From: Hugo Landau <hlandau@openssl.org>
Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2022 12:51:42 +0000 (+0100)
Subject: Add thread pool design document (phase 1)
X-Git-Tag: openssl-3.2.0-alpha1~1734
X-Git-Url: http://git.ipfire.org/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=d55fc027b9af85b1054cdbc017046a9070935086;p=thirdparty%2Fopenssl.git

Add thread pool design document (phase 1)

Reviewed-by: Paul Dale <pauli@openssl.org>
Reviewed-by: Tomas Mraz <tomas@openssl.org>
(Merged from https://github.com/openssl/openssl/pull/19455)
---

diff --git a/doc/designs/thread-api.md b/doc/designs/thread-api.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..c6ca5aac797
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/designs/thread-api.md
@@ -0,0 +1,103 @@
+Thread Pool Support
+===================
+
+OpenSSL wishes to support the internal use of threads for purposes of
+concurrency and parallelism in some circumstances. There are various reasons why
+this is desirable:
+
+  - Some algorithms are designed to be run in parallel (Argon2);
+  - Some transports (e.g. QUIC, DTLS) may need to handle timer events
+    independently of application calls to OpenSSL.
+
+To support this end, OpenSSL can manage an internal thread pool. Tasks can be
+scheduled on the internal thread pool.
+
+There is currently a single model available to an application which wants to use
+the thread pool functionality, known as the “default model”. More models
+providing more flexible or advanced usage may be added in future releases.
+
+A thread pool is managed on a per-`OSSL_LIB_CTX` basis.
+
+Default Model
+-------------
+
+In the default model, OpenSSL creates and manages threads up to a maximum
+number of threads authorized by the application.
+
+The application enables thread pooling by calling the following function
+during its initialisation:
+
+```c
+/*
+ * Set the maximum number of threads to be used by the thread pool.
+ *
+ * If the argument is 0, thread pooling is disabled. OpenSSL will not create any
+ * threads and existing threads in the thread pool will be torn down.
+ *
+ * Returns 1 on success and 0 on failure. Returns failure if OpenSSL-managed
+ * thread pooling is not supported (for example, if it is not supported on the
+ * current platform, or because OpenSSL is not built with the necessary
+ * support).
+ */
+int OSSL_set_max_threads(OSSL_LIB_CTX *ctx, uint64_t max_threads);
+
+/*
+ * Get the maximum number of threads currently allowed to be used by the
+ * thread pool. If thread pooling is disabled or not available, returns 0.
+ */
+uint64_t OSSL_get_max_threads(OSSL_LIB_CTX *ctx);
+```
+
+The maximum thread count is a limit, not a target. Threads will not be spawned
+unless (and until) there is demand.
+
+As usual, `ctx` can be NULL to use the default library context.
+
+Capability Detection
+--------------------
+
+These functions allow the caller to determine if OpenSSL was built with threads
+support.
+
+```c
+/*
+ * Retrieves flags indicating what threading functionality OpenSSL can support
+ * based on how it was built and the platform on which it was running.
+ */
+/* Is thread pool functionality supported at all? */
+#define OSSL_THREAD_SUPPORT_FLAG_THREAD_POOL    (1U<<0)
+
+/*
+ * Is the default model supported? If THREAD_POOL is supported but DEFAULT_SPAWN
+ * is not supported, another model must be used. Note that there is currently
+ * only one supported model (the default model), but there may be more in the
+ * future.
+ */
+#define OSSL_THREAD_SUPPORT_FLAG_DEFAULT_SPAWN  (1U<<1)
+
+/* Returns zero or more of OSSL_THREAD_SUPPORT_FLAG_*. */
+uint32_t OSSL_get_thread_support_flags(void);
+```
+
+Build Options
+-------------
+
+A build option `thread-pool`/`no-thread-pool` will be introduced which allows
+thread pool functionality to be compiled out. `no-thread-pool` implies
+`no-default-thread-pool`.
+
+A build option `default-thread-pool`/`no-default-thread-pool` will be introduced
+which allows the default thread pool functionality to be compiled out. If this
+functionality is compiled out, another thread pool model must be used. Since the
+default model is the only currently supported model, disabling the default model
+renders threading functionality unusable. As such, there is little reason to use
+this option instead of `thread-pool/no-thread-pool`, however this option is
+nonetheless provided for symmetry when additional models are introduced in the
+future.
+
+Internals
+---------
+
+New internal components will need to be introduced (e.g. condition variables)
+to support this functionality, however there is no intention of making
+this functionality public at this time.