NAME

mi_switch — switch to another thread context

SYNOPSIS

#include <sys/param.h>
#include <sys/proc.h>

void
mi_switch(int flags);

DESCRIPTION

The mi_switch() function implements the machine-independent prelude to a thread context switch. It is the single entry point for every context switch and is called from only a few distinguished places in the kernel. The context switch is, by necessity, always performed by the switched thread, even when the switch is initiated from elsewhere; e.g. preemption requested via Inter-Processor Interrupt (IPI).

The various major uses of mi_switch() can be enumerated as follows:

1. From within a function such as sleepq_wait(9) or turnstile_wait() when the current thread voluntarily relinquishes the CPU to wait for some resource or lock to become available.
2. Involuntary preemption due to arrival of a higher-priority thread.
3. At the tail end of critical_exit(9), if preemption was deferred due to the critical section.
4. Within the TDA_SCHED AST handler, when rescheduling before the return to usermode was requested. There are several reasons for this, a notable one coming from sched_clock() when the running thread has exceeded its time slice.
5. In the signal handling code (see issignal(9)) if a signal is delivered that causes a process to stop.
6. In thread_suspend_check() where a thread needs to stop execution due to the suspension state of the process as a whole.
7. In kern_yield(9) when a thread wants to voluntarily relinquish the processor.

The flags argument to mi_switch() indicates the context switch type. One of the following must be passed:

In addition to the switch type, callers must specify the nature of the switch by performing a bitwise OR with one of the SW_VOL or SW_INVOL flags, but not both. Respectively, these flags denote whether the context switch is voluntary or involuntary on the part of the current thread. For an involuntary context switch in which the running thread is being preempted, the caller should also pass the SW_PREEMPT flag.

Upon entry to mi_switch(), the current thread must be holding its assigned thread lock. It may be unlocked as part of the context switch. After they have been rescheduled and execution resumes, threads will exit mi_switch() with their thread lock unlocked.

mi_switch() records the amount of time the current thread has been running before handing control over to the scheduler, via sched_switch(). After selecting a new thread to run, the scheduler will call cpu_switch() to perform the low-level context switch.

cpu_switch() is the machine-dependent function that performs the actual switch from the running thread oldtd to the chosen thread newtd.

SEE ALSO

cpu_switch(9), cpu_throw(9), critical_exit(9), issignal(9), kern_yield(9), mutex(9), pmap(9), sleepqueue(9), thread_exit(9)