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<== Date ==> <== Thread ==>

Subject: RE: c++ static initialization
From: "Jeff Hill" <[email protected]>
To: "'EPICS Core Talk'" <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2011 14:55:48 -0600
PS: My opinion is that the performance impact is actually quite significant,
and therefore we should clearly state our policy that extrovert threads
should _never_ be started form C++ static initialization. Also if we package
the code in runtime loadable libraries then it's pretty easy to keep these
issue containerized with each loadable module such as libCom or iocCore, and
if so the policy actually needs to be consistent only for all code within a
single loadable module.

Jeff
______________________________________________________
Jeffrey O. Hill           Email        [email protected]
LANL MS H820              Voice        505 665 1831
Los Alamos NM 87545 USA   FAX          505 665 5107

Message content: TSPA

With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However, this is
not necessarily a good idea. It is hard to be sure where they
are going to land, and it could be dangerous sitting under them
as they fly overhead. -- RFC 1925


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jeff Hill [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2011 2:43 PM
> To: 'EPICS Core Talk'
> Subject: c++ static initialization
> 
> All,
> 
> Ref: http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lite/ctors.html#faq-10.14
> 
> Of course C++ is really different from C in that some significant code can
> run during static initialization. The above FAQ mentions how to avoid some
> really serious issues. All of this is pretty common knowledge, but one has
> to be careful, and I have definitely seen this bug biting in EPICS base
> before.
> 
> However there is still a related issue which should be well understood;
> not everyone agrees if threads should be started during C++ static
> initialization or not. If multiple threads are running during c++ static
> initialization then the solution in the above FAQ doesn?t apply and the
> only solution is epicsThreadOnce, but that causes significant runtime
> overhead because a lock must be taken and released each time that the
> epicsThreadOnce block is checked. I looked in base and I believe that only
> one thread is started during static initialization, the win32 time sync
> PLL, but it is autonomous and does not interact with anything outside of
> osi/os/win32/osdTime.cpp so I think that we are ok - inside of base. What
> goes on outside of base, particularly in device drivers, is much less
> certain. Note however, that in vxWorks static initialization runs when
> iocCore is loaded.
> 
> So what is our convention:
> 
> Option 1: Don?t start threads from within static initialization. If you do
> expect things to break if such threads touch external components.
> 
> Option 2: Allow threads to be started during c++ static initialization,
> but expect that certain functions will need to increase their overhead by
> the cost of one more lock/unlock block because they must embed an
> epicsThreadOnce code block in each function that enters into a particular
> library.
> 
> Opinions?
> 
> It would probably be a good idea to clarify our policy in the application
> developers guide
> 
> Jeff
> ______________________________________________________
> Jeffrey O. Hill           Email        [email protected]
> LANL MS H820              Voice        505 665 1831
> Los Alamos NM 87545 USA   FAX          505 665 5107
> 
> Message content: TSPA
> 
> With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However, this is
> not necessarily a good idea. It is hard to be sure where they
> are going to land, and it could be dangerous sitting under them
> as they fly overhead. -- RFC 1925
> 




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