netbsd man page for mi_switch

MI_SWITCH(9)						   BSD Kernel Developer's Manual					      MI_SWITCH(9)

NAME
     mi_switch -- machine independent context switch prelude

SYNOPSIS
     int
     mi_switch(struct lwp *l);

DESCRIPTION
     The mi_switch() function implements the machine-independent prelude to an LWP context switch.  It is called from only a few distinguished
     places in the kernel code as a result of the principle of non-preemptable kernel mode execution.  The three major uses of mi_switch() can be
     enumerated as follows:

	   1.	From within cv_wait(9) and associated methods when the current LWP voluntarily relinquishes the CPU to wait for some resource to
		become available.

	   2.	From within preempt(9) when the current LWP voluntarily relinquishes the CPU or when the kernel prepares a return to user-mode
		execution.

	   3.	In the signal handling code if a signal is delivered that causes an LWP to stop (see issignal(9)).

     mi_switch() records the amount of time the current LWP has been running in the LWP structure and checks this value against the CPU time lim-
     its allocated to the LWP (see getrlimit(2)).  Exceeding the soft limit results in a SIGXCPU signal to be posted to the LWP, while exceeding
     the hard limit will cause a SIGKILL.

     Unless l->l_switchto is not NULL, mi_switch() will call sched_nextlwp() to select a new LWP from the scheduler's runqueue structures.  If no
     runnable LWP is found, the idle LWP is used.  If the new LWP is not equal to the current one, mi_switch() will hand over control to the
     machine-dependent function cpu_switchto(9) to switch to the new LWP.

     mi_switch() has to be called with the LWP lock held (through calling lwp_lock() first) and at the splsched(9) interrupt protection level.	It
     returns with the LWP lock released.

RETURN VALUES
     mi_switch() returns 1 if a context switch was performed to a different LWP, 0 otherwise.

SEE ALSO
     condvar(9), cpu_switchto(9), csf(9), pmap(9), ras(9), sched_4bsd(9), splsched(9)

BSD
								   July 21, 2007							       BSD