Documentation/userspace-api/ntsync.rst

===================================
NT synchronization primitive driver
===================================

This page documents the user-space API for the ntsync driver.

ntsync is a support driver for emulation of NT synchronization
primitives by user-space NT emulators. It exists because implementation
in user-space, using existing tools, cannot match Windows performance
while offering accurate semantics. It is implemented entirely in
software, and does not drive any hardware device.

This interface is meant as a compatibility tool only, and should not
be used for general synchronization. Instead use generic, versatile
interfaces such as futex(2) and poll(2).

Synchronization primitives
==========================

The ntsync driver exposes three types of synchronization primitives:
semaphores, mutexes, and events.

A semaphore holds a single volatile 32-bit counter, and a static 32-bit
integer denoting the maximum value. It is considered signaled (that is,
can be acquired without contention, or will wake up a waiting thread)
when the counter is nonzero. The counter is decremented by one when a
wait is satisfied. Both the initial and maximum count are established
when the semaphore is created.

A mutex holds a volatile 32-bit recursion count, and a volatile 32-bit
identifier denoting its owner. A mutex is considered signaled when its
owner is zero (indicating that it is not owned). The recursion count is
incremented when a wait is satisfied, and ownership is set to the given
identifier.

A mutex also holds an internal flag denoting whether its previous owner
has died; such a mutex is said to be abandoned. Owner death is not
tracked automatically based on thread death, but rather must be
communicated using ``NTSYNC_IOC_MUTEX_KILL``. An abandoned mutex is
inherently considered unowned.

Except for the "unowned" semantics of zero, the actual value of the
owner identifier is not interpreted by the ntsync driver at all. The
intended use is to store a thread identifier; however, the ntsync
driver does not actually validate that a calling thread provides
consistent or unique identifiers.

An event is similar to a semaphore with a maximum count of one. It holds
a volatile boolean state denoting whether it is signaled or not. There
are two types of events, auto-reset and manual-reset. An auto-reset
event is designaled when a wait is satisfied; a manual-reset event is
not. The event type is specified when the event is created.

Unless specified otherwise, all operations on an object are atomic and
totally ordered with respect to other operations on the same object.

Objects are represented by files. When all file descriptors to an
object are closed, that object is deleted.

Char device
===========

The ntsync driver creates a single char device /dev/ntsync. Each file
description opened on the device represents a unique instance intended
to back an individual NT virtual machine. Objects created by one ntsync
instance may only be used with other objects created by the same
instance.

ioctl reference
===============

All operations on the device are done through ioctls. There are four
structures used in ioctl calls::

   struct ntsync_sem_args {
   	__u32 count;
   	__u32 max;
   };

   struct ntsync_mutex_args {
   	__u32 owner;
   	__u32 count;
   };

   struct ntsync_event_args {
   	__u32 signaled;
   	__u32 manual;
   };

   struct ntsync_wait_args {
   	__u64 timeout;
   	__u64 objs;
   	__u32 count;
   	__u32 owner;
   	__u32 index;
   	__u32 alert;
   	__u32 flags;
   	__u32 pad;
   };

Depending on the ioctl, members of the structure may be used as input,
output, or not at all.

The ioctls on the device file are as follows:

.. c:macro:: NTSYNC_IOC_CREATE_SEM

  Create a semaphore object. Takes a pointer to struct
  :c:type:`ntsync_sem_args`, which is used as follows:

  .. list-table::

     * - ``count``
       - Initial count of the semaphore.
     * - ``max``
       - Maximum count of the semaphore.

  Fails with ``EINVAL`` if ``count`` is greater than ``max``.
  On success, returns a file descriptor the created semaphore.

.. c:macro:: NTSYNC_IOC_CREATE_MUTEX

  Create a mutex object. Takes a pointer to struct
  :c:type:`ntsync_mutex_args`, which is used as follows:

  .. list-table::

     * - ``count``
       - Initial recursion count of the mutex.
     * - ``owner``
       - Initial owner of the mutex.

  If ``owner`` is nonzero and ``count`` is zero, or if ``owner`` is
  zero and ``count`` is nonzero, the function fails with ``EINVAL``.
  On success, returns a file descriptor the created mutex.

.. c:macro:: NTSYNC_IOC_CREATE_EVENT

  Create an event object. Takes a pointer to struct
  :c:type:`ntsync_event_args`, which is used as follows:

  .. list-table::

     * - ``signaled``
       - If nonzero, the event is initially signaled, otherwise
         nonsignaled.
     * - ``manual``
       - If nonzero, the event is a manual-reset event, otherwise
         auto-reset.

  On success, returns a file descriptor the created event.

The ioctls on the individual objects are as follows:

.. c:macro:: NTSYNC_IOC_SEM_POST

  Post to a semaphore object. Takes a pointer to a 32-bit integer,
  which on input holds the count to be added to the semaphore, and on
  output contains its previous count.

  If adding to the semaphore's current count would raise the latter
  past the semaphore's maximum count, the ioctl fails with
  ``EOVERFLOW`` and the semaphore is not affected. If raising the
  semaphore's count causes it to become signaled, eligible threads
  waiting on this semaphore will be woken and the semaphore's count
  decremented appropriately.

.. c:macro:: NTSYNC_IOC_MUTEX_UNLOCK

  Release a mutex object. Takes a pointer to struct
  :c:type:`ntsync_mutex_args`, which is used as follows:

  .. list-table::

     * - ``owner``
       - Specifies the owner trying to release this mutex.
     * - ``count``
       - On output, contains the previous recursion count.

  If ``owner`` is zero, the ioctl fails with ``EINVAL``. If ``owner``
  is not the current owner of the mutex, the ioctl fails with
  ``EPERM``.

  The mutex's count will be decremented by one. If decrementing the
  mutex's count causes it to become zero, the mutex is marked as
  unowned and signaled, and eligible threads waiting on it will be
  woken as appropriate.

.. c:macro:: NTSYNC_IOC_SET_EVENT

  Signal an event object. Takes a pointer to a 32-bit integer, which on
  output contains the previous state of the event.

  Eligible threads will be woken, and auto-reset events will be
  designaled appropriately.

.. c:macro:: NTSYNC_IOC_RESET_EVENT

  Designal an event object. Takes a pointer to a 32-bit integer, which
  on output contains the previous state of the event.

.. c:macro:: NTSYNC_IOC_PULSE_EVENT

  Wake threads waiting on an event object while leaving it in an
  unsignaled state. Takes a pointer to a 32-bit integer, which on
  output contains the previous state of the event.

  A pulse operation can be thought of as a set followed by a reset,
  performed as a single atomic operation. If two threads are waiting on
  an auto-reset event which is pulsed, only one will be woken. If two
  threads are waiting a manual-reset event which is pulsed, both will
  be woken. However, in both cases, the event will be unsignaled
  afterwards, and a simultaneous read operation will always report the
  event as unsignaled.

.. c:macro:: NTSYNC_IOC_READ_SEM

  Read the current state of a semaphore object. Takes a pointer to
  struct :c:type:`ntsync_sem_args`, which is used as follows:

  .. list-table::

     * - ``count``
       - On output, contains the current count of the semaphore.
     * - ``max``
       - On output, contains the maximum count of the semaphore.

.. c:macro:: NTSYNC_IOC_READ_MUTEX

  Read the current state of a mutex object. Takes a pointer to struct
  :c:type:`ntsync_mutex_args`, which is used as follows:

  .. list-table::

     * - ``owner``
       - On output, contains the current owner of the mutex, or zero
         if the mutex is not currently owned.
     * - ``count``
       - On output, contains the current recursion count of the mutex.

  If the mutex is marked as abandoned, the function fails with
  ``EOWNERDEAD``. In this case, ``count`` and ``owner`` are set to
  zero.

.. c:macro:: NTSYNC_IOC_READ_EVENT

  Read the current state of an event object. Takes a pointer to struct
  :c:type:`ntsync_event_args`, which is used as follows:

  .. list-table::

     * - ``signaled``
       - On output, contains the current state of the event.
     * - ``manual``
       - On output, contains 1 if the event is a manual-reset event,
         and 0 otherwise.

.. c:macro:: NTSYNC_IOC_KILL_OWNER

  Mark a mutex as unowned and abandoned if it is owned by the given
  owner. Takes an input-only pointer to a 32-bit integer denoting the
  owner. If the owner is zero, the ioctl fails with ``EINVAL``. If the
  owner does not own the mutex, the function fails with ``EPERM``.

  Eligible threads waiting on the mutex will be woken as appropriate
  (and such waits will fail with ``EOWNERDEAD``, as described below).

.. c:macro:: NTSYNC_IOC_WAIT_ANY

  Poll on any of a list of objects, atomically acquiring at most one.
  Takes a pointer to struct :c:type:`ntsync_wait_args`, which is
  used as follows:

  .. list-table::

     * - ``timeout``
       - Absolute timeout in nanoseconds. If ``NTSYNC_WAIT_REALTIME``
         is set, the timeout is measured against the REALTIME clock;
         otherwise it is measured against the MONOTONIC clock. If the
         timeout is equal to or earlier than the current time, the
         function returns immediately without sleeping. If ``timeout``
         is U64_MAX, the function will sleep until an object is
         signaled, and will not fail with ``ETIMEDOUT``.
     * - ``objs``
       - Pointer to an array of ``count`` file descriptors
         (specified as an integer so that the structure has the same
         size regardless of architecture). If any object is
         invalid, the function fails with ``EINVAL``.
     * - ``count``
       - Number of objects specified in the ``objs`` array.
         If greater than ``NTSYNC_MAX_WAIT_COUNT``, the function fails
         with ``EINVAL``.
     * - ``owner``
       - Mutex owner identifier. If any object in ``objs`` is a mutex,
         the ioctl will attempt to acquire that mutex on behalf of
         ``owner``. If ``owner`` is zero, the ioctl fails with
         ``EINVAL``.
     * - ``index``
       - On success, contains the index (into ``objs``) of the object
         which was signaled. If ``alert`` was signaled instead,
         this contains ``count``.
     * - ``alert``
       - Optional event object file descriptor. If nonzero, this
         specifies an "alert" event object which, if signaled, will
         terminate the wait. If nonzero, the identifier must point to a
         valid event.
     * - ``flags``
       - Zero or more flags. Currently the only flag is
         ``NTSYNC_WAIT_REALTIME``, which causes the timeout to be
         measured against the REALTIME clock instead of MONOTONIC.
     * - ``pad``
       - Unused, must be set to zero.

  This function attempts to acquire one of the given objects. If unable
  to do so, it sleeps until an object becomes signaled, subsequently
  acquiring it, or the timeout expires. In the latter case the ioctl
  fails with ``ETIMEDOUT``. The function only acquires one object, even
  if multiple objects are signaled.

  A semaphore is considered to be signaled if its count is nonzero, and
  is acquired by decrementing its count by one. A mutex is considered
  to be signaled if it is unowned or if its owner matches the ``owner``
  argument, and is acquired by incrementing its recursion count by one
  and setting its owner to the ``owner`` argument. An auto-reset event
  is acquired by designaling it; a manual-reset event is not affected
  by acquisition.

  Acquisition is atomic and totally ordered with respect to other
  operations on the same object. If two wait operations (with different
  ``owner`` identifiers) are queued on the same mutex, only one is
  signaled. If two wait operations are queued on the same semaphore,
  and a value of one is posted to it, only one is signaled.

  If an abandoned mutex is acquired, the ioctl fails with
  ``EOWNERDEAD``. Although this is a failure return, the function may
  otherwise be considered successful. The mutex is marked as owned by
  the given owner (with a recursion count of 1) and as no longer
  abandoned, and ``index`` is still set to the index of the mutex.

  The ``alert`` argument is an "extra" event which can terminate the
  wait, independently of all other objects.

  It is valid to pass the same object more than once, including by
  passing the same event in the ``objs`` array and in ``alert``. If a
  wakeup occurs due to that object being signaled, ``index`` is set to
  the lowest index corresponding to that object.

  The function may fail with ``EINTR`` if a signal is received.

.. c:macro:: NTSYNC_IOC_WAIT_ALL

  Poll on a list of objects, atomically acquiring all of them. Takes a
  pointer to struct :c:type:`ntsync_wait_args`, which is used
  identically to ``NTSYNC_IOC_WAIT_ANY``, except that ``index`` is
  always filled with zero on success if not woken via alert.

  This function attempts to simultaneously acquire all of the given
  objects. If unable to do so, it sleeps until all objects become
  simultaneously signaled, subsequently acquiring them, or the timeout
  expires. In the latter case the ioctl fails with ``ETIMEDOUT`` and no
  objects are modified.

  Objects may become signaled and subsequently designaled (through
  acquisition by other threads) while this thread is sleeping. Only
  once all objects are simultaneously signaled does the ioctl acquire
  them and return. The entire acquisition is atomic and totally ordered
  with respect to other operations on any of the given objects.

  If an abandoned mutex is acquired, the ioctl fails with
  ``EOWNERDEAD``. Similarly to ``NTSYNC_IOC_WAIT_ANY``, all objects are
  nevertheless marked as acquired. Note that if multiple mutex objects
  are specified, there is no way to know which were marked as
  abandoned.

  As with "any" waits, the ``alert`` argument is an "extra" event which
  can terminate the wait. Critically, however, an "all" wait will
  succeed if all members in ``objs`` are signaled, *or* if ``alert`` is
  signaled. In the latter case ``index`` will be set to ``count``. As
  with "any" waits, if both conditions are filled, the former takes
  priority, and objects in ``objs`` will be acquired.

  Unlike ``NTSYNC_IOC_WAIT_ANY``, it is not valid to pass the same
  object more than once, nor is it valid to pass the same object in
  ``objs`` and in ``alert``. If this is attempted, the function fails
  with ``EINVAL``.