ATTRIBUTES(7)



ATTRIBUTES(7)              Linux Programmer's Manual             ATTRIBUTES(7)

NAME
       attributes - POSIX safety concepts

DESCRIPTION
       Note: the text of this man page is based on the material taken from the
       "POSIX Safety Concepts" section of the GNU C Library  manual.   Further
       details on the topics described here can be found in that manual.

       Various  function  manual  pages  include a section ATTRIBUTES that de-
       scribes the safety of calling the function in various  contexts.   This
       section annotates functions with the following safety markings:

       MT-Safe
              MT-Safe  or  Thread-Safe functions are safe to call in the pres-
              ence of other threads.  MT, in MT-Safe, stands for Multi Thread.

              Being MT-Safe does not imply a function is atomic, nor  that  it
              uses  any of the memory synchronization mechanisms POSIX exposes
              to users.  It is even possible that calling MT-Safe functions in
              sequence  does  not  yield an MT-Safe combination.  For example,
              having a thread call two MT-Safe functions one right  after  the
              other does not guarantee behavior equivalent to atomic execution
              of a combination of both functions, since  concurrent  calls  in
              other threads may interfere in a destructive way.

              Whole-program  optimizations  that could inline functions across
              library interfaces may expose unsafe reordering, and so perform-
              ing  inlining  across  the GNU C Library interface is not recom-
              mended.  The documented MT-Safety status is not guaranteed under
              whole-program optimization.  However, functions defined in user-
              visible headers are designed to be safe for inlining.

       MT-Unsafe
              MT-Unsafe functions are not safe to call in a multithreaded pro-
              grams.

       Other  keywords  that  appear in safety notes are defined in subsequent
       sections.

   Conditionally safe features
       For some features that make functions unsafe to call  in  certain  con-
       texts,  there are known ways to avoid the safety problem other than re-
       fraining from calling the function altogether.  The keywords that  fol-
       low refer to such features, and each of their definitions indicates how
       the whole program needs to be constrained in order to remove the safety
       problem  indicated by the keyword.  Only when all the reasons that make
       a function unsafe are observed and addressed,  by  applying  the  docu-
       mented constraints, does the function become safe to call in a context.

       init   Functions  marked  with init as an MT-Unsafe feature perform MT-
              Unsafe initialization when they are first called.

              Calling such a function at least once  in  single-threaded  mode
              removes  this  specific cause for the function to be regarded as
              MT-Unsafe.  If no other cause for that remains, the function can
              then be safely called after other threads are started.

       race   Functions  annotated  with race as an MT-Safety issue operate on
              objects in ways that may cause data races or  similar  forms  of
              destructive  interference  out of concurrent execution.  In some
              cases, the objects are passed to the functions by users; in oth-
              ers,  they  are used by the functions to return values to users;
              in others, they are not even exposed to users.

       const  Functions marked with const as an MT-Safety issue non-atomically
              modify  internal  objects  that are better regarded as constant,
              because a substantial portion of the GNU C Library accesses them
              without synchronization.  Unlike race, which causes both readers
              and writers of internal objects to  be  regarded  as  MT-Unsafe,
              this  mark is applied to writers only.  Writers remain MT-Unsafe
              to call, but the then-mandatory constness of objects they modify
              enables  readers  to be regarded as MT-Safe (as long as no other
              reasons for them to be unsafe remain), since the  lack  of  syn-
              chronization  is  not a problem when the objects are effectively
              constant.

              The identifier that follows the const mark will appear by itself
              as  a safety note in readers.  Programs that wish to work around
              this safety issue, so as to call writers, may use  a  non-recur-
              sive  read-write  lock associated with the identifier, and guard
              all calls to functions marked with const followed by the identi-
              fier  with  a write lock, and all calls to functions marked with
              the identifier by itself with a read lock.

       sig    Functions marked with sig as a MT-Safety issue  may  temporarily
              install a signal handler for internal purposes, which may inter-
              fere with other uses of the signal, identified after a colon.

              This safety problem can be worked around  by  ensuring  that  no
              other uses of the signal will take place for the duration of the
              call.  Holding a non-recursive mutex while calling all functions
              that  use the same temporary signal; blocking that signal before
              the call and resetting its handler afterwards is recommended.

       term   Functions marked with term as an MT-Safety issue may change  the
              terminal  settings  in  the  recommended way, namely: call tcge-
              tattr(3), modify some flags, and then  call  tcsetattr(3),  this
              creates  a  window  in  which  changes made by other threads are
              lost.  Thus, functions marked with term are MT-Unsafe.

              It is thus advisable for  applications  using  the  terminal  to
              avoid  concurrent and reentrant interactions with it, by not us-
              ing it in signal handlers or blocking signals that might use it,
              and holding a lock while calling these functions and interacting
              with the terminal.  This lock should also be used for mutual ex-
              clusion  with functions marked with race:tcattr(fd), where fd is
              a file descriptor for the controlling terminal.  The caller  may
              use  a  single mutex for simplicity, or use one mutex per termi-
              nal, even if referenced by different file descriptors.

   Other safety remarks
       Additional keywords may be attached to functions,  indicating  features
       that  do  not  make  a function unsafe to call, but that may need to be
       taken into account in certain classes of programs:

       locale Functions annotated with locale as an MT-Safety issue read  from
              the  locale  object  without any form of synchronization.  Func-
              tions annotated with  locale  called  concurrently  with  locale
              changes  may behave in ways that do not correspond to any of the
              locales active during their execution, but an unpredictable  mix
              thereof.

              We  do  not  mark these functions as MT-Unsafe, however, because
              functions  that  modify  the  locale  object  are  marked   with
              const:locale  and  regarded as unsafe.  Being unsafe, the latter
              are not to be called when multiple threads are running or  asyn-
              chronous  signals  are enabled, and so the locale can be consid-
              ered effectively constant in these  contexts,  which  makes  the
              former safe.

       env    Functions marked with env as an MT-Safety issue access the envi-
              ronment with getenv(3) or similar, without any guards to  ensure
              safety in the presence of concurrent modifications.

              We  do  not  mark these functions as MT-Unsafe, however, because
              functions that  modify  the  environment  are  all  marked  with
              const:env  and regarded as unsafe.  Being unsafe, the latter are
              not to be called when multiple threads are running or  asynchro-
              nous  signals are enabled, and so the environment can be consid-
              ered effectively constant in these  contexts,  which  makes  the
              former safe.

       hostid The function marked with hostid as an MT-Safety issue reads from
              the system-wide data structures that hold the "host ID"  of  the
              machine.   These  data  structures  cannot generally be modified
              atomically.  Since it is expected that the "host  ID"  will  not
              normally  change, the function that reads from it (gethostid(3))
              is regarded as safe,  whereas  the  function  that  modifies  it
              (sethostid(3))  is  marked  with const:hostid, indicating it may
              require special care if it is to be called.   In  this  specific
              case, the special care amounts to system-wide (not merely intra-
              process) coordination.

       sigintr
              Functions marked with sigintr as an MT-Safety issue  access  the
              GNU  C  Library  _sigintr  internal  data  structure without any
              guards to ensure safety in the presence of concurrent  modifica-
              tions.

              We  do  not  mark these functions as MT-Unsafe, however, because
              functions that modify this data structure are  all  marked  with
              const:sigintr  and regarded as unsafe.  Being unsafe, the latter
              are not to be called when multiple threads are running or  asyn-
              chronous  signals  are enabled, and so the data structure can be
              considered effectively constant in these contexts,  which  makes
              the former safe.

       cwd    Functions  marked with cwd as an MT-Safety issue may temporarily
              change the current working  directory  during  their  execution,
              which  may cause relative pathnames to be resolved in unexpected
              ways in other threads or within asynchronous signal or cancella-
              tion handlers.

              This  is  not  enough of a reason to mark so-marked functions as
              MT-Unsafe, but when this behavior  is  optional  (e.g.,  nftw(3)
              with  FTW_CHDIR),  avoiding the option may be a good alternative
              to using full pathnames or file descriptor-relative (e.g.,  ope-
              nat(2)) system calls.

       :identifier
              Annotations  may  sometimes be followed by identifiers, intended
              to group several functions that, for example,  access  the  data
              structures in an unsafe way, as in race and const, or to provide
              more specific information, such as naming a signal in a function
              marked  with  sig.   It  is envisioned that it may be applied to
              lock and corrupt as well in the future.

              In most cases, the identifier will name a set of functions,  but
              it  may  name global objects or function arguments, or identifi-
              able properties or logical components associated with them, with
              a  notation  such  as, for example, :buf(arg) to denote a buffer
              associated with the argument arg, or :tcattr(fd) to  denote  the
              terminal attributes of a file descriptor fd.

              The most common use for identifiers is to provide logical groups
              of functions and arguments that need to be protected by the same
              synchronization primitive in order to ensure safe operation in a
              given context.

       /condition
              Some safety annotations may be conditional, in  that  they  only
              apply  if a boolean expression involving arguments, global vari-
              ables or even the underlying kernel evaluates to true.  For  ex-
              ample, /!ps and /one_per_line indicate the preceding marker only
              applies  when  argument  ps  is   NULL,   or   global   variable
              one_per_line is nonzero.

              When  all  marks  that render a function unsafe are adorned with
              such conditions, and none of the named conditions hold, then the
              function can be regarded as safe.

SEE ALSO
       pthreads(7)

COLOPHON
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       description of the project, information about reporting bugs,  and  the
       latest     version     of     this    page,    can    be    found    at
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Linux                             2015-03-02                     ATTRIBUTES(7)

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