emacs/mps/design/trace.txt

.. mode: -*- rst -*-

Tracer
======

:Tag: design.mps.trace
:Author: David Jones
:Date: 1996-09-25
:Status: incomplete design
:Revision: $Id$
:Copyright: See `Copyright and License`_.
:Index terms:   pair: tracer; design


Introduction
------------

.. warning::

    This document is currently a mixture of very old design notes (the
    preformatted section immediately following) and some newer stuff.
    It doesn't yet form anything like a complete picture.


Architecture
------------

_`.instance.limit`: There is a limit on the number of traces that can
be created at any one time. This limits the number of concurrent
traces. This limitation is expressed in the symbol ``TraceLIMIT``.

.. note::

    ``TraceLIMIT`` is currently set to 1 as the MPS assumes in various
    places that only a single trace is active at a time. See
    request.mps.160020_ "Multiple traces would not work". David Jones,
    1998-06-15.

.. _request.mps.160020: https://info.ravenbrook.com/project/mps/import/2001-11-05/mmprevol/request/mps/160020

_`.rate`: See `mail.nickb.1997-07-31.14-37`_.

.. _mail.nickb.1997-07-31.14-37: https://info.ravenbrook.com/project/mps/mail/1997/07/31/14-37/0.txt

.. note::

    Now revised? See request.epcore.160062_ and
    change.epcore.minnow.160062. David Jones, 1998-06-15.

.. _request.epcore.160062: https://info.ravenbrook.com/project/mps/import/2001-11-05/mmprevol/request/epcore/160062

_`.exact.legal`: Exact references must either point outside the arena
(to non-managed address space) or to a tract allocated to a pool.
Exact references that are to addresses which the arena has reserved
but hasn't allocated memory to are illegal (such a reference cannot
possibly refer to a real object, and so cannot be exact). We check
that this is the case in ``TraceFix()``.

.. note::

    Depending on the future semantics of ``PoolDestroy()`` we might
    need to adjust our strategy here. See `mail.dsm.1996-02-14.18-18`_
    for a strategy of coping gracefully with ``PoolDestroy()``.

    .. _mail.dsm.1996-02-14.18-18: https://info.ravenbrook.com/project/mps/mail/1996/02/14/18-18/0.txt

_`.fix.fixed.all`: ``ss->fixedSummary`` is accumulated (in
``TraceFix()``) for all pointers, whether or not they are genuine
references. We could accumulate fewer pointers here; if a pointer
fails the ``TractOfAddr()`` test then we know it isn't a reference, so
we needn't accumulate it into the fixed summary. The design allows
this, but it breaks a useful post-condition on scanning (if the
accumulation of ``ss->fixedSummary`` was moved the accuracy of
``ss->fixedSummary`` would vary according to the "width" of the white
summary). See `mail.pekka.1998-02-04.16-48`_ for improvement suggestions.

.. _mail.pekka.1998-02-04.16-48: https://info.ravenbrook.com/project/mps/mail/1998/02/04/16-48/0.txt


Analysis
--------

_`.fix.copy-fail`: Fixing can always succeed, even if copying the
referenced object has failed (due to lack of memory, for example), by
backing off to treating a reference as ambiguous. Assuming that fixing
an ambiguous reference doesn't allocate memory (which is no longer
true for AMC for example). See request.dylan.170560_ for a slightly
more sophisticated way to proceed when you can no longer allocate
memory for copying.

.. _request.dylan.170560: https://info.ravenbrook.com/project/mps/import/2001-11-05/mmprevol/request/dylan/170560


Ideas
-----

_`.flip.after`: To avoid excessive barrier impact on the mutator
immediately after flip, we could scan during flip other objects which
are "near" the roots, or otherwise known to be likely to be accessed
in the near future.


Implementation
--------------

Speed
.....

_`.fix`: The function implementing the fix operation should be called
``TraceFix()`` and this name is pervasive in the MPS and its documents
to describe this function. Nonethless, optimisation and strict
aliasing rules have meant that we need to use the external name for
it, ``_mps_fix2()``.

_`.fix.speed`: The fix path is critical to garbage collection speed.
Abstractly, the fix operation is applied to all references in the
non-white heap and all references in the copied heap. Remembered sets
cut down the number of segments we have to scan. The zone test cuts
down the number of references we call fix on. The speed of the
remainder of the fix path is still critical to system performance.
Various modifications to and aspects of the system are concerned with
maintaining the speed along this path. See
`design.mps.critical_path`_.

.. _design.mps.critical_path: critical_path

_`.fix.tractofaddr`: A reference that passes the zone test is then
looked up to find the tract it points to, an operation equivalent to
calling ``TractOfAddr()``.

_`.fix.tractofaddr.inline`: ``TraceFix()`` doesn't actually call
``TractOfAddr()``. Instead, it expands this operation inline (calling
``ChunkOfAddr()``, then ``INDEX_OF_ADDR()``, checking the appropriate
bit in the chunk's ``allocTable``, and finally looking up the tract in
the chunk's page table). The reason for inlining this code is that we
need to know whether the reference points to a chunk (and not just
whether it points to a tract) in order to check the `.exact.legal`_
condition.

_`.fix.whiteseg`: The reason for looking up the tract is to determine
whether the reference is to a white segment.

.. note::

    It is likely to be more efficient to maintain a separate lookup
    table from address to white segment, rather than indirecting
    through the chunk and the tract. See job003796_.

.. _job003796: https://www.ravenbrook.com/project/mps/issue/job003796/

_`.fix.noaver`: ``AVER()`` statements in the code add bulk to the code
(reducing I-cache efficacy) and add branches to the path (polluting
the branch pedictors) resulting in a slow down. Replacing the
``AVER()`` statements with ``AVER_CRITICAL()`` on the critical path
improves the overall speed of the Dylan compiler by as much as 9%. See
`design.mps.critical_path`_.

_`.fix.nocopy`: ``amcSegFix()`` used to copy objects by using the
format's copy method. This involved a function call (through an
indirection) and in ``dylan_copy`` a call to ``dylan_skip`` (to
recompute the length) and call to ``memcpy`` with general parameters.
Replacing this with a direct call to ``memcpy`` removes these
overheads and the call to ``memcpy`` now has aligned parameters. The
call to ``memcpy`` is inlined by the C compiler. This change results
in a 4–5% speed-up in the Dylan compiler.

_`.reclaim`: Because the reclaim phase of the trace (implemented by
``TraceReclaim()``) examines every segment it is fairly time
intensive. Richard Tucker's profiles presented in
request.dylan.170551_ show a gap between the two varieties variety.hi
and variety.wi.

.. _request.dylan.170551: https://info.ravenbrook.com/project/mps/import/2001-11-05/mmprevol/request/dylan/170551

_`.reclaim.noaver`: Accordingly, reclaim methods use
``AVER_CRITICAL()`` instead of ``AVER()``.


Life cycle of a trace object
----------------------------

``TraceCreate()`` creates a trace in state ``TraceINIT``

Some segments get condemned (made white).

``TraceStart()`` gets called which:

- Derives an initial reference partition based on the existing
  white set.  The white zone set and the segments' summaries are used to
  create an initial grey set.

- Emits a ``GCStart()`` message.

- Initialises ``trace->rate`` by estimating the required scanning
  rate.

- Moves the trace into the state ``TraceUNFLIPPED``.

- Immediately calls ``traceFlip`` which flips the trace and moves
  it into state ``TraceFLIPPED``.

Whilst a trace is alive every so often its ``TraceAdvance()`` method
gets invoked (via ``TracePoll()``) in order to do a step of tracing
work. ``TraceAdvance()`` is responsible for ticking through the trace's
top-level state machine. Most of the interesting work, the tracing,
happens in the ``TraceFLIPPED`` state.

The trace transitions through its states in the following sequence:
``TraceINIT`` → (``TraceUNFLIPPED``) → ``TraceFLIPPED`` →
``TraceRECLAIM`` → ``TraceFINISHED``.

Whilst ``TraceUNFLIPPED`` appears in the code, no trace does any work
in this state; all traces are immediately flipped to be in the
``TraceFLIPPED`` state (see above).

Once the trace is in the ``TraceFINISHED`` state it performs no more
work and it can be safely destroyed. Generally the callers of
``TraceAdvance()`` will destroy the trace.


Making progress: scanning grey segments
.......................................

Most of the interesting work of a trace, the actual tracing, happens
in the ``TraceFLIPPED`` state (work *would* happen in the
``TraceUNFLIPPED`` state, but that is not implemented).

The tracer makes progress by choosing a grey segment to scan, and
scanning it. The actual scanning is performed by pools.

Note that at all times a reference partition is maintained.

The order in which the trace scans things determines the semantics of
certain types of references (in particular, weak and final
references). Or, to put it another way the desired semantics of weak
and final references impose certain restrictions on the order in which
the trace can scan things.

.rank: The tracer uses a system of *reference ranks* (or just ranks)
so that it can impose an order on its scanning work. The ranks are
ordered.  [TODO: Explain how ordering is also required for transforms.
See impl.c.trans.rank-order.  RB 2023-06-16]

The tracer proceeds band by band. The first band is all objects it can
reach by following references of the first rank. The second band is
all subsequent objects it can reach by following references of the
second and first ranks. The third band is all subsequent objects it
can reach by following references of the third, second, and first
ranks. And so on. The description of the tracer working like this
originated in [RHSK_2007-06-25]_.

A trace keeps track of which band it is tracing. This is returned by
the ``TraceBand()`` method. Keeping this band information helps it
implement the semantics of finalization and weakness. The band used to
not be explicitly stored, but this hindered the implementation of good
finalization semantics (in some circumstances finalization messages
were delayed by at least one collection cycle: see job001658_).

.. _job001658: https://info.ravenbrook.com/project/mps/issue/job001658/

The band is used when selecting a grey segment to scan (the selection
occurs in ``traceFindGrey()``). The tracer attempts to first find
segments whose rank is the current band, then segments whose rank is
previous to the current band, and so on. If there are no segments
found then the current band is exhausted and the current band is
incremented to the next rank. When the current band is moved through
all the ranks in this fashion there is no more tracing to be done.



References
----------

.. [RHSK_2007-06-25]
   "The semantics of rank-based tracing";
   Richard Kistruck; Ravenbrook Limited; 2007-06-25;
   <https://info.ravenbrook.com/mail/2007/06/25/11-35-57/0/>.


Document History
----------------

- 1996-09-25 David Jones. Incomplete design.

- 2002-06-07 RB_ Converted from MMInfo database design document.

- 2007-07-02 David Jones. Added notes on tracer progress.

- 2013-05-22 GDR_ Converted to reStructuredText.

.. _RB: https://www.ravenbrook.com/consultants/rb/
.. _GDR: https://www.ravenbrook.com/consultants/gdr/


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---------------------

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