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Setcontext
setcontext is one of a family of C library functions (the others being getcontext, makecontext and swapcontext) used for context control. The setcontext family allows the implementation in C of advanced control flow patterns such as iterators, fibers, and coroutines. They may be viewed as an advanced version of setjmp/longjmp; whereas the latter allows only a single non-local jump up the stack, setcontext allows the creation of multiple cooperative threads of control, each with its own stack. Specification setcontext was specified in POSIX.1-2001 and the Single Unix Specification, version 2, but not all Unix-like operating systems provide them. POSIX.1-2004 obsoleted these functions, and in POSIX.1-2008 they were removed, with POSIX Threads indicated as a possible replacement. Definitions The functions and associated types are defined in the ucontext.h system header file. This includes the ucontext_t type, with which all four functions operate: typedef struct ucontext_t; ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fiber (computer Science)
In computer science, a fiber is a particularly lightweight thread of execution. Like threads, fibers share address space. However, fibers use cooperative multitasking while threads use preemptive multitasking. Threads often depend on the kernel's thread scheduler to preempt a busy thread and resume another thread; fibers yield themselves to run another fiber while executing. Threads, fibers and coroutines The key difference between fibers and kernel threads is that fibers use cooperative context switching, instead of preemptive time-slicing. In effect, fibers extend the concurrency taxonomy: * on a single computer, multiple processes can run * within a single process, multiple threads can run * within a single thread, multiple fibers can run Fibers (sometimes called stackful coroutines or user mode cooperatively scheduled threads) and stackless coroutines (compiler synthesized state machines) represent two distinct programming facilities with vast performance and funct ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Setjmp/longjmp
setjmp.h is a header defined in the C standard library to provide "non-local jumps": control flow that deviates from the usual subroutine call and return sequence. The complementary functions setjmp and longjmp provide this functionality. A typical use of setjmp/longjmp is implementation of an exception mechanism that exploits the ability of longjmp to reestablish program or thread state, even across multiple levels of function calls. A less common use of setjmp is to create syntax similar to coroutines. Member functions ; int setjmp(jmp_buf env) : Sets up the local jmp_buf buffer and initializes it for the jump. This routineISO C states that setjmp must be implemented as a macro, but POSIX explicitly states that it is undefined whether setjmp is a macro or a function. saves the program's calling environment in the environment buffer specified by the env argument for later use by longjmp. If the return is from a direct invocation, setjmp returns 0. If the return is from a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coroutine
Coroutines are computer program components that allow execution to be suspended and resumed, generalizing subroutines for cooperative multitasking. Coroutines are well-suited for implementing familiar program components such as cooperative tasks, exceptions, event loops, iterators, infinite lists and pipes. They have been described as "functions whose execution you can pause". Melvin Conway coined the term ''coroutine'' in 1958 when he applied it to the construction of an assembly program. The first published explanation of the coroutine appeared later, in 1963. Definition and types There is no single precise definition of coroutine. In 1980 Christopher D. Marlin summarized two widely-acknowledged fundamental characteristics of a coroutine: # the values of data local to a coroutine persist between successive calls; # the execution of a coroutine is suspended as control leaves it, only to carry on where it left off when control re-enters the coroutine at some later s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Call Stack
In computer science, a call stack is a Stack (abstract data type), stack data structure that stores information about the active subroutines and block (programming), inline blocks of a computer program. This type of stack is also known as an execution stack, program stack, control stack, run-time stack, or machine stack, and is often shortened to simply the "stack". Although maintenance of the call stack is important for the proper functioning of most software, the details are normally hidden and automatic in high-level programming languages. Many computer instruction sets provide special instructions for manipulating stacks. A call stack is used for several related purposes, but the main reason for having one is to keep track of the point to which each active subroutine should return control when it finishes executing. An active subroutine is one that has been called, but is yet to complete execution, after which control should be handed back to the point of call. Such activatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stack Pointer
A stack register is a computer central processor register whose purpose is to keep track of a call stack. On an accumulator-based architecture machine, this may be a dedicated register. On a machine with multiple general-purpose registers, it may be a register that is reserved by convention, such as on the IBM System/360 through z/Architecture architecture and RISC architectures, or it may be a register that procedure call and return instructions are hardwired to use, such as on the PDP-11, VAX, and Intel x86 architectures. Some designs such as the Data General Eclipse had no dedicated register, but used a reserved hardware memory address for this function. Machines before the late 1960s—such as the PDP-8 and HP 2100—did not have compilers which supported recursion. Their subroutine instructions typically would save the current location in the jump address, and then set the program counter to the ''next'' address. While this is simpler than maintaining a stack, sin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Instruction Pointer
The program counter (PC), commonly called the instruction pointer (IP) in Intel x86 and Itanium microprocessors, and sometimes called the instruction address register (IAR), the instruction counter, or just part of the instruction sequencer, is a processor register that indicates where a computer is in its program sequence. Usually, the PC is incremented after fetching an instruction, and holds the memory address of (" points to") the next instruction that would be executed. Processors usually fetch instructions sequentially from memory, but ''control transfer'' instructions change the sequence by placing a new value in the PC. These include branches (sometimes called jumps), subroutine calls, and returns. A transfer that is conditional on the truth of some assertion lets the computer follow a different sequence under different conditions. A branch provides that the next instruction is fetched from elsewhere in memory. A subroutine call not only branches but saves the prec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Opaque Pointer
In computer programming, an opaque pointer is a special case of an opaque data type, a data type declared to be a pointer to a record or data structure of some unspecified type. Opaque pointers are present in several programming languages including Ada, C, C++, D and Modula-2. If the language is strongly typed, programs and procedures that have no other information about an opaque pointer type ''T'' can still declare variables, arrays, and record fields of type ''T'', assign values of that type, and compare those values for equality. However, they will not be able to de-reference such a pointer, and can only change the object's content by calling some procedure that has the missing information. Opaque pointers are a way to hide the implementation details of an interface from ordinary clients, so that the implementation may be changed without the need to recompile the modules using it. This benefits the programmer as well since a simple interface can be created, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Signal (computing)
Signals are standardized messages sent to a running program to trigger specific behavior, such as quitting or error handling. They are a limited form of inter-process communication (IPC), typically used in Unix, Unix-like, and other POSIX-compliant operating systems. A signal is an asynchronous notification sent to a process or to a specific thread within the same process to notify it of an event. Common uses of signals are to interrupt, suspend, terminate or kill a process. Signals originated in 1970s Bell Labs Unix and were later specified in the POSIX standard. When a signal is sent, the operating system interrupts the target process's normal flow of execution to deliver the signal. Execution can be interrupted during any non-atomic instruction. If the process has previously registered a signal handler, that routine is executed. Otherwise, the default signal handler is executed. Embedded programs may find signals useful for inter-process communications, as signals are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Return Value
In computer programming, a return statement causes execution to leave the current subroutine and resume at the point in the code immediately after the instruction which called the subroutine, known as its return address. The return address is saved by the calling routine, today usually on the process's call stack or in a register. Return statements in many programming languages allow a function to specify a return value to be passed back to the code that called the function. Overview In C and C++, return ''exp''; (where ''exp'' is an expression) is a statement that tells a function to return execution of the program to the calling function, and report the value of ''exp''. If a function has the return type void, the return statement can be used without a value, in which case the program just breaks out of the current function and returns to the calling one. Similar syntax is used in other languages including Modula-2 and Python. In Pascal there is no return statement. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Volatile Variable
In computer programming, a variable is said to be ''volatile'' if its value can be read or modified asynchronously by something other than the current thread of execution. The value of a volatile variable may spontaneously change for reasons such as: sharing values with other threads; sharing values with asynchronous signal handlers; accessing hardware devices via memory-mapped I/O (where you can send and receive messages from peripheral devices by reading from and writing to memory). Support for these use cases varies considerably among the programming languages that have the volatile keyword. Volatility can have implications regarding function calling conventions and how variables are stored, accessed and cached. In C and C++ In C and C++, volatile is a type qualifier, like const, and is a part of a type (e.g. the type of a variable or field). The behavior of the volatile keyword in C and C++ is sometimes given in terms of suppressing optimizations of an optimizing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flag (computing)
In computer programming, flag can refer to one or more bits that are used to store a binary numeral system, binary value or a Boolean variable for signaling special Source code, code conditions, such as file empty or full queue statuses. Flags may be found as members of a defined data structure, such as a Row (database), database record, and the meaning of the value contained in a flag will generally be defined in relation to the data structure it is part of. In many cases, the binary value of a flag will be understood to represent one of several possible states or statuses. In other cases, the binary values may represent one or more attributes in a bit field, often related to abilities or permissions, such as "can be written to" or "can be deleted". However, there are many other possible meanings that can be assigned to flag values. One common use of flags is to mark or designate data structures for future processing. Within microprocessors and other logic devices, flags are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
