[Caml-list] Threading and C code

[Caml-list] Threading and C code

[David McClain]

Hi,

I just wrote an bunch of C primitives to attach to an OCamlopt project, and
some of these wait on internal semaphores, events, and mutexes. It appeared
to me that these shut down the OCaml native threading system on Windows
(98SE and NT/4.0).

After searching through the sources for the threads lib I find that two
entry points are used to negotiate this possibility --
enter_blocking_section() and leave_blocking_section().  These appear to be
needed around any code that could possibly block.

These aren't mentioned in any of the normal header files in /ocaml/lib/caml
but I think they ought to be. Is this protocol subject to change? or can it
be made a standard protocol for C external functions?

- DM

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Re: [Caml-list] Threading and C code

[Xavier Leroy]

> After searching through the sources for the threads lib I find that two
> entry points are used to negotiate this possibility --
> enter_blocking_section() and leave_blocking_section().  These appear to be
> needed around any code that could possibly block.

This is correct.

> These aren't mentioned in any of the normal header files in /ocaml/lib/caml
> but I think they ought to be. Is this protocol subject to change? or can it
> be made a standard protocol for C external functions?

This protocol hasn't changed in many years, so I agree it should be
documented.

- Xavier Leroy
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