NAME

       swi_add, swi_remove, swi_sched — register and schedule software interrupt handlers

SYNOPSIS

       #include <sys/param.h>
       #include <sys/bus.h>
       #include <sys/interrupt.h>

       extern struct intr_event *tty_intr_event;
       extern struct intr_event *clk_intr_event;
       extern void *vm_ih;

       int
       swi_add(struct intr_event **eventp,    const char *name,   driver_intr_t handler,   void *arg,   int pri,
           enum intr_type flags, void **cookiep);

       int
       swi_remove(void *cookie);

       void
       swi_sched(void *cookie, int flags);

DESCRIPTION

       These functions are used to register  and  schedule  software  interrupt  handlers.   Software  interrupt
       handlers are attached to a software interrupt thread, just as hardware interrupt handlers are attached to
       a  hardware  interrupt thread.  Multiple handlers can be attached to the same thread.  Software interrupt
       handlers can be used to queue up less critical processing inside of hardware interrupt handlers  so  that
       the work can be done at a later time.  Software interrupt threads are different from other kernel threads
       in  that  they are treated as an interrupt thread.  This means that time spent executing these threads is
       counted as interrupt time, and that they can be run via a lightweight context switch.

       The swi_add() function is used to add a new software interrupt handler to a  specified  interrupt  event.
       The eventp argument is an optional pointer to a struct intr_event pointer.  If this argument points to an
       existing event that holds a list of interrupt handlers, then this handler will be attached to that event.
       Otherwise  a  new  event  will be created, and if eventp is not NULL, then the pointer at that address to
       will be modified to point to the newly created event.  The name argument is used to associate a name with
       a specific handler.  This name is appended to the name of the software interrupt thread that this handler
       is attached to.  The handler argument is the function that will be executed when the handler is scheduled
       to run.  The arg parameter will be passed in as the only  parameter  to  handler  when  the  function  is
       executed.   The  pri  value  specifies  the priority of this interrupt handler relative to other software
       interrupt handlers.  If an interrupt event is created, then this value is used as  the  vector,  and  the
       flags  argument is used to specify the attributes of a handler such as INTR_MPSAFE.  The cookiep argument
       points to a void * cookie.  This cookie will be set to a value that uniquely identifies this handler, and
       is used to schedule the handler for execution later on.

       The swi_remove() function is used to teardown an interrupt handler pointed to by the cookie argument.  It
       detaches the interrupt handler from the associated interrupt event and frees its memory.

       The swi_sched() function is used to schedule an interrupt handler and its associated thread to run.   The
       cookie  argument  specifies  which  software  interrupt  handler  should  be scheduled to run.  The flags
       argument specifies how and when the handler should be run and is a mask of one or more of  the  following
       flags:

       SWI_DELAY  Specifies  that the kernel should mark the specified handler as needing to run, but the kernel
                  should not schedule the software interrupt thread to run.  Instead, handler will  be  executed
                  the  next time that the software interrupt thread runs after being scheduled by another event.
                  Attaching a handler to the clock software interrupt thread and using this flag when scheduling
                  a software interrupt  handler  can  be  used  to  implement  the  functionality  performed  by
                  setdelayed() in earlier versions of FreeBSD.

       The  tty_intr_event  and clk_intr_event variables contain pointers to the software interrupt handlers for
       the tty and clock software interrupts,  respectively.   tty_intr_event  is  used  to  hang  tty  software
       interrupt  handlers  off  of the same thread.  clk_intr_event is used to hang delayed handlers off of the
       clock software interrupt thread so that the functionality of setdelayed() can be obtained in  conjunction
       with  SWI_DELAY.   The vm_ih handler cookie is used to schedule software interrupt threads to run for the
       VM subsystem.

RETURN VALUES

       The swi_add() and swi_remove() functions return zero on success and non-zero on failure.

ERRORS

       The swi_add() function will fail if:

       [EAGAIN]           The system-imposed limit on the total number of processes  under  execution  would  be
                          exceeded.  The limit is given by the sysctl(3) MIB variable KERN_MAXPROC.

       [EINVAL]           The flags argument specifies INTR_ENTROPY.

       [EINVAL]           The eventp argument points to a hardware interrupt thread.

       [EINVAL]           Either of the name or handler arguments are NULL.

       [EINVAL]           The  INTR_EXCL  flag is specified and the interrupt event pointed to by eventp already
                          has at least one handler, or the interrupt event already has an exclusive handler.

       The swi_remove() function will fail if:

       [EINVAL]           A software interrupt handler pointed to by cookie is NULL.

SEE ALSO

       ithread(9), taskqueue(9)

HISTORY

       The swi_add() and swi_sched() functions first appeared in FreeBSD 5.0.  They replaced the  register_swi()
       function  which appeared in FreeBSD 3.0 and the setsoft*(), and schedsoft*() functions which date back to
       at least 4.4BSD.  The swi_remove() function first appeared in FreeBSD 6.1.

BUGS

       Most of the global variables described in this manual page should not be global, or  at  the  very  least
       should not be declared in <sys/interrupt.h>.

Debian                                           April 19, 2012                                           SWI(9)