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index 955cc543be..addc0146cd 100644
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@@ -184,6 +184,8 @@ please let me know.
4.8. The conversion table for character set XX does not match with
what I expect.
4.9. How can I find out which version of glibc I am using in the moment?
+4.10. Context switching with setcontext() does not work from within
+ signal handlers.
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@@ -1853,12 +1855,56 @@ int main (void) { puts (gnu_get_libc_version ()); return 0; }
This interface can also obviously be used to perform tests at runtime if
this should be necessary.
+
+4.10. Context switching with setcontext() does not work from within
+ signal handlers.
+
+{DMT} The Linux implementations (IA-64, S390 so far) of setcontext()
+supports synchronous context switches only. There are several reasons for
+this:
+
+ o UNIX provides no other (portable) way of effecting a synchronous
+ context switch (also known as co-routine switch). Some versions
+ support this via setjmp()/longjmp() but this does not work
+ universally.
+
+ o As defined by the UNIX '98 standard, the only way setcontext()
+ could trigger an asychronous context switch is if this function
+ were invoked on the ucontext_t pointer passed as the third argument
+ to a signal handler. But according to draft 5, XPG6, XBD 2.4.3,
+ setcontext() is not among the set of routines that may be called
+ from a signal handler.
+
+ o If setcontext() were to be used for asynchronous context switches,
+ all kinds of synchronization and re-entrancy issues could arise and
+ these problems have already been solved by real multi-threading
+ libraries (e.g., POSIX threads or Linux threads).
+
+ o Synchronous context switching can be implemented entirely in
+ user-level and less state needs to be saved/restored than for an
+ asynchronous context switch. It is therefore useful to distinguish
+ between the two types of context switches. Indeed, some
+ application vendors are known to use setcontext() to implement
+ co-routines on top of normal (heavier-weight) pre-emptable threads.
+
+It should be noted that if someone was dead-bent on using setcontext()
+on the third arg of a signal handler, then IA-64 Linux could support
+this via a special version of sigaction() which arranges that all
+signal handlers start executing in a shim function which takes care of
+saving the preserved registers before calling the real signal handler
+and restoring them afterwards. In other words, we could provide a
+compatibility layer which would support setcontext() for asynchronous
+context switches. However, given the arguments above, I don't think
+that makes sense. setcontext() provides a decent co-routine interface
+and we should just discourage any asynchronous use (which just calls
+for trouble at any rate).
+
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Answers were given by:
-{UD} Ulrich Drepper, <drepper@cygnus.com>
-{DMT} David Mosberger-Tang, <davidm@AZStarNet.com>
+{UD} Ulrich Drepper, <drepper@redhat.com>
+{DMT} David Mosberger-Tang, <davidm@hpl.hp.com>
{RM} Roland McGrath, <roland@gnu.org>
{AJ} Andreas Jaeger, <aj@suse.de>
{EY} Eric Youngdale, <eric@andante.jic.com>
@@ -1866,10 +1912,10 @@ Answers were given by:
{MK} Mark Kettenis, <kettenis@phys.uva.nl>
{ZW} Zack Weinberg, <zack@rabi.phys.columbia.edu>
{TK} Thorsten Kukuk, <kukuk@suse.de>
-{GK} Geoffrey Keating, <geoffk@ozemail.com.au>
+{GK} Geoffrey Keating, <geoffk@redhat.com>
{HJ} H.J. Lu, <hjl@gnu.org>
{CG} Cristian Gafton, <gafton@redhat.com>
-{AO} Alexandre Oliva, <oliva@lsd.ic.unicamp.br>
+{AO} Alexandre Oliva, <aoliva@redhat.com>
{BH} Bruno Haible, <haible@clisp.cons.org>
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