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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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    <TITLE> Conservative GC Algorithmic Overview </TITLE>
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    <AUTHOR> Hans-J. Boehm, HP Labs (Much of this was written at SGI)</author>
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</HEAD>
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<BODY>
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<H1> <I>This is under construction, and may always be.</i> </h1>
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<H1> Conservative GC Algorithmic Overview </h1>
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<P>
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This is a description of the algorithms and data structures used in our
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conservative garbage collector.  I expect the level of detail to increase
12
with time.  For a survey of GC algorithms, see for example
13
<A HREF="ftp://ftp.cs.utexas.edu/pub/garbage/gcsurvey.ps"> Paul Wilson's
14
excellent paper</a>.  For an overview of the collector interface,
15
see <A HREF="gcinterface.html">here</a>.
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<P>
17
This description is targeted primarily at someone trying to understand the
18
source code.  It specifically refers to variable and function names.
19
It may also be useful for understanding the algorithms at a higher level.
20
<P>
21
The description here assumes that the collector is used in default mode.
22
In particular, we assume that it used as a garbage collector, and not just
23
a leak detector.  We initially assume that it is used in stop-the-world,
24
non-incremental mode, though the presence of the incremental collector
25
will be apparent in the design.
26
We assume the default finalization model, but the code affected by that
27
is very localized.
28
<H2> Introduction </h2>
29
The garbage collector uses a modified mark-sweep algorithm.  Conceptually
30
it operates roughly in four phases, which are performed occasionally
31
as part of a memory allocation:
32
 
33
<OL>
34
 
35
<LI>
36
<I>Preparation</i> Each object has an associated mark bit.
37
Clear all mark bits, indicating that all objects
38
are potentially unreachable.
39
 
40
<LI>
41
<I>Mark phase</i> Marks all objects that can be reachable via chains of
42
pointers from variables.  Often the collector has no real information
43
about the location of pointer variables in the heap, so it
44
views all static data areas, stacks and registers as potentially containing
45
pointers.  Any bit patterns that represent addresses inside
46
heap objects managed by the collector are viewed as pointers.
47
Unless the client program has made heap object layout information
48
available to the collector, any heap objects found to be reachable from
49
variables are again scanned similarly.
50
 
51
<LI>
52
<I>Sweep phase</i> Scans the heap for inaccessible, and hence unmarked,
53
objects, and returns them to an appropriate free list for reuse.  This is
54
not really a separate phase; even in non incremental mode this is operation
55
is usually performed on demand during an allocation that discovers an empty
56
free list.  Thus the sweep phase is very unlikely to touch a page that
57
would not have been touched shortly thereafter anyway.
58
 
59
<LI>
60
<I>Finalization phase</i> Unreachable objects which had been registered
61
for finalization are enqueued for finalization outside the collector.
62
 
63
</ol>
64
 
65
<P>
66
The remaining sections describe the memory allocation data structures,
67
and then the last 3 collection phases in more detail. We conclude by
68
outlining some of the additional features implemented in the collector.
69
 
70
<H2>Allocation</h2>
71
The collector includes its own memory allocator.  The allocator obtains
72
memory from the system in a platform-dependent way.  Under UNIX, it
73
uses either <TT>malloc</tt>, <TT>sbrk</tt>, or <TT>mmap</tt>.
74
<P>
75
Most static data used by the allocator, as well as that needed by the
76
rest of the garbage collector is stored inside the
77
<TT>_GC_arrays</tt> structure.
78
This allows the garbage collector to easily ignore the collectors own
79
data structures when it searches for root pointers.  Other allocator
80
and collector internal data structures are allocated dynamically
81
with <TT>GC_scratch_alloc</tt>. <TT>GC_scratch_alloc</tt> does not
82
allow for deallocation, and is therefore used only for permanent data
83
structures.
84
<P>
85
The allocator allocates objects of different <I>kinds</i>.
86
Different kinds are handled somewhat differently by certain parts
87
of the garbage collector.  Certain kinds are scanned for pointers,
88
others are not.  Some may have per-object type descriptors that
89
determine pointer locations.  Or a specific kind may correspond
90
to one specific object layout.  Two built-in kinds are uncollectable.
91
One (<TT>STUBBORN</tt>) is immutable without special precautions.
92
In spite of that, it is very likely that most C clients of the
93
collector currently
94
use at most two kinds: <TT>NORMAL</tt> and <TT>PTRFREE</tt> objects.
95
The <A HREF="http://gcc.gnu.org/java">gcj</a> runtime also makes
96
heavy use of a kind (allocated with GC_gcj_malloc) that stores
97
type information at a known offset in method tables.
98
<P>
99
The collector uses a two level allocator.  A large block is defined to
100
be one larger than half of <TT>HBLKSIZE</tt>, which is a power of 2,
101
typically on the order of the page size.
102
<P>
103
Large block sizes are rounded up to
104
the next multiple of <TT>HBLKSIZE</tt> and then allocated by
105
<TT>GC_allochblk</tt>.  Recent versions of the collector
106
use an approximate best fit algorithm by keeping free lists for
107
several large block sizes.
108
The actual
109
implementation of <TT>GC_allochblk</tt>
110
is significantly complicated by black-listing issues
111
(see below).
112
<P>
113
Small blocks are allocated in chunks of size <TT>HBLKSIZE</tt>.
114
Each chunk is
115
dedicated to only one object size and kind.  The allocator maintains
116
separate free lists for each size and kind of object.
117
<P>
118
Once a large block is split for use in smaller objects, it can only
119
be used for objects of that size, unless the collector discovers a completely
120
empty chunk.  Completely empty chunks are restored to the appropriate
121
large block free list.
122
<P>
123
In order to avoid allocating blocks for too many distinct object sizes,
124
the collector normally does not directly allocate objects of every possible
125
request size.  Instead request are rounded up to one of a smaller number
126
of allocated sizes, for which free lists are maintained.  The exact
127
allocated sizes are computed on demand, but subject to the constraint
128
that they increase roughly in geometric progression.  Thus objects
129
requested early in the execution are likely to be allocated with exactly
130
the requested size, subject to alignment constraints.
131
See <TT>GC_init_size_map</tt> for details.
132
<P>
133
The actual size rounding operation during small object allocation is
134
implemented as a table lookup in <TT>GC_size_map</tt>.
135
<P>
136
Both collector initialization and computation of allocated sizes are
137
handled carefully so that they do not slow down the small object fast
138
allocation path.  An attempt to allocate before the collector is initialized,
139
or before the appropriate <TT>GC_size_map</tt> entry is computed,
140
will take the same path as an allocation attempt with an empty free list.
141
This results in a call to the slow path code (<TT>GC_generic_malloc_inner</tt>)
142
which performs the appropriate initialization checks.
143
<P>
144
In non-incremental mode, we make a decision about whether to garbage collect
145
whenever an allocation would otherwise have failed with the current heap size.
146
If the total amount of allocation since the last collection is less than
147
the heap size divided by <TT>GC_free_space_divisor</tt>, we try to
148
expand the heap.  Otherwise, we initiate a garbage collection.  This ensures
149
that the amount of garbage collection work per allocated byte remains
150
constant.
151
<P>
152
The above is in fact an oversimplification of the real heap expansion
153
and GC triggering heuristic, which adjusts slightly for root size
154
and certain kinds of
155
fragmentation.  In particular:
156
<UL>
157
<LI> Programs with a large root set size and
158
little live heap memory will expand the heap to amortize the cost of
159
scanning the roots.
160
<LI> Versions 5.x of the collector actually collect more frequently in
161
nonincremental mode.  The large block allocator usually refuses to split
162
large heap blocks once the garbage collection threshold is
163
reached.  This often has the effect of collecting well before the
164
heap fills up, thus reducing fragmentation and working set size at the
165
expense of GC time.  Versions 6.x choose an intermediate strategy depending
166
on how much large object allocation has taken place in the past.
167
(If the collector is configured to unmap unused pages, versions 6.x
168
use the 5.x strategy.)
169
<LI> In calculating the amount of allocation since the last collection we
170
give partial credit for objects we expect to be explicitly deallocated.
171
Even if all objects are explicitly managed, it is often desirable to collect
172
on rare occasion, since that is our only mechanism for coalescing completely
173
empty chunks.
174
</ul>
175
<P>
176
It has been suggested that this should be adjusted so that we favor
177
expansion if the resulting heap still fits into physical memory.
178
In many cases, that would no doubt help.  But it is tricky to do this
179
in a way that remains robust if multiple application are contending
180
for a single pool of physical memory.
181
 
182
<H2>Mark phase</h2>
183
 
184
At each collection, the collector marks all objects that are
185
possibly reachable from pointer variables.  Since it cannot generally
186
tell where pointer variables are located, it scans the following
187
<I>root segments</i> for pointers:
188
<UL>
189
<LI>The registers.  Depending on the architecture, this may be done using
190
assembly code, or by calling a <TT>setjmp</tt>-like function which saves
191
register contents on the stack.
192
<LI>The stack(s).  In the case of a single-threaded application,
193
on most platforms this
194
is done by scanning the memory between (an approximation of) the current
195
stack pointer and <TT>GC_stackbottom</tt>.  (For Itanium, the register stack
196
scanned separately.)  The <TT>GC_stackbottom</tt> variable is set in
197
a highly platform-specific way depending on the appropriate configuration
198
information in <TT>gcconfig.h</tt>.  Note that the currently active
199
stack needs to be scanned carefully, since callee-save registers of
200
client code may appear inside collector stack frames, which may
201
change during the mark process.  This is addressed by scanning
202
some sections of the stack "eagerly", effectively capturing a snapshot
203
at one point in time.
204
<LI>Static data region(s).  In the simplest case, this is the region
205
between <TT>DATASTART</tt> and <TT>DATAEND</tt>, as defined in
206
<TT>gcconfig.h</tt>.  However, in most cases, this will also involve
207
static data regions associated with dynamic libraries.  These are
208
identified by the mostly platform-specific code in <TT>dyn_load.c</tt>.
209
</ul>
210
The marker maintains an explicit stack of memory regions that are known
211
to be accessible, but that have not yet been searched for contained pointers.
212
Each stack entry contains the starting address of the block to be scanned,
213
as well as a descriptor of the block.  If no layout information is
214
available for the block, then the descriptor is simply a length.
215
(For other possibilities, see <TT>gc_mark.h</tt>.)
216
<P>
217
At the beginning of the mark phase, all root segments
218
(as described above) are pushed on the
219
stack by <TT>GC_push_roots</tt>.  (Registers and eagerly processed
220
stack sections are processed by pushing the referenced objects instead
221
of the stack section itself.)  If <TT>ALL_INTERIOR_PTRS</tt> is not
222
defined, then stack roots require special treatment.  In this case, the
223
normal marking code ignores interior pointers, but <TT>GC_push_all_stack</tt>
224
explicitly checks for interior pointers and pushes descriptors for target
225
objects.
226
<P>
227
The marker is structured to allow incremental marking.
228
Each call to <TT>GC_mark_some</tt> performs a small amount of
229
work towards marking the heap.
230
It maintains
231
explicit state in the form of <TT>GC_mark_state</tt>, which
232
identifies a particular sub-phase.  Some other pieces of state, most
233
notably the mark stack, identify how much work remains to be done
234
in each sub-phase.  The normal progression of mark states for
235
a stop-the-world collection is:
236
<OL>
237
<LI> <TT>MS_INVALID</tt> indicating that there may be accessible unmarked
238
objects.  In this case <TT>GC_objects_are_marked</tt> will simultaneously
239
be false, so the mark state is advanced to
240
<LI> <TT>MS_PUSH_UNCOLLECTABLE</tt> indicating that it suffices to push
241
uncollectable objects, roots, and then mark everything reachable from them.
242
<TT>Scan_ptr</tt> is advanced through the heap until all uncollectable
243
objects are pushed, and objects reachable from them are marked.
244
At that point, the next call to <TT>GC_mark_some</tt> calls
245
<TT>GC_push_roots</tt> to push the roots.  It the advances the
246
mark state to
247
<LI> <TT>MS_ROOTS_PUSHED</tt> asserting that once the mark stack is
248
empty, all reachable objects are marked.  Once in this state, we work
249
only on emptying the mark stack.  Once this is completed, the state
250
changes to
251
<LI> <TT>MS_NONE</tt> indicating that reachable objects are marked.
252
</ol>
253
 
254
The core mark routine <TT>GC_mark_from</tt>, is called
255
repeatedly by several of the sub-phases when the mark stack starts to fill
256
up.  It is also called repeatedly in <TT>MS_ROOTS_PUSHED</tt> state
257
to empty the mark stack.
258
The routine is designed to only perform a limited amount of marking at
259
each call, so that it can also be used by the incremental collector.
260
It is fairly carefully tuned, since it usually consumes a large majority
261
of the garbage collection time.
262
<P>
263
The fact that it perform a only a small amount of work per call also
264
allows it to be used as the core routine of the parallel marker.  In that
265
case it is normally invoked on thread-private mark stacks instead of the
266
global mark stack.  More details can be found in
267
<A HREF="scale.html">scale.html</a>
268
<P>
269
The marker correctly handles mark stack overflows.  Whenever the mark stack
270
overflows, the mark state is reset to <TT>MS_INVALID</tt>.
271
Since there are already marked objects in the heap,
272
this eventually forces a complete
273
scan of the heap, searching for pointers, during which any unmarked objects
274
referenced by marked objects are again pushed on the mark stack.  This
275
process is repeated until the mark phase completes without a stack overflow.
276
Each time the stack overflows, an attempt is made to grow the mark stack.
277
All pieces of the collector that push regions onto the mark stack have to be
278
careful to ensure forward progress, even in case of repeated mark stack
279
overflows.  Every mark attempt results in additional marked objects.
280
<P>
281
Each mark stack entry is processed by examining all candidate pointers
282
in the range described by the entry.  If the region has no associated
283
type information, then this typically requires that each 4-byte aligned
284
quantity (8-byte aligned with 64-bit pointers) be considered a candidate
285
pointer.
286
<P>
287
We determine whether a candidate pointer is actually the address of
288
a heap block.  This is done in the following steps:
289
<NL>
290
<LI> The candidate pointer is checked against rough heap bounds.
291
These heap bounds are maintained such that all actual heap objects
292
fall between them.  In order to facilitate black-listing (see below)
293
we also include address regions that the heap is likely to expand into.
294
Most non-pointers fail this initial test.
295
<LI> The candidate pointer is divided into two pieces; the most significant
296
bits identify a <TT>HBLKSIZE</tt>-sized page in the address space, and
297
the least significant bits specify an offset within that page.
298
(A hardware page may actually consist of multiple such pages.
299
HBLKSIZE is usually the page size divided by a small power of two.)
300
<LI>
301
The page address part of the candidate pointer is looked up in a
302
<A HREF="tree.html">table</a>.
303
Each table entry contains either 0, indicating that the page is not part
304
of the garbage collected heap, a small integer <I>n</i>, indicating
305
that the page is part of large object, starting at least <I>n</i> pages
306
back, or a pointer to a descriptor for the page.  In the first case,
307
the candidate pointer i not a true pointer and can be safely ignored.
308
In the last two cases, we can obtain a descriptor for the page containing
309
the beginning of the object.
310
<LI>
311
The starting address of the referenced object is computed.
312
The page descriptor contains the size of the object(s)
313
in that page, the object kind, and the necessary mark bits for those
314
objects.  The size information can be used to map the candidate pointer
315
to the object starting address.  To accelerate this process, the page header
316
also contains a pointer to a precomputed map of page offsets to displacements
317
from the beginning of an object.  The use of this map avoids a
318
potentially slow integer remainder operation in computing the object
319
start address.
320
<LI>
321
The mark bit for the target object is checked and set.  If the object
322
was previously unmarked, the object is pushed on the mark stack.
323
The descriptor is read from the page descriptor.  (This is computed
324
from information <TT>GC_obj_kinds</tt> when the page is first allocated.)
325
</nl>
326
<P>
327
At the end of the mark phase, mark bits for left-over free lists are cleared,
328
in case a free list was accidentally marked due to a stray pointer.
329
 
330
<H2>Sweep phase</h2>
331
 
332
At the end of the mark phase, all blocks in the heap are examined.
333
Unmarked large objects are immediately returned to the large object free list.
334
Each small object page is checked to see if all mark bits are clear.
335
If so, the entire page is returned to the large object free list.
336
Small object pages containing some reachable object are queued for later
337
sweeping, unless we determine that the page contains very little free
338
space, in which case it is not examined further.
339
<P>
340
This initial sweep pass touches only block headers, not
341
the blocks themselves.  Thus it does not require significant paging, even
342
if large sections of the heap are not in physical memory.
343
<P>
344
Nonempty small object pages are swept when an allocation attempt
345
encounters an empty free list for that object size and kind.
346
Pages for the correct size and kind are repeatedly swept until at
347
least one empty block is found.  Sweeping such a page involves
348
scanning the mark bit array in the page header, and building a free
349
list linked through the first words in the objects themselves.
350
This does involve touching the appropriate data page, but in most cases
351
it will be touched only just before it is used for allocation.
352
Hence any paging is essentially unavoidable.
353
<P>
354
Except in the case of pointer-free objects, we maintain the invariant
355
that any object in a small object free list is cleared (except possibly
356
for the link field).  Thus it becomes the burden of the small object
357
sweep routine to clear objects.  This has the advantage that we can
358
easily recover from accidentally marking a free list, though that could
359
also be handled by other means.  The collector currently spends a fair
360
amount of time clearing objects, and this approach should probably be
361
revisited.
362
<P>
363
In most configurations, we use specialized sweep routines to handle common
364
small object sizes.  Since we allocate one mark bit per word, it becomes
365
easier to examine the relevant mark bits if the object size divides
366
the word length evenly.  We also suitably unroll the inner sweep loop
367
in each case.  (It is conceivable that profile-based procedure cloning
368
in the compiler could make this unnecessary and counterproductive.  I
369
know of no existing compiler to which this applies.)
370
<P>
371
The sweeping of small object pages could be avoided completely at the expense
372
of examining mark bits directly in the allocator.  This would probably
373
be more expensive, since each allocation call would have to reload
374
a large amount of state (e.g. next object address to be swept, position
375
in mark bit table) before it could do its work.  The current scheme
376
keeps the allocator simple and allows useful optimizations in the sweeper.
377
 
378
<H2>Finalization</h2>
379
Both <TT>GC_register_disappearing_link</tt> and
380
<TT>GC_register_finalizer</tt> add the request to a corresponding hash
381
table.  The hash table is allocated out of collected memory, but
382
the reference to the finalizable object is hidden from the collector.
383
Currently finalization requests are processed non-incrementally at the
384
end of a mark cycle.
385
<P>
386
The collector makes an initial pass over the table of finalizable objects,
387
pushing the contents of unmarked objects onto the mark stack.
388
After pushing each object, the marker is invoked to mark all objects
389
reachable from it.  The object itself is not explicitly marked.
390
This assures that objects on which a finalizer depends are neither
391
collected nor finalized.
392
<P>
393
If in the process of marking from an object the
394
object itself becomes marked, we have uncovered
395
a cycle involving the object.  This usually results in a warning from the
396
collector.  Such objects are not finalized, since it may be
397
unsafe to do so.  See the more detailed
398
<A HREF="http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/finalization.html"> discussion of finalization semantics</a>.
399
<P>
400
Any objects remaining unmarked at the end of this process are added to
401
a queue of objects whose finalizers can be run.  Depending on collector
402
configuration, finalizers are dequeued and run either implicitly during
403
allocation calls, or explicitly in response to a user request.
404
(Note that the former is unfortunately both the default and not generally safe.
405
If finalizers perform synchronization, it may result in deadlocks.
406
Nontrivial finalizers generally need to perform synchronization, and
407
thus require a different collector configuration.)
408
<P>
409
The collector provides a mechanism for replacing the procedure that is
410
used to mark through objects.  This is used both to provide support for
411
Java-style unordered finalization, and to ignore certain kinds of cycles,
412
<I>e.g.</i> those arising from C++ implementations of virtual inheritance.
413
 
414
<H2>Generational Collection and Dirty Bits</h2>
415
We basically use the concurrent and generational GC algorithm described in
416
<A HREF="http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/papers/pldi91.ps.Z">"Mostly Parallel Garbage Collection"</a>,
417
by Boehm, Demers, and Shenker.
418
<P>
419
The most significant modification is that
420
the collector always starts running in the allocating thread.
421
There is no separate garbage collector thread.  (If parallel GC is
422
enabled, helper threads may also be woken up.)
423
If an allocation attempt either requests a large object, or encounters
424
an empty small object free list, and notices that there is a collection
425
in progress, it immediately performs a small amount of marking work
426
as described above.
427
<P>
428
This change was made both because we wanted to easily accommodate
429
single-threaded environments, and because a separate GC thread requires
430
very careful control over the scheduler to prevent the mutator from
431
out-running the collector, and hence provoking unneeded heap growth.
432
<P>
433
In incremental mode, the heap is always expanded when we encounter
434
insufficient space for an allocation.  Garbage collection is triggered
435
whenever we notice that more than
436
<TT>GC_heap_size</tt>/2 * <TT>GC_free_space_divisor</tt>
437
bytes of allocation have taken place.
438
After <TT>GC_full_freq</tt> minor collections a major collection
439
is started.
440
<P>
441
All collections initially run interrupted until a predetermined
442
amount of time (50 msecs by default) has expired.  If this allows
443
the collection to complete entirely, we can avoid correcting
444
for data structure modifications during the collection.  If it does
445
not complete, we return control to the mutator, and perform small
446
amounts of additional GC work during those later allocations that
447
cannot be satisfied from small object free lists. When marking completes,
448
the set of modified pages is retrieved, and we mark once again from
449
marked objects on those pages, this time with the mutator stopped.
450
<P>
451
We keep track of modified pages using one of several distinct mechanisms:
452
<OL>
453
<LI>
454
Through explicit mutator cooperation.  Currently this requires
455
the use of <TT>GC_malloc_stubborn</tt>, and is rarely used.
456
<LI>
457
(<TT>MPROTECT_VDB</tt>) By write-protecting physical pages and
458
catching write faults.  This is
459
implemented for many Unix-like systems and for win32.  It is not possible
460
in a few environments.
461
<LI>
462
(<TT>PROC_VDB</tt>) By retrieving dirty bit information from /proc.
463
(Currently only Sun's
464
Solaris supports this.  Though this is considerably cleaner, performance
465
may actually be better with mprotect and signals.)
466
<LI>
467
(<TT>PCR_VDB</tt>) By relying on an external dirty bit implementation, in this
468
case the one in Xerox PCR.
469
<LI>
470
(<TT>DEFAULT_VDB</tt>) By treating all pages as dirty.  This is the default if
471
none of the other techniques is known to be usable, and
472
<TT>GC_malloc_stubborn</tt> is not used.  Practical only for testing, or if
473
the vast majority of objects use <TT>GC_malloc_stubborn</tt>.
474
</ol>
475
 
476
<H2>Black-listing</h2>
477
 
478
The collector implements <I>black-listing</i> of pages, as described
479
in
480
<A HREF="http://www.acm.org/pubs/citations/proceedings/pldi/155090/p197-boehm/">
481
Boehm, ``Space Efficient Conservative Collection'', PLDI '93</a>, also available
482
<A HREF="papers/pldi93.ps.Z">here</a>.
483
<P>
484
During the mark phase, the collector tracks ``near misses'', i.e. attempts
485
to follow a ``pointer'' to just outside the garbage-collected heap, or
486
to a currently unallocated page inside the heap.  Pages that have been
487
the targets of such near misses are likely to be the targets of
488
misidentified ``pointers'' in the future.  To minimize the future
489
damage caused by such misidentifications they will be allocated only to
490
small pointerfree objects.
491
<P>
492
The collector understands two different kinds of black-listing.  A
493
page may be black listed for interior pointer references
494
(<TT>GC_add_to_black_list_stack</tt>), if it was the target of a near
495
miss from a location that requires interior pointer recognition,
496
<I>e.g.</i> the stack, or the heap if <TT>GC_all_interior_pointers</tt>
497
is set.  In this case, we also avoid allocating large blocks that include
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this page.
499
<P>
500
If the near miss came from a source that did not require interior
501
pointer recognition, it is black-listed with
502
<TT>GC_add_to_black_list_normal</tt>.
503
A page black-listed in this way may appear inside a large object,
504
so long as it is not the first page of a large object.
505
<P>
506
The <TT>GC_allochblk</tt> routine respects black-listing when assigning
507
a block to a particular object kind and size.  It occasionally
508
drops (i.e. allocates and forgets) blocks that are completely black-listed
509
in order to avoid excessively long large block free lists containing
510
only unusable blocks.  This would otherwise become an issue
511
if there is low demand for small pointerfree objects.
512
 
513
<H2>Thread support</h2>
514
We support several different threading models.  Unfortunately Pthreads,
515
the only reasonably well standardized thread model, supports too narrow
516
an interface for conservative garbage collection.  There appears to be
517
no completely portable way to allow the collector
518
to coexist with various Pthreads
519
implementations.  Hence we currently support only the more
520
common Pthreads implementations.
521
<P>
522
In particular, it is very difficult for the collector to stop all other
523
threads in the system and examine the register contents.  This is currently
524
accomplished with very different mechanisms for some Pthreads
525
implementations.  The Solaris implementation temporarily disables much
526
of the user-level threads implementation by stopping kernel-level threads
527
("lwp"s).  The Linux/HPUX/OSF1 and Irix implementations sends signals to
528
individual Pthreads and has them wait in the signal handler.
529
<P>
530
The Linux and Irix implementations use
531
only documented Pthreads calls, but rely on extensions to their semantics.
532
The Linux implementation <TT>linux_threads.c</tt> relies on only very
533
mild extensions to the pthreads semantics, and already supports a large number
534
of other Unix-like pthreads implementations.  Our goal is to make this the
535
only pthread support in the collector.
536
<P>
537
(The Irix implementation is separate only for historical reasons and should
538
clearly be merged.  The current Solaris implementation probably performs
539
better in the uniprocessor case, but does not support thread operations in the
540
collector.  Hence it cannot support the parallel marker.)
541
<P>
542
All implementations must
543
intercept thread creation and a few other thread-specific calls to allow
544
enumeration of threads and location of thread stacks.  This is current
545
accomplished with <TT># define</tt>'s in <TT>gc.h</tt>
546
(really <TT>gc_pthread_redirects.h</tt>), or optionally
547
by using ld's function call wrapping mechanism under Linux.
548
<P>
549
Recent versions of the collector support several facilites to enhance
550
the processor-scalability and thread performance of the collector.
551
These are discussed in more detail <A HREF="scale.html">here</a>.
552
<P>
553
Comments are appreciated.  Please send mail to
554
<A HREF="mailto:boehm@acm.org"><TT>boehm@acm.org</tt></a> or
555
<A HREF="mailto:Hans.Boehm@hp.com"><TT>Hans.Boehm@hp.com</tt></a>
556
<P>
557
This is a modified copy of a page written while the author was at SGI.
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The original was <A HREF="http://reality.sgi.com/boehm/gcdescr.html">here</a>.
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