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.\" $NetBSD: ctxsw.9,v 1.2 1996/12/02 00:11:31 tls Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 1996 The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.
.\" All rights reserved.
.\" Copyright (c) 2023 The FreeBSD Foundation
.\"
.\" This code is derived from software contributed to The NetBSD Foundation
.\" by Paul Kranenburg.
.\"
.\" Portions of this documentation were written by Mitchell Horne
.\" under sponsorship from the FreeBSD Foundation.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
.\"
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE NETBSD FOUNDATION, INC. AND CONTRIBUTORS
.\" ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED
.\" TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
.\" PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE
.\" LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR
.\" CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF
.\" SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS
.\" INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN
.\" CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE)
.\" ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE
.\" POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
.Dd January 7, 2025
.Dt MI_SWITCH 9
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm mi_switch
.Nd switch to another thread context
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.In sys/param.h
.In sys/proc.h
.Ft void
.Fn mi_switch "int flags"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Fn 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).
.Pp
The various major uses of
.Fn mi_switch
can be enumerated as follows:
.Bl -enum -offset indent
.It
From within a function such as
.Xr sleepq_wait 9
or
.Fn turnstile_wait
when the current thread
voluntarily relinquishes the CPU to wait for some resource or lock to become
available.
.It
Involuntary preemption due to arrival of a higher-priority thread.
.It
At the tail end of
.Xr critical_exit 9 ,
if preemption was deferred due to the critical section.
.It
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
.Fn sched_clock
when the running thread has exceeded its time slice.
.It
In the signal handling code
(see
.Xr issignal 9 )
if a signal is delivered that causes a process to stop.
.It
In
.Fn thread_suspend_check
where a thread needs to stop execution due to the suspension state of
the process as a whole.
.It
In
.Xr kern_yield 9
when a thread wants to voluntarily relinquish the processor.
.El
.Pp
The
.Va flags
argument to
.Fn mi_switch
indicates the context switch type.
One of the following must be passed:
.Bl -tag -offset indent -width "SWT_REMOTEWAKEIDLE"
.It Dv SWT_OWEPREEMPT
Switch due to delayed preemption after exiting a critical section.
.It Dv SWT_TURNSTILE
Switch after propagating scheduling priority to the owner of a resource.
.It Dv SWT_SLEEPQ
Begin waiting on a
.Xr sleepqueue 9 .
.It Dv SWT_RELINQUISH
Yield call.
.It Dv SWT_NEEDRESCHED
Rescheduling was requested.
.It Dv SWT_IDLE
Switch from the idle thread.
.It Dv SWT_IWAIT
A kernel thread which handles interrupts has finished work and must wait for
interrupts to schedule additional work.
.It Dv SWT_SUSPEND
Thread suspended.
.It Dv SWT_REMOTEPREEMPT
Preemption by a higher-priority thread, initiated by a remote processor.
.It Dv SWT_REMOTEWAKEIDLE
Idle thread preempted, initiated by a remote processor.
.It Dv SWT_BIND
The running thread has been bound to another processor and must be switched
out.
.El
.Pp
In addition to the switch type, callers must specify the nature of the
switch by performing a bitwise OR with one of the
.Dv SW_VOL
or
.Dv 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
.Dv SW_PREEMPT
flag.
.Pp
Upon entry to
.Fn 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
.Fn mi_switch
with their thread lock unlocked.
.Pp
.Fn mi_switch
records the amount of time the current thread has been running before handing
control over to the scheduler, via
.Fn sched_switch .
After selecting a new thread to run, the scheduler will call
.Fn cpu_switch
to perform the low-level context switch.
.Pp
.Fn cpu_switch
is the machine-dependent function that performs the actual switch from the
running thread
.Fa oldtd
to the chosen thread
.Fa newtd .
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr cpu_switch 9 ,
.Xr cpu_throw 9 ,
.Xr critical_exit 9 ,
.Xr issignal 9 ,
.Xr kern_yield 9 ,
.Xr mutex 9 ,
.Xr pmap 9 ,
.Xr sleepqueue 9 ,
.Xr thread_exit 9
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