.\"       the difference(s) between FUTEX_LOCK_PI and FUTEX_TRYLOCK_PI.
.\"       Can someone propose something?
.\"
It deals with the situation where the TID value at
.I uaddr
is 0, but the
.B FUTEX_WAITERS
bit is set.
.\" FIXME How does the situation in the previous sentence come about?
.\"       Probably it would be helpful to say something about that in
.\"       the man page.
.\" FIXME And *how* does FUTEX_TRYLOCK_PI deal with this situation?
User space cannot handle this condition in a race-free manner

The
.IR uaddr2 ,
.IR val ,
.IR timeout ,
and
.IR val3
arguments are ignored.
.\"
.\""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
.\"
.TP
.BR FUTEX_UNLOCK_PI " (since Linux 2.6.18)"
.\" commit c87e2837be82df479a6bae9f155c43516d2feebc
This operation wakes the top priority waiter that is waiting in
.B FUTEX_LOCK_PI
on the futex address provided by the
.I uaddr
argument.

This is called when the user space value at
.I uaddr
cannot be changed atomically from a TID (of the owner) to 0.

The
.IR uaddr2 ,
.IR val ,
.IR timeout ,
and
.IR val3
arguments are ignored.
.\"
.\""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
.\"
.TP
.BR FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PI " (since Linux 2.6.31)"
.\" commit 52400ba946759af28442dee6265c5c0180ac7122
This operation is a PI-aware variant of
.BR FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE .
It requeues waiters that are blocked via
.B FUTEX_WAIT_REQUEUE_PI
on
.I uaddr
from a non-PI source futex
.RI ( uaddr )
to a PI target futex
.RI ( uaddr2 ).

As with
.BR FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE ,
this operation wakes up a maximum of
.I val
waiters that are waiting on the futex at
.IR uaddr .
However, for
.BR FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PI ,
.I val
is required to be 1
(since the main point is to avoid a thundering herd).
The remaining waiters are removed from the wait queue of the source futex at
.I uaddr
and added to the wait queue of the target futex at
.IR uaddr2 .

The
.I val2
.\" val2 is the cap on the number of requeued waiters.
.\" In the glibc pthread_cond_broadcast() implementation, this argument
.\" is specified as INT_MAX, and for pthread_cond_signal() it is 0.
and
.I val3
arguments serve the same purposes as for
.BR FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE .
.\"
.\" FIXME The page at http://locklessinc.com/articles/futex_cheat_sheet/
.\"       notes that "priority-inheritance Futex to priority-inheritance
.\"       Futex requeues are currently unsupported". Do we need to say
.\"       something in the man page about that?
.\"
.\""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
.\"
.TP
.BR FUTEX_WAIT_REQUEUE_PI " (since Linux 2.6.31)"
.\" commit 52400ba946759af28442dee6265c5c0180ac7122
.\"
.\" FIXME I find the next sentence (from tglx) pretty hard to grok.
.\"       Could someone explain it a bit more.
Wait operation to wait on a non-PI futex at
.I uaddr
and potentially be requeued onto a PI futex at
.IR uaddr2 .
The wait operation on
.I uaddr
is the same as
.BR FUTEX_WAIT .
.\"
.\" FIXME What does the next sentence mean?
The waiter can be removed from the wait on
.I uaddr
via
.BR FUTEX_WAKE
without requeueing on
.IR uaddr2 .

.\" FIXME Somewhere around here, something needs to be said about
.\"       the pairing semantics of FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PI and
.\"       FUTEX_WAIT_REQUEUE_PI. (The Hart/Guniguntala paper says
.\"       "FUTEX_WAIT_REQUEUE_PI and FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PI must be
.\"       paired only with each other." Could someone propose
.\"       a statement about this pairing requirement and why it
.\"       is needed?
.\"
.\" FIXME Please check the following. tglx said "The timeout argument
.\"       is handled as described in FUTEX_WAIT.", but the truth is
.\"       as below, AFAICS
If
.I timeout
is not NULL, it specifies a timeout for the wait operation;
this timeout is interpreted as outlined above in the description of the
.BR FUTEX_CLOCK_REALTIME
option.
If
.I timeout
is NULL, the operation can block indefinitely.

The
.I val3
argument is ignored.
.\" FIXME Re the preceding sentence... Actually 'val3' is internally set to
.\"       FUTEX_BITSET_MATCH_ANY before calling futex_wait_requeue_pi().
.\"       I'm not sure we need to say anything about this though.
.\"       Comments?
.\"
    .\""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
.\"
.SH RETURN VALUE
.PP
In the event of an error, all operations return \-1 and set
.I errno
to indicate the cause of the error.
The return value on success depends on the operation,
as described in the following list:
.TP
.B FUTEX_WAIT
Returns 0 if the process was woken by a
.B FUTEX_WAKE
or
.B FUTEX_WAKE_BITSET
call.
.TP
.B FUTEX_WAKE
Returns the number of processes woken up.
.TP
.B FUTEX_FD
Returns the new file descriptor associated with the futex.
.TP
.B FUTEX_REQUEUE
Returns the number of processes woken up.
.TP
.B FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE
Returns the total number of processes woken up or requeued to the futex at
.IR uaddr2 .
If this value is greater than
.IR val ,
then difference is the number of waiters requeued to the futex at
.IR uaddr2 .
.TP
.B FUTEX_WAKE_OP
.\" FIXME Is the following correct?
Returns the total number of waiters that were woken up.
This is the sum of the woken waiters on the two futexes at
.I uaddr
and
.IR uaddr2 .
.TP
.B FUTEX_WAIT_BITSET
.\" FIXME Is the following correct?
Returns 0 if the process was woken by a
.B FUTEX_WAKE
or
.B FUTEX_WAKE_BITSET
call.
.TP
.B FUTEX_WAKE_BITSET
.\" FIXME Is the following correct?
Returns the number of processes woken up.
.TP
.B FUTEX_LOCK_PI
.\" FIXME Is the following correct?
Returns 0 if the futex was successfully locked.
.TP
.B FUTEX_TRYLOCK_PI
.\" FIXME Is the following correct?
Returns 0 if the futex was successfully locked.
.TP
.B FUTEX_UNLOCK_PI
.\" FIXME Is the following correct?
Returns 0 if the futex was successfully unlocked.
.TP
.B FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PI
.\" FIXME Is the following correct?
Returns the total number of processes woken up or requeued to the futex at
.IR uaddr2 .
If this value is greater than
.IR val ,
then difference is the number of waiters requeued to the futex at
.IR uaddr2 .
.TP
.B FUTEX_WAIT_REQUEUE_PI
.\" FIXME Is the following correct?
Returns 0 if the caller was successfully requeued to the futex at
.IR uaddr2 .
.\"
.\""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
.\"
.SH ERRORS
.TP
.B EACCES
No read access to futex memory.
.TP
.B EAGAIN
.RB ( FUTEX_WAIT ,
.BR FUTEX_WAIT_REQUEUE_PI )
The value pointed to by
.I uaddr
was not equal to the expected value
.I val
at the time of the call.
.TP
.B EAGAIN
.RB ( FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE ,
.BR FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PI )
The value pointed to by
.I uaddr
is not equal to the expected value
.IR val3 .
.\" FIXME: Is the following sentence correct?
(This probably indicates a race;
use the safe
.B FUTEX_WAKE
now.)
.\" 
.\" FIXME Should there be an EAGAIN case for FUTEX_TRYLOCK_PI?
.\"       It seems so, looking at the handling of the rt_mutex_trylock()
.\"       call in futex_lock_pi()
.\" 
.TP
.BR EAGAIN
.RB ( FUTEX_LOCK_PI ,
.BR FUTEX_TRYLOCK_PI ,
.BR FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PI )
The futex owner thread ID of
.I uaddr
(for
.BR FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PI :
.IR uaddr2 )
is about to exit,
but has not yet handled the internal state cleanup.
Try again.
.\"
.\" FIXME Is there not also an EAGAIN error case on 'uaddr2' for
.\"       FUTEX_REQUEUE and FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE via
.\"           futex_requeue() ==> futex_proxy_trylock_atomic() ==> 
.\"               futex_lock_pi_atomic() ==> attach_to_pi_owner() ==> EAGAIN?
.TP
.BR EDEADLK
.RB ( FUTEX_LOCK_PI ,
.BR FUTEX_TRYLOCK_PI )
The futex at
.I uaddr
is already locked by the caller.
.\"
.\" FIXME Is there not also an EDEADLK error case on 'uaddr2' for
.\"       FUTEX_REQUEUE and FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE via
.\"           futex_requeue() ==> futex_proxy_trylock_atomic() ==> 
.\"               futex_lock_pi_atomic() ==> attach_to_pi_owner() ==> EDEADLK?
.TP
.BR EDEADLK
.\" FIXME I reworded tglx's text somewhat; is the following okay?
.RB ( FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PI )
While requeueing a waiter to the PI futex at
.IR uaddr2 ,
the kernel detected a deadlock.
.TP
.B EFAULT
A required pointer argument (i.e.,
.IR uaddr ,
.IR uaddr2 ,
or
.IR timeout )
did not point to a valid user-space address.
.TP
.B EINTR
A
.B FUTEX_WAIT
or
.B FUTEX_WAIT_BITSET
operation was interrupted by a signal (see
.BR signal (7))
or a spurious wakeup.
.\" FIXME
.\" Regarding the words "spurious wakeup" above, I received this
.\" bug report from Rich Felker:
.\"
.\"     I see no code in the kernel whereby a "spurious wakeup", or anything
.\"     other than interruption by a signal handler that's not SA_RESTART,
.\"     can cause futex to fail with EINTR. In general, overloading of EINTR
.\"     and/or spurious EINTRs from a syscall make it impossible to use that
.\"     syscall for implementing any function where EINTR is a mandatory
.\"     failure on interruption-by-signal, since there is no way for
.\"     userspace to distinguish whether the EINTR occurred as a result of
.\"     an interrupting signal or some other reason. The kernel folks have
.\"     gone to great lengths to fix spurious EINTRs (see signal(7) for
.\"     history), especially by non-interrupting signal handlers, including
.\"     in futex, and allowing EINTR here would be contrary to that goal.
.\"     
.\"     It's my belief that the "or a spurious wakeup" text should simply be
.\"     removed.
.\"     
.\"     The reason I'm raising this topic is its relevance to a thread on
.\"     libc-alpha:
.\"     [RFC] mutex destruction (#13690): problem description and workarounds
.\"
.\" The bug and mailing list discussions to which Rich refers are:
.\"     https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=13690
.\"     https://sourceware.org/ml/libc-alpha/2014-12/threads.html#0001
.\"
.\" Can anyone comment on whether the words "spurious wakeup" are correct?
.\"
.TP
.B EINVAL
The operation in
.IR futex_op
is one of those that employs a timeout, but the supplied
.I timeout
argument was invalid
.RI ( tv_sec
was less than zero, or
.IR tv_nsec
was not less than 1000,000,000).
.TP
.B EINVAL
The operation specified in
.IR futex_op
employs one or both of the pointers
.I uaddr
and
.IR uaddr2 ,
but one of these does not point to a valid object\(emthat is,
the address is not four-byte-aligned.
.TP
.B EINVAL
.RB ( FUTEX_WAIT_BITSET ,
.BR FUTEX_WAKE_BITSET )
The bitset supplied in
.IR val3
is zero.
.TP
.B EINVAL
.RB ( FUTEX_REQUEUE ,
.\" FIXME tglx suggested adding this, but does this error really occur for
.\"       FUTEX_REQUEUE? (The case where it occurs for FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PI
.\"       is obvious at the start of futex_requeue().)
.BR FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PI )
.I uaddr
equals
.IR uaddr2
(i.e., an attempt was made to requeue to the same futex).
.TP
.BR EINVAL
.RB ( FUTEX_FD )
The signal number supplied in
.I val
is invalid.
.TP
.B EINVAL
.RB ( FUTEX_WAKE ,
.BR FUTEX_WAKE_OP ,
.BR FUTEX_WAKE_BITSET ,
.BR FUTEX_REQUEUE ,
.BR FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE )
The kernel detected an inconsistency between the user-space state at
.I uaddr
and the kernel state\(emthat is, it detected a waiter which waits in
.BR FUTEX_LOCK_PI
on
.IR uaddr .
.TP
.B EINVAL
.RB ( FUTEX_LOCK_PI ,
.BR FUTEX_TRYLOCK_PI ,
.BR FUTEX_UNLOCK_PI )
The kernel detected an inconsistency between the user-space state at
.I uaddr
and the kernel state.
This indicates either state corruption
.\" FIXME tglx did not mention the "state corruption" for FUTEX_UNLOCK_PI.
.\"       Does that case also apply for FUTEX_UNLOCK_PI?
or that the kernel found a waiter on
.I uaddr
which is waiting via
.BR FUTEX_WAIT
or
.BR FUTEX_WAIT_BITSET .
.TP
.B EINVAL
.RB ( FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PI )
The kernel detected an inconsistency between the user-space state at
.I uaddr2
and the kernel state;
that is, the kernel detected a waiter which waits via
.BR FUTEX_WAIT
.\" FIXME tglx did not mention FUTEX_WAIT_BITSET here,
.\"       but should that not also be included here?
on
.IR uaddr2 .
.TP
.B EINVAL
.RB ( FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PI )
The kernel detected an inconsistency between the user-space state at
.I uaddr
and the kernel state;
that is, the kernel detected a waiter which waits via
.BR FUTEX_WAIT
or
.BR FUTEX_WAIT_BITESET
on
.IR uaddr .
.TP
.B EINVAL
.RB ( FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PI )
The kernel detected an inconsistency between the user-space state at
.I uaddr
and the kernel state;
that is, the kernel detected a waiter which waits on
.I uaddr
via
.BR FUTEX_LOCK_PI
(instead of
.BR FUTEX_WAIT_REQUEUE_PI ).
.TP
.B EINVAL
.RB ( FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PI )
.\" FIXME The following is a reworded version of Darren Hart's text.
.\"       Please check that I did not introduce any errors.
An attempt was made to requeue a waiter to a futex other than that
specified by the matching
.B FUTEX_WAIT_REQUEUE_PI
call for that waiter.
.TP
.B EINVAL
.RB ( FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PI )
The
.I val
argument is not 1.
.TP
.B EINVAL
Invalid argument.
.TP
.BR ENOMEM
.RB ( FUTEX_LOCK_PI ,
.BR FUTEX_TRYLOCK_PI ,
.BR FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PI )
The kernel could not allocate memory to hold state information.
.TP
.B ENFILE
.RB ( FUTEX_FD )
The system limit on the total number of open files has been reached.
.TP
.B ENOSYS
Invalid operation specified in
.IR futex_op .
.TP
.B ENOSYS
The
.BR FUTEX_CLOCK_REALTIME
option was specified in
.IR futex_op ,
but the accompanying operation was neither
.BR FUTEX_WAIT_BITSET
nor
.BR FUTEX_WAIT_REQUEUE_PI .
.TP
.BR ENOSYS
.RB ( FUTEX_LOCK_PI ,
.BR FUTEX_TRYLOCK_PI ,
.BR FUTEX_UNLOCK_PI ,
.BR FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PI ,
.BR FUTEX_WAIT_REQUEUE_PI )
A run-time check determined that the operation not available.
The PI futex operations are not implemented on all architectures and
are not supported on some CPU variants.  
.TP
.BR EPERM
.RB ( FUTEX_LOCK_PI ,
.BR FUTEX_TRYLOCK_PI ,
.BR FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PI )
The caller is not allowed to attach itself to the futex at
.I uaddr
(for
.BR FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PI :
the futex at
.IR uaddr2 ).
(This may be caused by a state corruption in user space.)
.\"
.\" FIXME Is there not also an EPERM error case on 'uaddr2' for
.\"       FUTEX_REQUEUE and FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE via
.\"           futex_requeue() ==> futex_proxy_trylock_atomic() ==> 
.\"               futex_lock_pi_atomic() ==> attach_to_pi_owner() ==> EPERM?
.TP
.BR EPERM
.RB ( FUTEX_UNLOCK_PI )
The caller does not own the futex.
.TP
.BR ESRCH
.RB ( FUTEX_LOCK_PI ,
.BR FUTEX_TRYLOCK_PI )
.\" FIXME I reworded the following sentence a bit differently from
.\"       tglx's formulation. Is it okay?
The thread ID in the futex at
.I uaddr
does not exist.
.\"
.\" FIXME Is there not also an ESRCH error case on 'uaddr2' for
.\"       FUTEX_REQUEUE and FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE via
.\"           futex_requeue() ==> futex_proxy_trylock_atomic() ==> 
.\"               futex_lock_pi_atomic() ==> attach_to_pi_owner() ==> ESRCH?
.TP
.BR ESRCH
.RB ( FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PI )
.\" FIXME I reworded the following sentence a bit differently from
.\"       tglx's formulation. Is it okay?
The thread ID in the futex at
.I uaddr2
does not exist.
.TP
.B ETIMEDOUT
The operation in
.IR futex_op
employed the timeout specified in
.IR timeout ,
and the timeout expired before the operation completed.
.\"
.\""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
.\"
.SH VERSIONS
.PP
Futexes were first made available in a stable kernel release
with Linux 2.6.0.

Initial futex support was merged in Linux 2.5.7 but with different semantics
from what was described above.
A four-argument system call with the semantics
described in this page was introduced in Linux 2.5.40.
In Linux 2.5.70, one argument
was added.
In Linux 2.6.7, a sixth argument was added\(emmessy, especially
on the s390 architecture.
.SH CONFORMING TO
This system call is Linux-specific.
.SH NOTES
Glibc does not provide a wrapper for this system call; call it using
.BR syscall (2).

To reiterate, bare futexes are not intended as an easy-to-use abstraction
for end-users.
(There is no wrapper function for this system call in glibc.)
Implementors are expected to be assembly literate and to have
read the sources of the futex user-space library referenced below.
.\" .SH AUTHORS
.\" .PP
.\" Futexes were designed and worked on by
.\" Hubertus Franke (IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center),
.\" Matthew Kirkwood, Ingo Molnar (Red Hat)
.\" and Rusty Russell (IBM Linux Technology Center).
.\" This page written by bert hubert.
.SH SEE ALSO
.ad l
.BR get_robust_list (2),
.BR restart_syscall (2),
.BR futex (7)
.PP
The following kernel source files:
.IP * 2
.I Documentation/pi-futex.txt
.IP *
.I Documentation/futex-requeue-pi.txt
.IP *
.I Documentation/locking/rt-mutex.txt
.IP *
.I Documentation/locking/rt-mutex-design.txt
.IP *
.I Documentation/robust-futex-ABI.txt
.PP
Franke, H., Russell, R., and Kirwood, M., 2002.
\fIFuss, Futexes and Furwocks: Fast Userlevel Locking in Linux\fP
(from proceedings of the Ottawa Linux Symposium 2002),
.br
.UR http://kernel.org\:/doc\:/ols\:/2002\:/ols2002-pages-479-495.pdf
.UE

Hart, D., 2009. \fIA futex overview and update\fP,
.UR http://lwn.net/Articles/360699/
.UE

Hart, D. and Guniguntala, D., 2009.
\fIRequeue-PI: Making Glibc Condvars PI-Aware\fP
(from proceedings of the 2009 Real-Time Linux Workshop),
.UR http://lwn.net/images/conf/rtlws11/papers/proc/p10.pdf
.UE

Drepper, U., 2011. \fIFutexes Are Tricky\fP,
.UR http://www.akkadia.org/drepper/futex.pdf
.UE
.PP
Futex example library, futex-*.tar.bz2 at
.br
.UR ftp://ftp.kernel.org\:/pub\:/linux\:/kernel\:/people\:/rusty/
.UE
.\"
.\" FIXME Are there any other resources that should be listed
.\"       in the SEE ALSO section?