IrisFreeList

IrisFreeList — A lock-free free-list data structure

Synopsis

                    IrisFreeList;
IrisFreeList*       iris_free_list_new                  (void);
void                iris_free_list_free                 (IrisFreeList *free_list);
IrisLink*           iris_free_list_get                  (IrisFreeList *free_list);
void                iris_free_list_put                  (IrisFreeList *free_list,
                                                         IrisLink *link);

Description

IMPORTANT NOTE

The IrisFreeList is only for use by pointers that have the bottom two bits free. This means that for 32bit architectures the pointer must be aligned to sizeof(void*). GSlice allocations provide this.

END IMPORTANT NOTE

IrisFreeList is a basic free-list used by algorithms wishing to control their own basic memory management. This can be very useful in a couple situations. It helps get around the problem of not having Garbage Collection to implement certain lock-free algorithms. However, in the process, it helps deal with allocator contention at the same time, but only after decent use.

Technically, using a free-list is like leaking memory. So occasionally it will be a good idea to clean up the memory if it is relatively precious to your user. However, this feature is not yet supported.

Details

IrisFreeList

typedef struct {
	IrisLink *head;
} IrisFreeList;

iris_free_list_new ()

IrisFreeList*       iris_free_list_new                  (void);

Creates a new instance of IrisFreeList.

Returns :

The newly created IrisFreeList

iris_free_list_free ()

void                iris_free_list_free                 (IrisFreeList *free_list);

Frees the data associated with free_list. Unlike the other methods of this data structure, this method is not always going to be thread safe. Obviously you don't want to be accessing it while free'ing the structure.

free_list :

An IrisFreeList

iris_free_list_get ()

IrisLink*           iris_free_list_get                  (IrisFreeList *free_list);

Retreives or creates a new IrisLink instance. The created link should be returned to the free list using iris_free_list_put().

`free_list` :	An IrisFreeList
Returns :	the previously allocated, or new IrisLink instance.

iris_free_list_put ()

void                iris_free_list_put                  (IrisFreeList *free_list,
                                                         IrisLink *link);

Puts back an IrisLink instance back to the IrisFreeList instance.

`free_list` :	An IrisFreeList
`link` :	An IrisLink

			Iris Manual
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