This implements the delayed reuse of mimalloc pages that contain Python
objects in the free-threaded build.
Allocations of the same size class are grouped in data structures called
pages. These are different from operating system pages. For thread-safety, we
want to ensure that memory used to store PyObjects remains valid as long as
there may be concurrent lock-free readers; we want to delay using it for
other size classes, in other heaps, or returning it to the operating system.
When a mimalloc page becomes empty, instead of immediately freeing it, we tag
it with a QSBR goal and insert it into a per-thread state linked list of
pages to be freed. When mimalloc needs a fresh page, we process the queue and
free any still empty pages that are now deemed safe to be freed. Pages
waiting to be freed are still available for allocations of the same size
class and allocating from a page prevent it from being freed. There is
additional logic to handle abandoned pages when threads exit.
A previous commit introduced a bug to `interpreter_clear()`: it set
`interp->ceval.instrumentation_version` to 0, without making the corresponding
change to `tstate->eval_breaker` (which holds a thread-local copy of the
version). After this happens, Python code can still run due to object finalizers
during a GC, and the version check in bytecodes.c will see a different result
than the one in instrumentation.c causing an infinite loop.
The fix itself is straightforward: clear `tstate->eval_breaker` when clearing
`interp->ceval.instrumentation_version`.
This adds `_PyMem_FreeDelayed()` and supporting functions. The
`_PyMem_FreeDelayed()` function frees memory with the same allocator as
`PyMem_Free()`, but after some delay to ensure that concurrent lock-free
readers have finished.
This avoids filling the memory occupied by ob_tid, ob_ref_local, and
ob_ref_shared with debug bytes (e.g., 0xDD) in mimalloc in the
free-threaded build.
This change adds an `eval_breaker` field to `PyThreadState`. The primary
motivation is for performance in free-threaded builds: with thread-local eval
breakers, we can stop a specific thread (e.g., for an async exception) without
interrupting other threads.
The source of truth for the global instrumentation version is stored in the
`instrumentation_version` field in PyInterpreterState. Threads usually read the
version from their local `eval_breaker`, where it continues to be colocated
with the eval breaker bits.
This adds a safe memory reclamation scheme based on FreeBSD's "GUS" and
quiescent state based reclamation (QSBR). The API provides a mechanism
for callers to detect when it is safe to free memory that may be
concurrently accessed by readers.
Makes _PyType_Lookup thread safe, including:
Thread safety of the underlying cache.
Make mutation of mro and type members thread safe
Also _PyType_GetMRO and _PyType_GetBases are currently returning borrowed references which aren't safe.
This is a temporary fix to unblock embedders that do not call Py_Main().
_PyInterpreterState_IsRunningMain() will always return true for the main interpreter, even in corner cases where it technically should not. The (future) full solution will do the right thing in those corner cases.
Biased reference counting maintains two refcount fields in each object:
`ob_ref_local` and `ob_ref_shared`. The true refcount is the sum of these two
fields. In some cases, when refcounting operations are split across threads,
the ob_ref_shared field can be negative (although the total refcount must be
at least zero). In this case, the thread that decremented the refcount
requests that the owning thread give up ownership and merge the refcount
fields.
This marks dead ThreadHandles as non-joinable earlier in
`PyOS_AfterFork_Child()` before we execute any Python code. The handles
are stored in a global linked list in `_PyRuntimeState` because `fork()`
affects the entire process.
For interpreters that share state with the main interpreter, this points
to the same static memory structure. For interpreters with their own
obmalloc state, it is heap allocated. Add free_obmalloc_arenas() which
will free the obmalloc arenas and radix tree structures for interpreters
with their own obmalloc state.
Co-authored-by: Eric Snow <ericsnowcurrently@gmail.com>
* gh-112529: Implement GC for free-threaded builds
This implements a mark and sweep GC for the free-threaded builds of
CPython. The implementation relies on mimalloc to find GC tracked
objects (i.e., "containers").
The `--disable-gil` builds occasionally need to pause all but one thread. Some
examples include:
* Cyclic garbage collection, where this is often called a "stop the world event"
* Before calling `fork()`, to ensure a consistent state for internal data structures
* During interpreter shutdown, to ensure that daemon threads aren't accessing Python objects
This adds the following functions to implement global and per-interpreter pauses:
* `_PyEval_StopTheWorldAll()` and `_PyEval_StartTheWorldAll()` (for the global runtime)
* `_PyEval_StopTheWorld()` and `_PyEval_StartTheWorld()` (per-interpreter)
(The function names may change.)
These functions are no-ops outside of the `--disable-gil` build.
* gh-112532: Tag mimalloc heaps and pages
Mimalloc pages are data structures that contain contiguous allocations
of the same block size. Note that they are distinct from operating
system pages. Mimalloc pages are contained in segments.
When a thread exits, it abandons any segments and contained pages that
have live allocations. These segments and pages may be later reclaimed
by another thread. To support GC and certain thread-safety guarantees in
free-threaded builds, we want pages to only be reclaimed by the
corresponding heap in the claimant thread. For example, we want pages
containing GC objects to only be claimed by GC heaps.
This allows heaps and pages to be tagged with an integer tag that is
used to ensure that abandoned pages are only claimed by heaps with the
same tag. Heaps can be initialized with a tag (0-15); any page allocated
by that heap copies the corresponding tag.
* Fix conversion warning
* gh-112532: Isolate abandoned segments by interpreter
Mimalloc segments are data structures that contain memory allocations along
with metadata. Each segment is "owned" by a thread. When a thread exits,
it abandons its segments to a global pool to be later reclaimed by other
threads. This changes the pool to be per-interpreter instead of process-wide.
This will be important for when we use mimalloc to find GC objects in the
`--disable-gil` builds. We want heaps to only store Python objects from a
single interpreter. Absent this change, the abandoning and reclaiming process
could break this isolation.
* Add missing '&_mi_abandoned_default' to 'tld_empty'
* gh-112532: Use separate mimalloc heaps for GC objects
In `--disable-gil` builds, we now use four separate heaps in
anticipation of using mimalloc to find GC objects when the GIL is
disabled. To support this, we also make a few changes to mimalloc:
* `mi_heap_t` and `mi_tld_t` initialization is split from allocation.
This allows us to have a `mi_tld_t` per-`PyThreadState`, which is
important to keep interpreter isolation, since the same OS thread may
run in multiple interpreters (using different PyThreadStates.)
* Heap abandoning (mi_heap_collect_ex) can now be called from a
different thread than the one that created the heap. This is necessary
because we may clear and delete the containing PyThreadStates from a
different thread during finalization and after fork().
* Use enum instead of defines and guard mimalloc includes.
* The enum typedef will be convenient for future PRs that use the type.
* Guarding the mimalloc includes allows us to unconditionally include
pycore_mimalloc.h from other header files that rely on things like
`struct _mimalloc_thread_state`.
* Only define _mimalloc_thread_state in Py_GIL_DISABLED builds
The `PyThreadState_Clear()` function must only be called with the GIL
held and must be called from the same interpreter as the passed in
thread state. Otherwise, any Python objects on the thread state may be
destroyed using the wrong interpreter, leading to memory corruption.
This is also important for `Py_GIL_DISABLED` builds because free lists
will be associated with PyThreadStates and cleared in
`PyThreadState_Clear()`.
This fixes two places that called `PyThreadState_Clear()` from the wrong
interpreter and adds an assertion to `PyThreadState_Clear()`.
This replaces some usages of PyThread_type_lock with PyMutex, which does not require memory allocation to initialize.
This simplifies some of the runtime initialization and is also one step towards avoiding changing the default raw memory allocator during initialize/finalization, which can be non-thread-safe in some circumstances.
Every PyThreadState instance is now actually a _PyThreadStateImpl.
It is safe to cast from `PyThreadState*` to `_PyThreadStateImpl*` and back.
The _PyThreadStateImpl will contain fields that we do not want to expose
in the public C API.
Critical sections are helpers to replace the global interpreter lock
with finer grained locking. They provide similar guarantees to the GIL
and avoid the deadlock risk that plain locking involves. Critical
sections are implicitly ended whenever the GIL would be released. They
are resumed when the GIL would be acquired. Nested critical sections
behave as if the sections were interleaved.
This moves several general internal APIs out of _xxsubinterpretersmodule.c and into the new Python/crossinterp.c (and the corresponding internal headers).
Specifically:
* _Py_excinfo, etc.: the initial implementation for non-object exception snapshots (in pycore_pyerrors.h and Python/errors.c)
* _PyXI_exception_info, etc.: helpers for passing an exception beween interpreters (wraps _Py_excinfo)
* _PyXI_namespace, etc.: helpers for copying a dict of attrs between interpreters
* _PyXI_Enter(), _PyXI_Exit(): functions that abstract out the transitions between one interpreter and a second that will do some work temporarily
Again, these were all abstracted out of _xxsubinterpretersmodule.c as generalizations. I plan on proposing these as public API at some point.
This is partly to clear this stuff out of pystate.c, but also in preparation for moving some code out of _xxsubinterpretersmodule.c. This change also moves this stuff to the internal API (new: Include/internal/pycore_crossinterp.h). @vstinner did this previously and I undid it. Now I'm re-doing it. :/
Sam Gross
Brett Simmers
Steve Dower
Michael Droettboom
Victor Stinner
Mark Shannon
Dino Viehland
Eric Snow
Donghee Na
Andrew Rogers
Neil Schemenauer
Hugo van Kemenade
Tian Gao