NAME ^

src/gc/register.c - Register handling routines

DESCRIPTION ^

Parrot has 4 register sets, one for each of its basic types. The number of registers in each set varies depending on the use counts of the subroutine and is determined by the PASM/PIR compiler in the register allocation pass (imcc/reg_alloc.c).

Context and register frame layout ^

    +----------++----+------+------------+----+
    | context  || N  |  I   |   P        |  S +
    +----------++----+------+------------+----+
    ^          ^     ^                   ^
    |          |     ctx.bp              ctx.bp_ps
    ctx.state  opt
               padding

Registers are addressed as usual via the register base pointer ctx.bp.

The macro CONTEXT() hides these details

Context and register frame allocation ^

There are two allocation strategies: chunked memory and malloced with a free list.

 CHUNKED_CTX_MEM = 1

ctx_mem.data is a pointer to an allocated chunk of memory. The pointer ctx_mem.free holds the next usable location. With (full) continuations the ctx_mem.free pointer can't be moved below the ctx_mem.threshold, which is the highest context pointer of all active continuations.

[the code for this is incomplete; it had suffered some bit-rot and was getting in the way of maintaining the other case. -- rgr, 4-Feb-06.]

RT #46177 GC has to lower this threshold when collecting continuations.

 CHUNKED_CTX_MEM = 0

Context/register memory is malloced. ctx_mem.free is used as a free list of reusable items.

Round register allocation size up to the nearest multiple of 8. A granularity of 8 is arbitrary, it could have been some bigger power of 2. A "slot" is an index into the free_list array. Each slot in free_list has a linked list of pointers to already allocated contexts available for (re)use. The slot where an available context is stored corresponds to the size of the context.

Context and Register Allocation Functions ^

void destroy_context

Frees allocated context memory.

void create_initial_context

Creates the interpreter's initial context.

void parrot_gc_context

Cleans up dead context memory; called by the garbage collector. This only applies in the chunked context memory scheme.

static void clear_regs

Clears all registers in a context. PMC and STRING registers contain PMCNULL and NULL, respectively. Integer and float registers contain negative flag values, for debugging purposes.

static void init_context

Initializes a freshly allocated or recycled context.

Parrot_Context *Parrot_dup_context

Duplicates the passed context, making the result the current context.

Parrot_Context *Parrot_push_context

Creates and sets the current context to a new context, remembering the old context in caller_ctx. Suitable to use with Parrot_pop_context.

void Parrot_pop_context

Frees the context created with Parrot_push_context and restores the previous context (the caller context).

Parrot_Context *Parrot_alloc_context

Allocates and returns a new context as the current context. Note that the register usage n_regs_used is copied.

void Parrot_free_context

Frees the context. If re_use is true, this function is called by a return continuation invoke, else from the destructor of a continuation.

void Parrot_set_context_threshold

Marks the context as possible threshold.

Register Stack Functions ^

void Parrot_clear_i

Sets all integer registers in the current context to 0.

void Parrot_clear_s

Sets all STRING registers in the current context to NULL.

void Parrot_clear_p

Sets all PMC registers in the current context to NULL.

void Parrot_clear_n

Sets all number registers in the current context to 0.0.

SEE ALSO ^

include/parrot/register.h and src/stacks.c.


parrot