1 <?xml version="1.0"?> <!-- -*- sgml -*- --> 2 <!DOCTYPE chapter PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN" 3 "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd" 4 [ <!ENTITY % vg-entities SYSTEM "../../docs/xml/vg-entities.xml"> %vg-entities; ]> 5 6 7 <chapter id="hg-manual" xreflabel="Helgrind: thread error detector"> 8 <title>Helgrind: a thread error detector</title> 9 10 <para>To use this tool, you must specify 11 <option>--tool=helgrind</option> on the Valgrind 12 command line.</para> 13 14 15 <sect1 id="hg-manual.overview" xreflabel="Overview"> 16 <title>Overview</title> 17 18 <para>Helgrind is a Valgrind tool for detecting synchronisation errors 19 in C, C++ and Fortran programs that use the POSIX pthreads 20 threading primitives.</para> 21 22 <para>The main abstractions in POSIX pthreads are: a set of threads 23 sharing a common address space, thread creation, thread joining, 24 thread exit, mutexes (locks), condition variables (inter-thread event 25 notifications), reader-writer locks, spinlocks, semaphores and 26 barriers.</para> 27 28 <para>Helgrind can detect three classes of errors, which are discussed 29 in detail in the next three sections:</para> 30 31 <orderedlist> 32 <listitem> 33 <para><link linkend="hg-manual.api-checks"> 34 Misuses of the POSIX pthreads API.</link></para> 35 </listitem> 36 <listitem> 37 <para><link linkend="hg-manual.lock-orders"> 38 Potential deadlocks arising from lock 39 ordering problems.</link></para> 40 </listitem> 41 <listitem> 42 <para><link linkend="hg-manual.data-races"> 43 Data races -- accessing memory without adequate locking 44 or synchronisation</link>. 45 </para> 46 </listitem> 47 </orderedlist> 48 49 <para>Problems like these often result in unreproducible, 50 timing-dependent crashes, deadlocks and other misbehaviour, and 51 can be difficult to find by other means.</para> 52 53 <para>Helgrind is aware of all the pthread abstractions and tracks 54 their effects as accurately as it can. On x86 and amd64 platforms, it 55 understands and partially handles implicit locking arising from the 56 use of the LOCK instruction prefix. On PowerPC/POWER and ARM 57 platforms, it partially handles implicit locking arising from 58 load-linked and store-conditional instruction pairs. 59 </para> 60 61 <para>Helgrind works best when your application uses only the POSIX 62 pthreads API. However, if you want to use custom threading 63 primitives, you can describe their behaviour to Helgrind using the 64 <varname>ANNOTATE_*</varname> macros defined 65 in <varname>helgrind.h</varname>.</para> 66 67 68 69 <para>Following those is a section containing 70 <link linkend="hg-manual.effective-use"> 71 hints and tips on how to get the best out of Helgrind.</link> 72 </para> 73 74 <para>Then there is a 75 <link linkend="hg-manual.options">summary of command-line 76 options.</link> 77 </para> 78 79 <para>Finally, there is 80 <link linkend="hg-manual.todolist">a brief summary of areas in which Helgrind 81 could be improved.</link> 82 </para> 83 84 </sect1> 85 86 87 88 89 <sect1 id="hg-manual.api-checks" xreflabel="API Checks"> 90 <title>Detected errors: Misuses of the POSIX pthreads API</title> 91 92 <para>Helgrind intercepts calls to many POSIX pthreads functions, and 93 is therefore able to report on various common problems. Although 94 these are unglamourous errors, their presence can lead to undefined 95 program behaviour and hard-to-find bugs later on. The detected errors 96 are:</para> 97 98 <itemizedlist> 99 <listitem><para>unlocking an invalid mutex</para></listitem> 100 <listitem><para>unlocking a not-locked mutex</para></listitem> 101 <listitem><para>unlocking a mutex held by a different 102 thread</para></listitem> 103 <listitem><para>destroying an invalid or a locked mutex</para></listitem> 104 <listitem><para>recursively locking a non-recursive mutex</para></listitem> 105 <listitem><para>deallocation of memory that contains a 106 locked mutex</para></listitem> 107 <listitem><para>passing mutex arguments to functions expecting 108 reader-writer lock arguments, and vice 109 versa</para></listitem> 110 <listitem><para>when a POSIX pthread function fails with an 111 error code that must be handled</para></listitem> 112 <listitem><para>when a thread exits whilst still holding locked 113 locks</para></listitem> 114 <listitem><para>calling <function>pthread_cond_wait</function> 115 with a not-locked mutex, an invalid mutex, 116 or one locked by a different 117 thread</para></listitem> 118 <listitem><para>inconsistent bindings between condition 119 variables and their associated mutexes</para></listitem> 120 <listitem><para>invalid or duplicate initialisation of a pthread 121 barrier</para></listitem> 122 <listitem><para>initialisation of a pthread barrier on which threads 123 are still waiting</para></listitem> 124 <listitem><para>destruction of a pthread barrier object which was 125 never initialised, or on which threads are still 126 waiting</para></listitem> 127 <listitem><para>waiting on an uninitialised pthread 128 barrier</para></listitem> 129 <listitem><para>for all of the pthreads functions that Helgrind 130 intercepts, an error is reported, along with a stack 131 trace, if the system threading library routine returns 132 an error code, even if Helgrind itself detected no 133 error</para></listitem> 134 </itemizedlist> 135 136 <para>Checks pertaining to the validity of mutexes are generally also 137 performed for reader-writer locks.</para> 138 139 <para>Various kinds of this-can't-possibly-happen events are also 140 reported. These usually indicate bugs in the system threading 141 library.</para> 142 143 <para>Reported errors always contain a primary stack trace indicating 144 where the error was detected. They may also contain auxiliary stack 145 traces giving additional information. In particular, most errors 146 relating to mutexes will also tell you where that mutex first came to 147 Helgrind's attention (the "<computeroutput>was first observed 148 at</computeroutput>" part), so you have a chance of figuring out which 149 mutex it is referring to. For example:</para> 150 151 <programlisting><![CDATA[ 152 Thread #1 unlocked a not-locked lock at 0x7FEFFFA90 153 at 0x4C2408D: pthread_mutex_unlock (hg_intercepts.c:492) 154 by 0x40073A: nearly_main (tc09_bad_unlock.c:27) 155 by 0x40079B: main (tc09_bad_unlock.c:50) 156 Lock at 0x7FEFFFA90 was first observed 157 at 0x4C25D01: pthread_mutex_init (hg_intercepts.c:326) 158 by 0x40071F: nearly_main (tc09_bad_unlock.c:23) 159 by 0x40079B: main (tc09_bad_unlock.c:50) 160 ]]></programlisting> 161 162 <para>Helgrind has a way of summarising thread identities, as 163 you see here with the text "<computeroutput>Thread 164 #1</computeroutput>". This is so that it can speak about threads and 165 sets of threads without overwhelming you with details. See 166 <link linkend="hg-manual.data-races.errmsgs">below</link> 167 for more information on interpreting error messages.</para> 168 169 </sect1> 170 171 172 173 174 <sect1 id="hg-manual.lock-orders" xreflabel="Lock Orders"> 175 <title>Detected errors: Inconsistent Lock Orderings</title> 176 177 <para>In this section, and in general, to "acquire" a lock simply 178 means to lock that lock, and to "release" a lock means to unlock 179 it.</para> 180 181 <para>Helgrind monitors the order in which threads acquire locks. 182 This allows it to detect potential deadlocks which could arise from 183 the formation of cycles of locks. Detecting such inconsistencies is 184 useful because, whilst actual deadlocks are fairly obvious, potential 185 deadlocks may never be discovered during testing and could later lead 186 to hard-to-diagnose in-service failures.</para> 187 188 <para>The simplest example of such a problem is as 189 follows.</para> 190 191 <itemizedlist> 192 <listitem><para>Imagine some shared resource R, which, for whatever 193 reason, is guarded by two locks, L1 and L2, which must both be held 194 when R is accessed.</para> 195 </listitem> 196 <listitem><para>Suppose a thread acquires L1, then L2, and proceeds 197 to access R. The implication of this is that all threads in the 198 program must acquire the two locks in the order first L1 then L2. 199 Not doing so risks deadlock.</para> 200 </listitem> 201 <listitem><para>The deadlock could happen if two threads -- call them 202 T1 and T2 -- both want to access R. Suppose T1 acquires L1 first, 203 and T2 acquires L2 first. Then T1 tries to acquire L2, and T2 tries 204 to acquire L1, but those locks are both already held. So T1 and T2 205 become deadlocked.</para> 206 </listitem> 207 </itemizedlist> 208 209 <para>Helgrind builds a directed graph indicating the order in which 210 locks have been acquired in the past. When a thread acquires a new 211 lock, the graph is updated, and then checked to see if it now contains 212 a cycle. The presence of a cycle indicates a potential deadlock involving 213 the locks in the cycle.</para> 214 215 <para>In general, Helgrind will choose two locks involved in the cycle 216 and show you how their acquisition ordering has become inconsistent. 217 It does this by showing the program points that first defined the 218 ordering, and the program points which later violated it. Here is a 219 simple example involving just two locks:</para> 220 221 <programlisting><![CDATA[ 222 Thread #1: lock order "0x7FF0006D0 before 0x7FF0006A0" violated 223 224 Observed (incorrect) order is: acquisition of lock at 0x7FF0006A0 225 at 0x4C2BC62: pthread_mutex_lock (hg_intercepts.c:494) 226 by 0x400825: main (tc13_laog1.c:23) 227 228 followed by a later acquisition of lock at 0x7FF0006D0 229 at 0x4C2BC62: pthread_mutex_lock (hg_intercepts.c:494) 230 by 0x400853: main (tc13_laog1.c:24) 231 232 Required order was established by acquisition of lock at 0x7FF0006D0 233 at 0x4C2BC62: pthread_mutex_lock (hg_intercepts.c:494) 234 by 0x40076D: main (tc13_laog1.c:17) 235 236 followed by a later acquisition of lock at 0x7FF0006A0 237 at 0x4C2BC62: pthread_mutex_lock (hg_intercepts.c:494) 238 by 0x40079B: main (tc13_laog1.c:18) 239 ]]></programlisting> 240 241 <para>When there are more than two locks in the cycle, the error is 242 equally serious. However, at present Helgrind does not show the locks 243 involved, sometimes because it that information is not available, but 244 also so as to avoid flooding you with information. For example, here 245 is an example involving a cycle of five locks from a naive 246 implementation the famous Dining Philosophers problem 247 (see <computeroutput>helgrind/tests/tc14_laog_dinphils.c</computeroutput>). 248 In this case Helgrind has detected that all 5 philosophers could 249 simultaneously pick up their left fork and then deadlock whilst 250 waiting to pick up their right forks.</para> 251 252 <programlisting><![CDATA[ 253 Thread #6: lock order "0x6010C0 before 0x601160" violated 254 255 Observed (incorrect) order is: acquisition of lock at 0x601160 256 (stack unavailable) 257 258 followed by a later acquisition of lock at 0x6010C0 259 at 0x4C2BC62: pthread_mutex_lock (hg_intercepts.c:494) 260 by 0x4007DE: dine (tc14_laog_dinphils.c:19) 261 by 0x4C2CBE7: mythread_wrapper (hg_intercepts.c:219) 262 by 0x4E369C9: start_thread (pthread_create.c:300) 263 ]]></programlisting> 264 265 </sect1> 266 267 268 269 270 <sect1 id="hg-manual.data-races" xreflabel="Data Races"> 271 <title>Detected errors: Data Races</title> 272 273 <para>A data race happens, or could happen, when two threads access a 274 shared memory location without using suitable locks or other 275 synchronisation to ensure single-threaded access. Such missing 276 locking can cause obscure timing dependent bugs. Ensuring programs 277 are race-free is one of the central difficulties of threaded 278 programming.</para> 279 280 <para>Reliably detecting races is a difficult problem, and most 281 of Helgrind's internals are devoted to dealing with it. 282 We begin with a simple example.</para> 283 284 285 <sect2 id="hg-manual.data-races.example" xreflabel="Simple Race"> 286 <title>A Simple Data Race</title> 287 288 <para>About the simplest possible example of a race is as follows. In 289 this program, it is impossible to know what the value 290 of <computeroutput>var</computeroutput> is at the end of the program. 291 Is it 2 ? Or 1 ?</para> 292 293 <programlisting><![CDATA[ 294 #include <pthread.h> 295 296 int var = 0; 297 298 void* child_fn ( void* arg ) { 299 var++; /* Unprotected relative to parent */ /* this is line 6 */ 300 return NULL; 301 } 302 303 int main ( void ) { 304 pthread_t child; 305 pthread_create(&child, NULL, child_fn, NULL); 306 var++; /* Unprotected relative to child */ /* this is line 13 */ 307 pthread_join(child, NULL); 308 return 0; 309 } 310 ]]></programlisting> 311 312 <para>The problem is there is nothing to 313 stop <varname>var</varname> being updated simultaneously 314 by both threads. A correct program would 315 protect <varname>var</varname> with a lock of type 316 <function>pthread_mutex_t</function>, which is acquired 317 before each access and released afterwards. Helgrind's output for 318 this program is:</para> 319 320 <programlisting><![CDATA[ 321 Thread #1 is the program's root thread 322 323 Thread #2 was created 324 at 0x511C08E: clone (in /lib64/libc-2.8.so) 325 by 0x4E333A4: do_clone (in /lib64/libpthread-2.8.so) 326 by 0x4E33A30: pthread_create@@GLIBC_2.2.5 (in /lib64/libpthread-2.8.so) 327 by 0x4C299D4: pthread_create@* (hg_intercepts.c:214) 328 by 0x400605: main (simple_race.c:12) 329 330 Possible data race during read of size 4 at 0x601038 by thread #1 331 Locks held: none 332 at 0x400606: main (simple_race.c:13) 333 334 This conflicts with a previous write of size 4 by thread #2 335 Locks held: none 336 at 0x4005DC: child_fn (simple_race.c:6) 337 by 0x4C29AFF: mythread_wrapper (hg_intercepts.c:194) 338 by 0x4E3403F: start_thread (in /lib64/libpthread-2.8.so) 339 by 0x511C0CC: clone (in /lib64/libc-2.8.so) 340 341 Location 0x601038 is 0 bytes inside global var "var" 342 declared at simple_race.c:3 343 ]]></programlisting> 344 345 <para>This is quite a lot of detail for an apparently simple error. 346 The last clause is the main error message. It says there is a race as 347 a result of a read of size 4 (bytes), at 0x601038, which is the 348 address of <computeroutput>var</computeroutput>, happening in 349 function <computeroutput>main</computeroutput> at line 13 in the 350 program.</para> 351 352 <para>Two important parts of the message are:</para> 353 354 <itemizedlist> 355 <listitem> 356 <para>Helgrind shows two stack traces for the error, not one. By 357 definition, a race involves two different threads accessing the 358 same location in such a way that the result depends on the relative 359 speeds of the two threads.</para> 360 <para> 361 The first stack trace follows the text "<computeroutput>Possible 362 data race during read of size 4 ...</computeroutput>" and the 363 second trace follows the text "<computeroutput>This conflicts with 364 a previous write of size 4 ...</computeroutput>". Helgrind is 365 usually able to show both accesses involved in a race. At least 366 one of these will be a write (since two concurrent, unsynchronised 367 reads are harmless), and they will of course be from different 368 threads.</para> 369 <para>By examining your program at the two locations, you should be 370 able to get at least some idea of what the root cause of the 371 problem is. For each location, Helgrind shows the set of locks 372 held at the time of the access. This often makes it clear which 373 thread, if any, failed to take a required lock. In this example 374 neither thread holds a lock during the access.</para> 375 </listitem> 376 <listitem> 377 <para>For races which occur on global or stack variables, Helgrind 378 tries to identify the name and defining point of the variable. 379 Hence the text "<computeroutput>Location 0x601038 is 0 bytes inside 380 global var "var" declared at simple_race.c:3</computeroutput>".</para> 381 <para>Showing names of stack and global variables carries no 382 run-time overhead once Helgrind has your program up and running. 383 However, it does require Helgrind to spend considerable extra time 384 and memory at program startup to read the relevant debug info. 385 Hence this facility is disabled by default. To enable it, you need 386 to give the <varname>--read-var-info=yes</varname> option to 387 Helgrind.</para> 388 </listitem> 389 </itemizedlist> 390 391 <para>The following section explains Helgrind's race detection 392 algorithm in more detail.</para> 393 394 </sect2> 395 396 397 398 <sect2 id="hg-manual.data-races.algorithm" xreflabel="DR Algorithm"> 399 <title>Helgrind's Race Detection Algorithm</title> 400 401 <para>Most programmers think about threaded programming in terms of 402 the basic functionality provided by the threading library (POSIX 403 Pthreads): thread creation, thread joining, locks, condition 404 variables, semaphores and barriers.</para> 405 406 <para>The effect of using these functions is to impose 407 constraints upon the order in which memory accesses can 408 happen. This implied ordering is generally known as the 409 "happens-before relation". Once you understand the happens-before 410 relation, it is easy to see how Helgrind finds races in your code. 411 Fortunately, the happens-before relation is itself easy to understand, 412 and is by itself a useful tool for reasoning about the behaviour of 413 parallel programs. We now introduce it using a simple example.</para> 414 415 <para>Consider first the following buggy program:</para> 416 417 <programlisting><![CDATA[ 418 Parent thread: Child thread: 419 420 int var; 421 422 // create child thread 423 pthread_create(...) 424 var = 20; var = 10; 425 exit 426 427 // wait for child 428 pthread_join(...) 429 printf("%d\n", var); 430 ]]></programlisting> 431 432 <para>The parent thread creates a child. Both then write different 433 values to some variable <computeroutput>var</computeroutput>, and the 434 parent then waits for the child to exit.</para> 435 436 <para>What is the value of <computeroutput>var</computeroutput> at the 437 end of the program, 10 or 20? We don't know. The program is 438 considered buggy (it has a race) because the final value 439 of <computeroutput>var</computeroutput> depends on the relative rates 440 of progress of the parent and child threads. If the parent is fast 441 and the child is slow, then the child's assignment may happen later, 442 so the final value will be 10; and vice versa if the child is faster 443 than the parent.</para> 444 445 <para>The relative rates of progress of parent vs child is not something 446 the programmer can control, and will often change from run to run. 447 It depends on factors such as the load on the machine, what else is 448 running, the kernel's scheduling strategy, and many other factors.</para> 449 450 <para>The obvious fix is to use a lock to 451 protect <computeroutput>var</computeroutput>. It is however 452 instructive to consider a somewhat more abstract solution, which is to 453 send a message from one thread to the other:</para> 454 455 <programlisting><![CDATA[ 456 Parent thread: Child thread: 457 458 int var; 459 460 // create child thread 461 pthread_create(...) 462 var = 20; 463 // send message to child 464 // wait for message to arrive 465 var = 10; 466 exit 467 468 // wait for child 469 pthread_join(...) 470 printf("%d\n", var); 471 ]]></programlisting> 472 473 <para>Now the program reliably prints "10", regardless of the speed of 474 the threads. Why? Because the child's assignment cannot happen until 475 after it receives the message. And the message is not sent until 476 after the parent's assignment is done.</para> 477 478 <para>The message transmission creates a "happens-before" dependency 479 between the two assignments: <computeroutput>var = 20;</computeroutput> 480 must now happen-before <computeroutput>var = 10;</computeroutput>. 481 And so there is no longer a race 482 on <computeroutput>var</computeroutput>. 483 </para> 484 485 <para>Note that it's not significant that the parent sends a message 486 to the child. Sending a message from the child (after its assignment) 487 to the parent (before its assignment) would also fix the problem, causing 488 the program to reliably print "20".</para> 489 490 <para>Helgrind's algorithm is (conceptually) very simple. It monitors all 491 accesses to memory locations. If a location -- in this example, 492 <computeroutput>var</computeroutput>, 493 is accessed by two different threads, Helgrind checks to see if the 494 two accesses are ordered by the happens-before relation. If so, 495 that's fine; if not, it reports a race.</para> 496 497 <para>It is important to understand that the happens-before relation 498 creates only a partial ordering, not a total ordering. An example of 499 a total ordering is comparison of numbers: for any two numbers 500 <computeroutput>x</computeroutput> and 501 <computeroutput>y</computeroutput>, either 502 <computeroutput>x</computeroutput> is less than, equal to, or greater 503 than 504 <computeroutput>y</computeroutput>. A partial ordering is like a 505 total ordering, but it can also express the concept that two elements 506 are neither equal, less or greater, but merely unordered with respect 507 to each other.</para> 508 509 <para>In the fixed example above, we say that 510 <computeroutput>var = 20;</computeroutput> "happens-before" 511 <computeroutput>var = 10;</computeroutput>. But in the original 512 version, they are unordered: we cannot say that either happens-before 513 the other.</para> 514 515 <para>What does it mean to say that two accesses from different 516 threads are ordered by the happens-before relation? It means that 517 there is some chain of inter-thread synchronisation operations which 518 cause those accesses to happen in a particular order, irrespective of 519 the actual rates of progress of the individual threads. This is a 520 required property for a reliable threaded program, which is why 521 Helgrind checks for it.</para> 522 523 <para>The happens-before relations created by standard threading 524 primitives are as follows:</para> 525 526 <itemizedlist> 527 <listitem><para>When a mutex is unlocked by thread T1 and later (or 528 immediately) locked by thread T2, then the memory accesses in T1 529 prior to the unlock must happen-before those in T2 after it acquires 530 the lock.</para> 531 </listitem> 532 <listitem><para>The same idea applies to reader-writer locks, 533 although with some complication so as to allow correct handling of 534 reads vs writes.</para> 535 </listitem> 536 <listitem><para>When a condition variable (CV) is signalled on by 537 thread T1 and some other thread T2 is thereby released from a wait 538 on the same CV, then the memory accesses in T1 prior to the 539 signalling must happen-before those in T2 after it returns from the 540 wait. If no thread was waiting on the CV then there is no 541 effect.</para> 542 </listitem> 543 <listitem><para>If instead T1 broadcasts on a CV, then all of the 544 waiting threads, rather than just one of them, acquire a 545 happens-before dependency on the broadcasting thread at the point it 546 did the broadcast.</para> 547 </listitem> 548 <listitem><para>A thread T2 that continues after completing sem_wait 549 on a semaphore that thread T1 posts on, acquires a happens-before 550 dependence on the posting thread, a bit like dependencies caused 551 mutex unlock-lock pairs. However, since a semaphore can be posted 552 on many times, it is unspecified from which of the post calls the 553 wait call gets its happens-before dependency.</para> 554 </listitem> 555 <listitem><para>For a group of threads T1 .. Tn which arrive at a 556 barrier and then move on, each thread after the call has a 557 happens-after dependency from all threads before the 558 barrier.</para> 559 </listitem> 560 <listitem><para>A newly-created child thread acquires an initial 561 happens-after dependency on the point where its parent created it. 562 That is, all memory accesses performed by the parent prior to 563 creating the child are regarded as happening-before all the accesses 564 of the child.</para> 565 </listitem> 566 <listitem><para>Similarly, when an exiting thread is reaped via a 567 call to <function>pthread_join</function>, once the call returns, the 568 reaping thread acquires a happens-after dependency relative to all memory 569 accesses made by the exiting thread.</para> 570 </listitem> 571 </itemizedlist> 572 573 <para>In summary: Helgrind intercepts the above listed events, and builds a 574 directed acyclic graph represented the collective happens-before 575 dependencies. It also monitors all memory accesses.</para> 576 577 <para>If a location is accessed by two different threads, but Helgrind 578 cannot find any path through the happens-before graph from one access 579 to the other, then it reports a race.</para> 580 581 <para>There are a couple of caveats:</para> 582 583 <itemizedlist> 584 <listitem><para>Helgrind doesn't check for a race in the case where 585 both accesses are reads. That would be silly, since concurrent 586 reads are harmless.</para> 587 </listitem> 588 <listitem><para>Two accesses are considered to be ordered by the 589 happens-before dependency even through arbitrarily long chains of 590 synchronisation events. For example, if T1 accesses some location 591 L, and then <function>pthread_cond_signals</function> T2, which later 592 <function>pthread_cond_signals</function> T3, which then accesses L, then 593 a suitable happens-before dependency exists between the first and second 594 accesses, even though it involves two different inter-thread 595 synchronisation events.</para> 596 </listitem> 597 </itemizedlist> 598 599 </sect2> 600 601 602 603 <sect2 id="hg-manual.data-races.errmsgs" xreflabel="Race Error Messages"> 604 <title>Interpreting Race Error Messages</title> 605 606 <para>Helgrind's race detection algorithm collects a lot of 607 information, and tries to present it in a helpful way when a race is 608 detected. Here's an example:</para> 609 610 <programlisting><![CDATA[ 611 Thread #2 was created 612 at 0x511C08E: clone (in /lib64/libc-2.8.so) 613 by 0x4E333A4: do_clone (in /lib64/libpthread-2.8.so) 614 by 0x4E33A30: pthread_create@@GLIBC_2.2.5 (in /lib64/libpthread-2.8.so) 615 by 0x4C299D4: pthread_create@* (hg_intercepts.c:214) 616 by 0x4008F2: main (tc21_pthonce.c:86) 617 618 Thread #3 was created 619 at 0x511C08E: clone (in /lib64/libc-2.8.so) 620 by 0x4E333A4: do_clone (in /lib64/libpthread-2.8.so) 621 by 0x4E33A30: pthread_create@@GLIBC_2.2.5 (in /lib64/libpthread-2.8.so) 622 by 0x4C299D4: pthread_create@* (hg_intercepts.c:214) 623 by 0x4008F2: main (tc21_pthonce.c:86) 624 625 Possible data race during read of size 4 at 0x601070 by thread #3 626 Locks held: none 627 at 0x40087A: child (tc21_pthonce.c:74) 628 by 0x4C29AFF: mythread_wrapper (hg_intercepts.c:194) 629 by 0x4E3403F: start_thread (in /lib64/libpthread-2.8.so) 630 by 0x511C0CC: clone (in /lib64/libc-2.8.so) 631 632 This conflicts with a previous write of size 4 by thread #2 633 Locks held: none 634 at 0x400883: child (tc21_pthonce.c:74) 635 by 0x4C29AFF: mythread_wrapper (hg_intercepts.c:194) 636 by 0x4E3403F: start_thread (in /lib64/libpthread-2.8.so) 637 by 0x511C0CC: clone (in /lib64/libc-2.8.so) 638 639 Location 0x601070 is 0 bytes inside local var "unprotected2" 640 declared at tc21_pthonce.c:51, in frame #0 of thread 3 641 ]]></programlisting> 642 643 <para>Helgrind first announces the creation points of any threads 644 referenced in the error message. This is so it can speak concisely 645 about threads without repeatedly printing their creation point call 646 stacks. Each thread is only ever announced once, the first time it 647 appears in any Helgrind error message.</para> 648 649 <para>The main error message begins at the text 650 "<computeroutput>Possible data race during read</computeroutput>". At 651 the start is information you would expect to see -- address and size 652 of the racing access, whether a read or a write, and the call stack at 653 the point it was detected.</para> 654 655 <para>A second call stack is presented starting at the text 656 "<computeroutput>This conflicts with a previous 657 write</computeroutput>". This shows a previous access which also 658 accessed the stated address, and which is believed to be racing 659 against the access in the first call stack. Note that this second 660 call stack is limited to a maximum of 8 entries to limit the 661 memory usage.</para> 662 663 <para>Finally, Helgrind may attempt to give a description of the 664 raced-on address in source level terms. In this example, it 665 identifies it as a local variable, shows its name, declaration point, 666 and in which frame (of the first call stack) it lives. Note that this 667 information is only shown when <varname>--read-var-info=yes</varname> 668 is specified on the command line. That's because reading the DWARF3 669 debug information in enough detail to capture variable type and 670 location information makes Helgrind much slower at startup, and also 671 requires considerable amounts of memory, for large programs. 672 </para> 673 674 <para>Once you have your two call stacks, how do you find the root 675 cause of the race?</para> 676 677 <para>The first thing to do is examine the source locations referred 678 to by each call stack. They should both show an access to the same 679 location, or variable.</para> 680 681 <para>Now figure out how how that location should have been made 682 thread-safe:</para> 683 684 <itemizedlist> 685 <listitem><para>Perhaps the location was intended to be protected by 686 a mutex? If so, you need to lock and unlock the mutex at both 687 access points, even if one of the accesses is reported to be a read. 688 Did you perhaps forget the locking at one or other of the accesses? 689 To help you do this, Helgrind shows the set of locks held by each 690 threads at the time they accessed the raced-on location.</para> 691 </listitem> 692 <listitem><para>Alternatively, perhaps you intended to use a some 693 other scheme to make it safe, such as signalling on a condition 694 variable. In all such cases, try to find a synchronisation event 695 (or a chain thereof) which separates the earlier-observed access (as 696 shown in the second call stack) from the later-observed access (as 697 shown in the first call stack). In other words, try to find 698 evidence that the earlier access "happens-before" the later access. 699 See the previous subsection for an explanation of the happens-before 700 relation.</para> 701 <para> 702 The fact that Helgrind is reporting a race means it did not observe 703 any happens-before relation between the two accesses. If 704 Helgrind is working correctly, it should also be the case that you 705 also cannot find any such relation, even on detailed inspection 706 of the source code. Hopefully, though, your inspection of the code 707 will show where the missing synchronisation operation(s) should have 708 been.</para> 709 </listitem> 710 </itemizedlist> 711 712 </sect2> 713 714 715 </sect1> 716 717 <sect1 id="hg-manual.effective-use" xreflabel="Helgrind Effective Use"> 718 <title>Hints and Tips for Effective Use of Helgrind</title> 719 720 <para>Helgrind can be very helpful in finding and resolving 721 threading-related problems. Like all sophisticated tools, it is most 722 effective when you understand how to play to its strengths.</para> 723 724 <para>Helgrind will be less effective when you merely throw an 725 existing threaded program at it and try to make sense of any reported 726 errors. It will be more effective if you design threaded programs 727 from the start in a way that helps Helgrind verify correctness. The 728 same is true for finding memory errors with Memcheck, but applies more 729 here, because thread checking is a harder problem. Consequently it is 730 much easier to write a correct program for which Helgrind falsely 731 reports (threading) errors than it is to write a correct program for 732 which Memcheck falsely reports (memory) errors.</para> 733 734 <para>With that in mind, here are some tips, listed most important first, 735 for getting reliable results and avoiding false errors. The first two 736 are critical. Any violations of them will swamp you with huge numbers 737 of false data-race errors.</para> 738 739 740 <orderedlist> 741 742 <listitem> 743 <para>Make sure your application, and all the libraries it uses, 744 use the POSIX threading primitives. Helgrind needs to be able to 745 see all events pertaining to thread creation, exit, locking and 746 other synchronisation events. To do so it intercepts many POSIX 747 pthreads functions.</para> 748 749 <para>Do not roll your own threading primitives (mutexes, etc) 750 from combinations of the Linux futex syscall, atomic counters, etc. 751 These throw Helgrind's internal what's-going-on models 752 way off course and will give bogus results.</para> 753 754 <para>Also, do not reimplement existing POSIX abstractions using 755 other POSIX abstractions. For example, don't build your own 756 semaphore routines or reader-writer locks from POSIX mutexes and 757 condition variables. Instead use POSIX reader-writer locks and 758 semaphores directly, since Helgrind supports them directly.</para> 759 760 <para>Helgrind directly supports the following POSIX threading 761 abstractions: mutexes, reader-writer locks, condition variables 762 (but see below), semaphores and barriers. Currently spinlocks 763 are not supported, although they could be in future.</para> 764 765 <para>At the time of writing, the following popular Linux packages 766 are known to implement their own threading primitives:</para> 767 768 <itemizedlist> 769 <listitem><para>Qt version 4.X. Qt 3.X is harmless in that it 770 only uses POSIX pthreads primitives. Unfortunately Qt 4.X 771 has its own implementation of mutexes (QMutex) and thread reaping. 772 Helgrind 3.4.x contains direct support 773 for Qt 4.X threading, which is experimental but is believed to 774 work fairly well. A side effect of supporting Qt 4 directly is 775 that Helgrind can be used to debug KDE4 applications. As this 776 is an experimental feature, we would particularly appreciate 777 feedback from folks who have used Helgrind to successfully debug 778 Qt 4 and/or KDE4 applications.</para> 779 </listitem> 780 <listitem><para>Runtime support library for GNU OpenMP (part of 781 GCC), at least for GCC versions 4.2 and 4.3. The GNU OpenMP runtime 782 library (<filename>libgomp.so</filename>) constructs its own 783 synchronisation primitives using combinations of atomic memory 784 instructions and the futex syscall, which causes total chaos since in 785 Helgrind since it cannot "see" those.</para> 786 <para>Fortunately, this can be solved using a configuration-time 787 option (for GCC). Rebuild GCC from source, and configure using 788 <varname>--disable-linux-futex</varname>. 789 This makes libgomp.so use the standard 790 POSIX threading primitives instead. Note that this was tested 791 using GCC 4.2.3 and has not been re-tested using more recent GCC 792 versions. We would appreciate hearing about any successes or 793 failures with more recent versions.</para> 794 </listitem> 795 </itemizedlist> 796 797 <para>If you must implement your own threading primitives, there 798 are a set of client request macros 799 in <computeroutput>helgrind.h</computeroutput> to help you 800 describe your primitives to Helgrind. You should be able to 801 mark up mutexes, condition variables, etc, without difficulty. 802 </para> 803 <para> 804 It is also possible to mark up the effects of thread-safe 805 reference counting using the 806 <computeroutput>ANNOTATE_HAPPENS_BEFORE</computeroutput>, 807 <computeroutput>ANNOTATE_HAPPENS_AFTER</computeroutput> and 808 <computeroutput>ANNOTATE_HAPPENS_BEFORE_FORGET_ALL</computeroutput>, 809 macros. Thread-safe reference counting using an atomically 810 incremented/decremented refcount variable causes Helgrind 811 problems because a one-to-zero transition of the reference count 812 means the accessing thread has exclusive ownership of the 813 associated resource (normally, a C++ object) and can therefore 814 access it (normally, to run its destructor) without locking. 815 Helgrind doesn't understand this, and markup is essential to 816 avoid false positives. 817 </para> 818 819 <para> 820 Here are recommended guidelines for marking up thread safe 821 reference counting in C++. You only need to mark up your 822 release methods -- the ones which decrement the reference count. 823 Given a class like this: 824 </para> 825 826 <programlisting><![CDATA[ 827 class MyClass { 828 unsigned int mRefCount; 829 830 void Release ( void ) { 831 unsigned int newCount = atomic_decrement(&mRefCount); 832 if (newCount == 0) { 833 delete this; 834 } 835 } 836 } 837 ]]></programlisting> 838 839 <para> 840 the release method should be marked up as follows: 841 </para> 842 843 <programlisting><![CDATA[ 844 void Release ( void ) { 845 unsigned int newCount = atomic_decrement(&mRefCount); 846 if (newCount == 0) { 847 ANNOTATE_HAPPENS_AFTER(&mRefCount); 848 ANNOTATE_HAPPENS_BEFORE_FORGET_ALL(&mRefCount); 849 delete this; 850 } else { 851 ANNOTATE_HAPPENS_BEFORE(&mRefCount); 852 } 853 } 854 ]]></programlisting> 855 856 <para> 857 There are a number of complex, mostly-theoretical objections to 858 this scheme. From a theoretical standpoint it appears to be 859 impossible to devise a markup scheme which is completely correct 860 in the sense of guaranteeing to remove all false races. The 861 proposed scheme however works well in practice. 862 </para> 863 864 </listitem> 865 866 <listitem> 867 <para>Avoid memory recycling. If you can't avoid it, you must use 868 tell Helgrind what is going on via the 869 <function>VALGRIND_HG_CLEAN_MEMORY</function> client request (in 870 <computeroutput>helgrind.h</computeroutput>).</para> 871 872 <para>Helgrind is aware of standard heap memory allocation and 873 deallocation that occurs via 874 <function>malloc</function>/<function>free</function>/<function>new</function>/<function>delete</function> 875 and from entry and exit of stack frames. In particular, when memory is 876 deallocated via <function>free</function>, <function>delete</function>, 877 or function exit, Helgrind considers that memory clean, so when it is 878 eventually reallocated, its history is irrelevant.</para> 879 880 <para>However, it is common practice to implement memory recycling 881 schemes. In these, memory to be freed is not handed to 882 <function>free</function>/<function>delete</function>, but instead put 883 into a pool of free buffers to be handed out again as required. The 884 problem is that Helgrind has no 885 way to know that such memory is logically no longer in use, and 886 its history is irrelevant. Hence you must make that explicit, 887 using the <function>VALGRIND_HG_CLEAN_MEMORY</function> client request 888 to specify the relevant address ranges. It's easiest to put these 889 requests into the pool manager code, and use them either when memory is 890 returned to the pool, or is allocated from it.</para> 891 </listitem> 892 893 <listitem> 894 <para>Avoid POSIX condition variables. If you can, use POSIX 895 semaphores (<function>sem_t</function>, <function>sem_post</function>, 896 <function>sem_wait</function>) to do inter-thread event signalling. 897 Semaphores with an initial value of zero are particularly useful for 898 this.</para> 899 900 <para>Helgrind only partially correctly handles POSIX condition 901 variables. This is because Helgrind can see inter-thread 902 dependencies between a <function>pthread_cond_wait</function> call and a 903 <function>pthread_cond_signal</function>/<function>pthread_cond_broadcast</function> 904 call only if the waiting thread actually gets to the rendezvous first 905 (so that it actually calls 906 <function>pthread_cond_wait</function>). It can't see dependencies 907 between the threads if the signaller arrives first. In the latter case, 908 POSIX guidelines imply that the associated boolean condition still 909 provides an inter-thread synchronisation event, but one which is 910 invisible to Helgrind.</para> 911 912 <para>The result of Helgrind missing some inter-thread 913 synchronisation events is to cause it to report false positives. 914 </para> 915 916 <para>The root cause of this synchronisation lossage is 917 particularly hard to understand, so an example is helpful. It was 918 discussed at length by Arndt Muehlenfeld ("Runtime Race Detection 919 in Multi-Threaded Programs", Dissertation, TU Graz, Austria). The 920 canonical POSIX-recommended usage scheme for condition variables 921 is as follows:</para> 922 923 <programlisting><![CDATA[ 924 b is a Boolean condition, which is False most of the time 925 cv is a condition variable 926 mx is its associated mutex 927 928 Signaller: Waiter: 929 930 lock(mx) lock(mx) 931 b = True while (b == False) 932 signal(cv) wait(cv,mx) 933 unlock(mx) unlock(mx) 934 ]]></programlisting> 935 936 <para>Assume <computeroutput>b</computeroutput> is False most of 937 the time. If the waiter arrives at the rendezvous first, it 938 enters its while-loop, waits for the signaller to signal, and 939 eventually proceeds. Helgrind sees the signal, notes the 940 dependency, and all is well.</para> 941 942 <para>If the signaller arrives 943 first, <computeroutput>b</computeroutput> is set to true, and the 944 signal disappears into nowhere. When the waiter later arrives, it 945 does not enter its while-loop and simply carries on. But even in 946 this case, the waiter code following the while-loop cannot execute 947 until the signaller sets <computeroutput>b</computeroutput> to 948 True. Hence there is still the same inter-thread dependency, but 949 this time it is through an arbitrary in-memory condition, and 950 Helgrind cannot see it.</para> 951 952 <para>By comparison, Helgrind's detection of inter-thread 953 dependencies caused by semaphore operations is believed to be 954 exactly correct.</para> 955 956 <para>As far as I know, a solution to this problem that does not 957 require source-level annotation of condition-variable wait loops 958 is beyond the current state of the art.</para> 959 </listitem> 960 961 <listitem> 962 <para>Make sure you are using a supported Linux distribution. At 963 present, Helgrind only properly supports glibc-2.3 or later. This 964 in turn means we only support glibc's NPTL threading 965 implementation. The old LinuxThreads implementation is not 966 supported.</para> 967 </listitem> 968 969 <listitem> 970 <para>Round up all finished threads using 971 <function>pthread_join</function>. Avoid 972 detaching threads: don't create threads in the detached state, and 973 don't call <function>pthread_detach</function> on existing threads.</para> 974 975 <para>Using <function>pthread_join</function> to round up finished 976 threads provides a clear synchronisation point that both Helgrind and 977 programmers can see. If you don't call 978 <function>pthread_join</function> on a thread, Helgrind has no way to 979 know when it finishes, relative to any 980 significant synchronisation points for other threads in the program. So 981 it assumes that the thread lingers indefinitely and can potentially 982 interfere indefinitely with the memory state of the program. It 983 has every right to assume that -- after all, it might really be 984 the case that, for scheduling reasons, the exiting thread did run 985 very slowly in the last stages of its life.</para> 986 </listitem> 987 988 <listitem> 989 <para>Perform thread debugging (with Helgrind) and memory 990 debugging (with Memcheck) together.</para> 991 992 <para>Helgrind tracks the state of memory in detail, and memory 993 management bugs in the application are liable to cause confusion. 994 In extreme cases, applications which do many invalid reads and 995 writes (particularly to freed memory) have been known to crash 996 Helgrind. So, ideally, you should make your application 997 Memcheck-clean before using Helgrind.</para> 998 999 <para>It may be impossible to make your application Memcheck-clean 1000 unless you first remove threading bugs. In particular, it may be 1001 difficult to remove all reads and writes to freed memory in 1002 multithreaded C++ destructor sequences at program termination. 1003 So, ideally, you should make your application Helgrind-clean 1004 before using Memcheck.</para> 1005 1006 <para>Since this circularity is obviously unresolvable, at least 1007 bear in mind that Memcheck and Helgrind are to some extent 1008 complementary, and you may need to use them together.</para> 1009 </listitem> 1010 1011 <listitem> 1012 <para>POSIX requires that implementations of standard I/O 1013 (<function>printf</function>, <function>fprintf</function>, 1014 <function>fwrite</function>, <function>fread</function>, etc) are thread 1015 safe. Unfortunately GNU libc implements this by using internal locking 1016 primitives that Helgrind is unable to intercept. Consequently Helgrind 1017 generates many false race reports when you use these functions.</para> 1018 1019 <para>Helgrind attempts to hide these errors using the standard 1020 Valgrind error-suppression mechanism. So, at least for simple 1021 test cases, you don't see any. Nevertheless, some may slip 1022 through. Just something to be aware of.</para> 1023 </listitem> 1024 1025 <listitem> 1026 <para>Helgrind's error checks do not work properly inside the 1027 system threading library itself 1028 (<computeroutput>libpthread.so</computeroutput>), and it usually 1029 observes large numbers of (false) errors in there. Valgrind's 1030 suppression system then filters these out, so you should not see 1031 them.</para> 1032 1033 <para>If you see any race errors reported 1034 where <computeroutput>libpthread.so</computeroutput> or 1035 <computeroutput>ld.so</computeroutput> is the object associated 1036 with the innermost stack frame, please file a bug report at 1037 <ulink url="&vg-url;">&vg-url;</ulink>. 1038 </para> 1039 </listitem> 1040 1041 </orderedlist> 1042 1043 </sect1> 1044 1045 1046 1047 1048 <sect1 id="hg-manual.options" xreflabel="Helgrind Command-line Options"> 1049 <title>Helgrind Command-line Options</title> 1050 1051 <para>The following end-user options are available:</para> 1052 1053 <!-- start of xi:include in the manpage --> 1054 <variablelist id="hg.opts.list"> 1055 1056 <varlistentry id="opt.free-is-write" 1057 xreflabel="--free-is-write"> 1058 <term> 1059 <option><![CDATA[--free-is-write=no|yes 1060 [default: no] ]]></option> 1061 </term> 1062 <listitem> 1063 <para>When enabled (not the default), Helgrind treats freeing of 1064 heap memory as if the memory was written immediately before 1065 the free. This exposes races where memory is referenced by 1066 one thread, and freed by another, but there is no observable 1067 synchronisation event to ensure that the reference happens 1068 before the free. 1069 </para> 1070 <para>This functionality is new in Valgrind 3.7.0, and is 1071 regarded as experimental. It is not enabled by default 1072 because its interaction with custom memory allocators is not 1073 well understood at present. User feedback is welcomed. 1074 </para> 1075 </listitem> 1076 </varlistentry> 1077 1078 <varlistentry id="opt.track-lockorders" 1079 xreflabel="--track-lockorders"> 1080 <term> 1081 <option><![CDATA[--track-lockorders=no|yes 1082 [default: yes] ]]></option> 1083 </term> 1084 <listitem> 1085 <para>When enabled (the default), Helgrind performs lock order 1086 consistency checking. For some buggy programs, the large number 1087 of lock order errors reported can become annoying, particularly 1088 if you're only interested in race errors. You may therefore find 1089 it helpful to disable lock order checking.</para> 1090 </listitem> 1091 </varlistentry> 1092 1093 <varlistentry id="opt.history-level" 1094 xreflabel="--history-level"> 1095 <term> 1096 <option><![CDATA[--history-level=none|approx|full 1097 [default: full] ]]></option> 1098 </term> 1099 <listitem> 1100 <para><option>--history-level=full</option> (the default) causes 1101 Helgrind collects enough information about "old" accesses that 1102 it can produce two stack traces in a race report -- both the 1103 stack trace for the current access, and the trace for the 1104 older, conflicting access. To limit memory usage, "old" accesses 1105 stack traces are limited to a maximum of 8 entries, even if 1106 <option>--num-callers</option> value is bigger.</para> 1107 <para>Collecting such information is expensive in both speed and 1108 memory, particularly for programs that do many inter-thread 1109 synchronisation events (locks, unlocks, etc). Without such 1110 information, it is more difficult to track down the root 1111 causes of races. Nonetheless, you may not need it in 1112 situations where you just want to check for the presence or 1113 absence of races, for example, when doing regression testing 1114 of a previously race-free program.</para> 1115 <para><option>--history-level=none</option> is the opposite 1116 extreme. It causes Helgrind not to collect any information 1117 about previous accesses. This can be dramatically faster 1118 than <option>--history-level=full</option>.</para> 1119 <para><option>--history-level=approx</option> provides a 1120 compromise between these two extremes. It causes Helgrind to 1121 show a full trace for the later access, and approximate 1122 information regarding the earlier access. This approximate 1123 information consists of two stacks, and the earlier access is 1124 guaranteed to have occurred somewhere between program points 1125 denoted by the two stacks. This is not as useful as showing 1126 the exact stack for the previous access 1127 (as <option>--history-level=full</option> does), but it is 1128 better than nothing, and it is almost as fast as 1129 <option>--history-level=none</option>.</para> 1130 </listitem> 1131 </varlistentry> 1132 1133 <varlistentry id="opt.conflict-cache-size" 1134 xreflabel="--conflict-cache-size"> 1135 <term> 1136 <option><![CDATA[--conflict-cache-size=N 1137 [default: 1000000] ]]></option> 1138 </term> 1139 <listitem> 1140 <para>This flag only has any effect 1141 at <option>--history-level=full</option>.</para> 1142 <para>Information about "old" conflicting accesses is stored in 1143 a cache of limited size, with LRU-style management. This is 1144 necessary because it isn't practical to store a stack trace 1145 for every single memory access made by the program. 1146 Historical information on not recently accessed locations is 1147 periodically discarded, to free up space in the cache.</para> 1148 <para>This option controls the size of the cache, in terms of the 1149 number of different memory addresses for which 1150 conflicting access information is stored. If you find that 1151 Helgrind is showing race errors with only one stack instead of 1152 the expected two stacks, try increasing this value.</para> 1153 <para>The minimum value is 10,000 and the maximum is 30,000,000 1154 (thirty times the default value). Increasing the value by 1 1155 increases Helgrind's memory requirement by very roughly 100 1156 bytes, so the maximum value will easily eat up three extra 1157 gigabytes or so of memory.</para> 1158 </listitem> 1159 </varlistentry> 1160 1161 <varlistentry id="opt.check-stack-refs" 1162 xreflabel="--check-stack-refs"> 1163 <term> 1164 <option><![CDATA[--check-stack-refs=no|yes 1165 [default: yes] ]]></option> 1166 </term> 1167 <listitem> 1168 <para> 1169 By default Helgrind checks all data memory accesses made by your 1170 program. This flag enables you to skip checking for accesses 1171 to thread stacks (local variables). This can improve 1172 performance, but comes at the cost of missing races on 1173 stack-allocated data. 1174 </para> 1175 </listitem> 1176 </varlistentry> 1177 1178 1179 </variablelist> 1180 <!-- end of xi:include in the manpage --> 1181 1182 <!-- start of xi:include in the manpage --> 1183 <!-- commented out, because we don't document debugging options in the 1184 manual. Nb: all the double-dashes below had a space inserted in them 1185 to avoid problems with premature closing of this comment. 1186 <para>In addition, the following debugging options are available for 1187 Helgrind:</para> 1188 1189 <variablelist id="hg.debugopts.list"> 1190 1191 <varlistentry id="opt.trace-malloc" xreflabel="- -trace-malloc"> 1192 <term> 1193 <option><![CDATA[- -trace-malloc=no|yes [no] 1194 ]]></option> 1195 </term> 1196 <listitem> 1197 <para>Show all client <function>malloc</function> (etc) and 1198 <function>free</function> (etc) requests.</para> 1199 </listitem> 1200 </varlistentry> 1201 1202 <varlistentry id="opt.cmp-race-err-addrs" 1203 xreflabel="- -cmp-race-err-addrs"> 1204 <term> 1205 <option><![CDATA[- -cmp-race-err-addrs=no|yes [no] 1206 ]]></option> 1207 </term> 1208 <listitem> 1209 <para>Controls whether or not race (data) addresses should be 1210 taken into account when removing duplicates of race errors. 1211 With <varname>- -cmp-race-err-addrs=no</varname>, two otherwise 1212 identical race errors will be considered to be the same if 1213 their race addresses differ. With 1214 With <varname>- -cmp-race-err-addrs=yes</varname> they will be 1215 considered different. This is provided to help make certain 1216 regression tests work reliably.</para> 1217 </listitem> 1218 </varlistentry> 1219 1220 <varlistentry id="opt.hg-sanity-flags" xreflabel="- -hg-sanity-flags"> 1221 <term> 1222 <option><![CDATA[- -hg-sanity-flags=<XXXXXX> (X = 0|1) [000000] 1223 ]]></option> 1224 </term> 1225 <listitem> 1226 <para>Run extensive sanity checks on Helgrind's internal 1227 data structures at events defined by the bitstring, as 1228 follows:</para> 1229 <para><computeroutput>010000 </computeroutput>after changes to 1230 the lock order acquisition graph</para> 1231 <para><computeroutput>001000 </computeroutput>after every client 1232 memory access (NB: not currently used)</para> 1233 <para><computeroutput>000100 </computeroutput>after every client 1234 memory range permission setting of 256 bytes or greater</para> 1235 <para><computeroutput>000010 </computeroutput>after every client 1236 lock or unlock event</para> 1237 <para><computeroutput>000001 </computeroutput>after every client 1238 thread creation or joinage event</para> 1239 <para>Note these will make Helgrind run very slowly, often to 1240 the point of being completely unusable.</para> 1241 </listitem> 1242 </varlistentry> 1243 1244 </variablelist> 1245 --> 1246 <!-- end of xi:include in the manpage --> 1247 1248 1249 </sect1> 1250 1251 1252 1253 <sect1 id="hg-manual.client-requests" xreflabel="Helgrind Client Requests"> 1254 <title>Helgrind Client Requests</title> 1255 1256 <para>The following client requests are defined in 1257 <filename>helgrind.h</filename>. See that file for exact details of their 1258 arguments.</para> 1259 1260 <itemizedlist> 1261 1262 <listitem> 1263 <para><function>VALGRIND_HG_CLEAN_MEMORY</function></para> 1264 <para>This makes Helgrind forget everything it knows about a 1265 specified memory range. This is particularly useful for memory 1266 allocators that wish to recycle memory.</para> 1267 </listitem> 1268 <listitem> 1269 <para><function>ANNOTATE_HAPPENS_BEFORE</function></para> 1270 </listitem> 1271 <listitem> 1272 <para><function>ANNOTATE_HAPPENS_AFTER</function></para> 1273 </listitem> 1274 <listitem> 1275 <para><function>ANNOTATE_NEW_MEMORY</function></para> 1276 </listitem> 1277 <listitem> 1278 <para><function>ANNOTATE_RWLOCK_CREATE</function></para> 1279 </listitem> 1280 <listitem> 1281 <para><function>ANNOTATE_RWLOCK_DESTROY</function></para> 1282 </listitem> 1283 <listitem> 1284 <para><function>ANNOTATE_RWLOCK_ACQUIRED</function></para> 1285 </listitem> 1286 <listitem> 1287 <para><function>ANNOTATE_RWLOCK_RELEASED</function></para> 1288 <para>These are used to describe to Helgrind, the behaviour of 1289 custom (non-POSIX) synchronisation primitives, which it otherwise 1290 has no way to understand. See comments 1291 in <filename>helgrind.h</filename> for further 1292 documentation.</para> 1293 </listitem> 1294 1295 </itemizedlist> 1296 1297 </sect1> 1298 1299 1300 1301 <sect1 id="hg-manual.todolist" xreflabel="To Do List"> 1302 <title>A To-Do List for Helgrind</title> 1303 1304 <para>The following is a list of loose ends which should be tidied up 1305 some time.</para> 1306 1307 <itemizedlist> 1308 <listitem><para>For lock order errors, print the complete lock 1309 cycle, rather than only doing for size-2 cycles as at 1310 present.</para> 1311 </listitem> 1312 <listitem><para>The conflicting access mechanism sometimes 1313 mysteriously fails to show the conflicting access' stack, even 1314 when provided with unbounded storage for conflicting access info. 1315 This should be investigated.</para> 1316 </listitem> 1317 <listitem><para>Document races caused by GCC's thread-unsafe code 1318 generation for speculative stores. In the interim see 1319 <computeroutput>http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2007-10/msg00266.html 1320 </computeroutput> 1321 and <computeroutput>http://lkml.org/lkml/2007/10/24/673</computeroutput>. 1322 </para> 1323 </listitem> 1324 <listitem><para>Don't update the lock-order graph, and don't check 1325 for errors, when a "try"-style lock operation happens (e.g. 1326 <function>pthread_mutex_trylock</function>). Such calls do not add any real 1327 restrictions to the locking order, since they can always fail to 1328 acquire the lock, resulting in the caller going off and doing Plan 1329 B (presumably it will have a Plan B). Doing such checks could 1330 generate false lock-order errors and confuse users.</para> 1331 </listitem> 1332 <listitem><para> Performance can be very poor. Slowdowns on the 1333 order of 100:1 are not unusual. There is limited scope for 1334 performance improvements. 1335 </para> 1336 </listitem> 1337 1338 </itemizedlist> 1339 1340 </sect1> 1341 1342 </chapter> 1343