12. I/O subsystem¶
12.1. Introduction¶
.intro: This document is the design of the MPS I/O Subsystem, a part of the plinth.
.readership: This document is intended for MPS developers.
12.2. Background¶
.bg: This design is partly based on the design of the Internet User Datagram Protocol (UDP). Mainly I used this to make sure I hadn’t left out anything which we might need.
12.3. Purpose¶
.purpose: The purpose of the MPS I/O Subsystem is to provide a means to measure, debug, control, and test a memory manager build using the MPS.
.purpose.measure: Measurement consists of emitting data which can be collected and analysed in order to improve the attributes of application program, quite possibly by adjusting parameters of the memory manager (see overview.mps.usage).
.purpose.control: Control means adjusting the behaviour of the MM dynamically. For example, one might want to adjust a parameter in order to observe the effect, then transfer that adjustment to the client application later.
.purpose.test: Test output can be used to ensure that the memory manager is behaving as expected in response to certain inputs.
12.4. Requirements¶
12.4.1. General¶
.req.fun.non-hosted: The MPM must be a host-independent system.
.req.attr.host: It should be easy for the client to set up the MPM for a particular host (such as a washing machine).
12.4.2. Functional¶
.req.fun.measure: The subsystem must allow the MPS to transmit quantitative measurement data to an external tool so that the system can be tuned.
.req.fun.debug: The subsystem must allow the MPS to transmit qualitative information about its operation to an external tool so that the system can be debugged.
.req.fun.control: The subsystem must allow the MPS to receive control information from an external tool so that the system can be adjusted while it is running.
.req.dc.env.no-net: The subsystem should operate in environments where there is no networking available.
.req.dc.env.no-fs: The subsystem should operate in environments where there is no filesystem available.
12.5. Architecture¶
.arch.diagram: I/O Architecture Diagram
[missing diagram]
.arch.int: The I/O Interface is a C function call interface by which the MPM sends and receives “messages” to and from the hosted I/O module.
.arch.module: The modules are part of the MPS but not part of the freestanding core system (see design.mps.exec-env). The I/O module is responsible for transmitting those messages to the external tools, and for receiving messages from external tools and passing them to the MPM.
.arch.module.example: For example, the “file implementation” might just send/write telemetry messages into a file so that they can be received/read later by an off-line measurement tool.
.arch.external: The I/O Interface is part of interface to the freestanding core system (see design.mps.exec-env). This is so that the MPS can be deployed in a freestanding environment, with a special I/O module. For example, if the MPS is used in a washing machine the I/O module could communicate by writing output to the seven-segment display.
12.5.1. Example configurations¶
.example.telnet: This shows the I/O subsystem communicating with a telnet client over a TCP/IP connection. In this case, the I/O subsystem is translating the I/O Interface into an interactive text protocol so that the user of the telnet client can talk to the MM.
[missing diagram]
.example.file: This shows the I/O subsystem dumping measurement data into a file which is later read and analysed. In this case the I/O subsystem is simply writing out binary in a format which can be decoded.
[missing diagram]
.example.serial: This shows the I/O subsystem communicating with a graphical analysis tool over a serial link. This could be useful for a developer who has two machines in close proximity and no networking support.
.example.local: In this example the application is talking directly to the I/O subsystem. This is useful when the application is a reflective development environment (such as MLWorks) which wants to observe its own behaviour.
[missing diagram]
12.6. Interface¶
.if.msg: The I/O interface is oriented around opaque binary “messages” which the I/O module must pass between the MPM and external tools. The I/O module need not understand or interpret the contents of those messages.
.if.msg.opaque: The messages are opaque in order to minimize the dependency of the I/O module on the message internals. It should be possible for clients to implement their own I/O modules for unusual environments. We do not want to reveal the internal structure of our data to the clients. Nor do we want to burden them with the details of our protocols. We’d also like their code to be independent of ours, so that we can expand or change the protocols without requiring them to modify their modules.
.if.msg.dgram: Neither the MPM nor the external tools should assume that the messages will be delivered in finite time, exactly once, or in order. This will allow the I/O modules to be implemented using unreliable transport layers such as the Internet User Datagram Protocl (UDP). It will also give the I/O module the freedom to drop information rather than block on a congested network, or stop the memory manager when the disk is full, or similar events which really shouldn’t cause the memory manager to stop working. The protocols we need to implement at the high level can be design to be robust against lossage without much difficulty.
12.6.1. I/O module state¶
.if.state: The I/O module may have some internal state to preserve.
The I/O Interface defines a type for this state, mps_io_t, a
pointer to an incomplete structure mps_io_s. The I/O module is at
liberty to define this structure.
12.6.2. Message types¶
.if.type: The I/O module must be able to deliver messages of several different types. It will probably choose to send them to different destinations based on their type: telemetry to the measurement tool, debugging output to the debugger, etc.
typedef int mps_io_type_t;
enum {
MPS_IO_TYPE_TELEMETRY,
MPS_IO_TYPE_DEBUG
};
12.6.3. Limits¶
.if.message-max: The interface will define an unsigned integral
constant MPS_IO_MESSAGE_MAX which will be the maximum size of
messages that the MPM will pass to mps_io_send() (.if.send) and
the maximum size it will expect to receive from mps_io_receive().
12.6.4. Interface set-up and tear-down¶
.if.create: The MPM will call mps_io_create() to set up the I/O
module. On success, this function should return MPS_RES_OK. It may
also initialize a “state” value which will be passed to subsequent
calls through the interface.
.if.destroy: The MPM will call mps_io_destroy() to tear down
the I/O module, after which it guarantees that the state value will
not be used again. The state parameter is the state previously
returned by mps_io_create() (.if.create).
12.6.5. Message send and receive¶
.if.send: The MPM will call mps_io_send() when it wishes to
send a message to a destination. The state parameter is the state
previously returned by mps_io_create() (.if.create). The
type parameter is the type (.if.type) of the message. The
message parameter is a pointer to a buffer containing the message,
and size is the length of that message, in bytes. The I/O module
must make an effort to deliver the message to the destination, but is
not expected to guarantee delivery. The function should return
MPS_RES_IO only if a serious error occurs that should cause the
MPM to return with an error to the client application. Failure to
deliver the message does not count.
Note
Should there be a timeout parameter? What are the timing
constraints? mps_io_send() shouldn’t block.
.if.receive: The MPM will call mps_io_receive() when it wants
to see if a message has been sent to it. The state parameter is
the state previously returned by mps_io_create() (.if.create).
The buffer_o parameter is a pointer to a value which should be
updated with a pointer to a buffer containing the message received.
The size_o parameter is a pointer to a value which should be
updated with the length of the message received. If there is no
message ready for receipt, the length returned should be zero.
Note
Should we be able to receive truncated messages? How can this be done neatly?
12.7. I/O module implementations¶
12.7.1. Routeing¶
The I/O module must decide where to send the various messages. A file-based implementation could put them in different files based on their types. A network-based implementation must decide how to address the messages. In either case, any configuration must either be statically compiled into the module, or else read from some external source such as a configuration file.
12.8. Notes¶
The external tools should be able to reconstruct stuff from partial info. For example, you come across a fragment of an old log containing just a few old messages. What can you do with it?
Here’s some completely untested code which might do the job for UDP.
#include "mpsio.h"
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
#include <arpa/inet.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <errno.h>
typedef struct mps_io_s {
int sock;
struct sockaddr_in mine;
struct sockaddr_in telemetry;
struct sockaddr_in debugging;
} mps_io_s;
static mps_bool_t inited = 0;
static mps_io_s state;
mps_res_t mps_io_create(mps_io_t *mps_io_o)
{
int sock, r;
if(inited)
return MPS_RES_LIMIT;
state.mine = /* setup somehow from config */;
state.telemetry = /* setup something from config */;
state.debugging = /* setup something from config */;
/* Make a socket through which to communicate. */
sock = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, 0);
if(sock == -1) return MPS_RES_IO;
/* Set socket to non-blocking mode. */
r = fcntl(sock, F_SETFL, O_NDELAY);
if(r == -1) return MPS_RES_IO;
/* Bind the socket to some UDP port so that we can receive messages. */
r = bind(sock, (struct sockaddr *)&state.mine, sizeof(state.mine));
if(r == -1) return MPS_RES_IO;
state.sock = sock;
inited = 1;
*mps_io_o = &state;
return MPS_RES_OK;
}
void mps_io_destroy(mps_io_t mps_io)
{
assert(mps_io == &state);
assert(inited);
(void)close(state.sock);
inited = 0;
}
mps_res_t mps_io_send(mps_io_t mps_io, mps_type_t type,
void *message, size_t size)
{
struct sockaddr *toaddr;
assert(mps_io == &state);
assert(inited);
switch(type) {
MPS_IO_TYPE_TELEMETRY:
toaddr = (struct sockaddr *)&state.telemetry;
break;
MPS_IO_TYPE_DEBUGGING:
toaddr = (struct sockaddr *)&state.debugging;
break;
default:
assert(0);
return MPS_RES_UNIMPL;
}
(void)sendto(state.sock, message, size, 0, toaddr, sizeof(*toaddr));
return MPS_RES_OK;
}
mps_res_t mps_io_receive(mps_io_t mps_io,
void **message_o, size_t **size_o)
{
int r;
static char buffer[MPS_IO_MESSAGE_MAX];
assert(mps_io == &state);
assert(inited);
r = recvfrom(state.sock, buffer, sizeof(buffer), 0, NULL, NULL);
if(r == -1)
switch(errno) {
/* Ignore interrupted system calls, and failures due to lack */
/* of resources (they might go away.) */
case EINTR: case ENOMEM: case ENOSR:
r = 0;
break;
default:
return MPS_RES_IO;
}
*message_o = buffer;
*size_o = r;
return MPS_RES_OK;
}
12.9. Attachments¶
“O Architecture Diagram” “O Configuration Diagrams”
