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+== How to use the threadlets infrastructure supported in Qemu ==
+
+== Threadlets ==
+
+Q.1: What are threadlets ?
+A.1: Threadlets is an infrastructure within QEMU that allows other subsystems
+ to offload possibly blocking work to a queue to be processed by a pool
+ of threads asynchronously.
+
+Q.2: When would one want to use threadlets ?
+A.2: Threadlets are useful when there are operations that can be performed
+ outside the context of the VCPU/IO threads inorder to free these latter
+ to service any other guest requests.
+
+Q.3: I have some work that can be executed in an asynchronous context. How
+ should I go about it ?
+A.3: One could follow the steps listed below:
+
+ - Define a function which would do the asynchronous work.
+ static void my_threadlet_func(ThreadletWork *work)
+ {
+ }
+
+ - Declare an object of type ThreadletWork;
+ ThreadletWork work;
+
+
+ - Assign a value to the "func" member of ThreadletWork object.
+ work.func = my_threadlet_func;
+
+ - Submit the threadlet to the global queue.
+ submit_threadletwork(&work);
+
+ - Continue servicing some other guest operations.
+
+Q.4: I want to my_threadlet_func to access some non-global data. How do I do
+ that ?
+A.4: Suppose you want my_threadlet_func to access some non-global data-object
+ of type myPrivateData. In that case one could follow the following steps.
+
+ - Define a member of the type ThreadletWork within myPrivateData.
+ typedef struct MyPrivateData {
+ ...;
+ ...;
+ ...;
+ ThreadletWork work;
+ } MyPrivateData;
+
+ MyPrivateData my_data;
+
+ - Initialize myData.work as described in A.3
+ myData.work.func = my_threadlet_func;
+ submit_threadletwork(&myData.work);
+
+ - Access the myData object inside my_threadlet_func() using container_of
+ primitive
+ static void my_threadlet_func(ThreadletWork *work)
+ {
+ myPrivateData *mydata_ptr;
+ mydata_ptr = container_of(work, myPrivateData, work);
+
+ /* mydata_ptr now points to myData object */
+ }
+
+Q.5: Are there any precautions one must take while sharing data with the
+ Asynchronous thread-pool ?
+A.5: Yes, make sure that the helper function of the type my_threadlet_func()
+ does not access/modify data when it can be accessed or modified in the
+ context of VCPU thread or IO thread. This is because the asynchronous
+ threads in the pool can run in parallel with the VCPU/IOThreads as shown
+ in the figure.
+
+ A typical workflow is as follows:
+
+ VCPU/IOThread
+ |
+ | (1)
+ |
+ V
+ Offload work (2)
+ |-------> to threadlets -----------------------------> Helper thread
+ | | |
+ | | |
+ | | (3) | (4)
+ | | |
+ | Handle other Guest requests |
+ | | |
+ | | V
+ | | (3) Signal the I/O Thread
+ |(6) | |
+ | | /
+ | | /
+ | V /
+ | Do the post <---------------------------------/
+ | processing (5)
+ | |
+ | | (6)
+ | V
+ |-Yes------ More async work?
+ |
+ | (7)
+ No
+ |
+ |
+ .
+ .
+
+ Hence one needs to make sure that in the steps (3) and (4) which run in
+ parallel, any global data is accessed within only one context.
+
+Q.6: I have queued a threadlet which I want to cancel. How do I do that ?
+A.6: Threadlets framework provides the API cancel_threadlet:
+ - int cancel_threadletwork(ThreadletWork *work)
+
+ The API scans the ThreadletQueue to see if (work) is present. If it finds
+ work, it'll dequeue work and return 0.
+
+ On the other hand, if it does not find the (work) in the ThreadletQueue,
+ then it'll return 1. This can imply two things. Either the work is being
+ processed by one of the helper threads or it has been processed. The
+ threadlet infrastructure currently _does_not_ distinguish between these
+ two and the onus is on the caller to do that.
+
+Q.7: Apart from the global pool of threads, can I have my own private Queue ?
+A.7: Yes, the threadlets framework allows subsystems to create their own private
+ queues with associated pools of threads.
+
+ - Define a PrivateQueue
+ ThreadletQueue myQueue;
+
+ - Initialize it:
+ threadlet_queue_init(&myQueue, my_max_threads, my_min_threads);
+ where my_max_threads is the maximum number of threads that can be in the
+ thread pool and my_min_threads is the minimum number of active threads
+ that can be in the thread-pool.
+
+ - Submit work:
+ submit_threadletwork_to_queue(&myQueue, &my_work);
+
+ - Cancel work:
+ cancel_threadletwork_on_queue(&myQueue, &my_work);