LinuxSecurity.com: The SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 and openSUSE 11.1 Kernel were updated to 2.6.27.45 fixing various bugs and security issues. CVE-2010-0622: The wake_futex_pi function in kernel/futex.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.33-rc7 does not properly handle certain unlock operations for a Priority Inheritance (PI) futex, which allows local [More...]
FUTEX(7) Linux Programmer's Manual FUTEX(7)NAME
futex - fast user-space locking
SYNOPSIS
#include <linux/futex.h>
DESCRIPTION
The Linux kernel provides futexes ("Fast user-space mutexes") as a building block for fast user-space locking and semaphores. Futexes are
very basic and lend themselves well for building higher level locking abstractions such as POSIX mutexes.
This page does not set out to document all design decisions but restricts itself to issues relevant for application and library develop-
ment. Most programmers will in fact not be using futexes directly but instead rely on system libraries built on them, such as the NPTL
pthreads implementation.
A futex is identified by a piece of memory which can be shared between different processes. In these different processes, it need not have
identical addresses. In its bare form, a futex has semaphore semantics; it is a counter that can be incremented and decremented atomi-
cally; processes can wait for the value to become positive.
Futex operation is entirely user space for the noncontended case. The kernel is involved only to arbitrate the contended case. As any
sane design will strive for noncontention, futexes are also optimized for this situation.
In its bare form, a futex is an aligned integer which is touched only by atomic assembler instructions. Processes can share this integer
using mmap(2), via shared memory segments or because they share memory space, in which case the application is commonly called multi-
threaded.
Semantics
Any futex operation starts in user space, but it may be necessary to communicate with the kernel using the futex(2) system call.
To "up" a futex, execute the proper assembler instructions that will cause the host CPU to atomically increment the integer. Afterward,
check if it has in fact changed from 0 to 1, in which case there were no waiters and the operation is done. This is the noncontended case
which is fast and should be common.
In the contended case, the atomic increment changed the counter from -1 (or some other negative number). If this is detected, there are
waiters. User space should now set the counter to 1 and instruct the kernel to wake up any waiters using the FUTEX_WAKE operation.
Waiting on a futex, to "down" it, is the reverse operation. Atomically decrement the counter and check if it changed to 0, in which case
the operation is done and the futex was uncontended. In all other circumstances, the process should set the counter to -1 and request that
the kernel wait for another process to up the futex. This is done using the FUTEX_WAIT operation.
The futex(2) system call can optionally be passed a timeout specifying how long the kernel should wait for the futex to be upped. In this
case, semantics are more complex and the programmer is referred to futex(2) for more details. The same holds for asynchronous futex wait-
ing.
VERSIONS
Initial futex support was merged in Linux 2.5.7 but with different semantics from those described above. Current semantics are available
from Linux 2.5.40 onward.
NOTES
To reiterate, bare futexes are not intended as an easy to use abstraction for end-users. Implementors are expected to be assembly literate
and to have read the sources of the futex user-space library referenced below.
This man page illustrates the most common use of the futex(2) primitives: it is by no means the only one.
SEE ALSO futex(2)
Fuss, Futexes and Furwocks: Fast Userlevel Locking in Linux (proceedings of the Ottawa Linux Symposium 2002), futex example library,
futex-*.tar.bz2 <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/rusty/>.
COLOPHON
This page is part of release 3.53 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
Linux 2012-08-05 FUTEX(7)