On 2013-03-05, at 21:32, Eliot Miranda <eliot.miranda at gmail.com> wrote:

> 
> 
> On Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 2:30 PM, Bert Freudenberg <bert at freudenbergs.de> wrote:
> On 2013-02-28, at 22:38, Louis LaBrunda <Lou at Keystone-Software.com> wrote:
> 
> > If a process is running when an image is saved, is the process stopped at
> > any point in particular?
> 
> The active process is stopped in the snapshot primitive (a.k.a. "image saving") and resumes after it on startup. All other processes are waiting on some semaphore anyway.
> 
> Nope.  No processes are stopped.  Processes are simply unable to run while in the snapshot.

Yes, I used sloppy language, "suspended" is loaded in this context. The active process does not go through a suspend/resume cycle, it's simply that time "stops" and later "continues", so to speak.

Excellent explanation, Eliot :)

- Bert -

>  The key to understanding this is understanding the scheduler (the Processor global, an instance of ProcessorSheduler).  It maintains an activeProcess and a set of runnable processes, implemented as an Array of lists of processes at the same priority.  A runnable process (one not sent suspend or not waiting on a semaphore) is either the activeProcess or on one of the lists.  This state is saved to the snapshot.  At any time the scheduler's activeProcess is the first highest priority process in the set of runnable processes.  It will only be deposed as activeProcess when either another higher-priority process becomes runnable or it yields or suspends or waits on a semaphore.  If it suspends or waits on a semaphore it is removed from the set of runnable processes.  If it yields it gets sent to the back of its run-queue and the next process in that queue becomes the runnable process.  If it is the only runnable process at its priority yield is a noop.
> 
> On loading the image the VM activates the activeProcess; the activeProcess will typically be in a method that has called the snapshot primitive and the system will continue, with the snapshot primitive answering true.  All the other processes in the run queues are runnable but, just as before the snapshot, can't be run because the activeProcess is still runnable.  But as soon as the activeProcess suspends, waits or yields, one of these processes may run.
> 
> Several processes are terminated (terminate is suspend + run unwinds) on resuming the image.  This is done to inform the VM of additional state to make these processes run.  For example, the Delay process needs to tell the VM what the next delay expiry is on start-up.  The delay semaphore (the semaphore the VM signals when the current active delay expires) is saved in the image in the specialObjects array, so it persists across a snapshot, but the VM doesn't persist the current delay expiry time.
> 
> So any long-running process which doesn't need to inform the VM of anything special at start-up will just keep truckin' along, and nothing need be done.  A snapshot really is like a fermata, a pause.  It is not some kind of shut-down.
> 
> As a side-note what happens if one does
> 
>      [Semaphore new wait] fork.
>     Processor activeProcess yield.
> 
> ?
> 
> This creates a new process and adds it to the Processor's run queue.  Once the process has been sent fork the current process doesn't reference it since it has been popped from the current process's stack, and so the only reference to the new process is from one of the Processors' run queues, but it isn't running yet because the activeProcess (the one that sent fork) is running.  Wen the activeProcess yields the new process gets to run.  Once it has created the new semaphore it sends wait to it.  At this point it is removed from the Processor's run-queue and added to the semaphore's queue.  So now there is a circular reference between the process and the semaphore and these are the only references to the process and the semaphore, and so both get garbage collected.
> 
>  
> 
> > If the saved image is started, is there any way the process can tell?
> 
> Not the process itself. But you surely keep the process in a class somewhere, and the class can arrange to get notified on startup by adding itself to the startup list. See addToStartUpList:.
> 
> exactly. one could also e.g. poll OSProcess to get the process ID of the VM process and see if that changes, but that's a horrible hack, and once in a blue moon will fail (cuz process ids are not unique and get reused).
> 
> > I'm running a process that keeps running for a look time.  It loops with a
> > delay and in the loop gets the date and time.  If the date and time were
> > obtained just before the save, they would be old at the time of the image
> > restart and need to be refreshed.
> 
> 
> Delays get adjusted after resuming from snapshot. So it should just work.
> 
> exactly.  the snapshot will look just like a long time on the run-queue whole the process is preempted by higher-priroity processes,
>  
> - Bert -
> -- 
> HTH,
> Eliot
> 

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