Right now we're using a DWCAS to atomically set the running_mask while
being constrained by the thread_mask. This DWCAS is annoying because we
may seriously need it later when adding support for thread groups, for
checking that the running_mask applies to the correct group.
It turns out that the DWCAS is not strictly necessary because we never
need it to set the thread_mask based on the running_mask, only the other
way around. And in fact, the running_mask is always cleared alone, and
the thread_mask is changed alone as well. The running_mask is only
relevant to indicate a takeover when the thread_mask matches it. Any
bit set in running and not present in thread_mask indicates a transition
in progress.
As such, it is possible to re-arrange this by using a regular CAS around a
consistency check between running_mask and thread_mask in fd_update_events
and by making a CAS on running_mask then an atomic store on the thread_mask
in fd_takeover(). The only other case is fd_delete() but that one already
sets the running_mask before clearing the thread_mask, which is compatible
with the consistency check above.
This change has happily survived 10 billion takeovers on a 16-thread
machine at 800k requests/s.
The fd-migration doc was updated to reflect this change.
This explains the traps to avoid and the sequence that leads to
consistent use of an FD known by multiple threads at once. This
was co-authored with Olivier.
Ilya Shipitsin
Willy Tarreau