Frequently Asked Questions
Intro
This page contains a list of frequently asked questions about the real-time support in the Linux Kernel
Acknowledgements
Authors of this FAQ include:
- Jaswinder Singh
- Luotao Fu (l.fu AT pengutronix DOT de), Pengutronix e.K., Kernel Development Group
- Robert Schwebel (r.schwebel AT pengutronix DOT de), Pengutronix e.K., Kernel Development Group
- Remy Bohmer (linux AT bohmer DOT net)
- Theodore Ts'o (tytso AT mit DOT edu), IBM
Table of Contents
Getting Started
What is real-time?
Real-time applications have operational deadlines between some triggering event and the application's response to that event. To meet these operational deadlines, programmers use real-time operationg systems which make minimum time guarantees between some event and code waiting for that event (assuming the thread which is waiting for that event is sufficiently high priority that it is eligible to run as soon as the event it is waiting for takes place).
What are real-time capabilities of the stock 2.6 linux kernel?
Traditionally, the Linux kernel will only allow one process to preempt another only under circumstances:
- When the CPU is running user-mode code
- When kernel code returns from a system call or an interrupt back to userspace
- When kernel code code blocks on a mutex, or explicitly yields control to another process
If kernel code is executing when some event takes place that requires a high priority thread to start executing, the high priority thread can not preempt the running kernel code, until the kernel code explicitly yields control. In the worst case, the latency could potentially be hundreds milliseconds or more.
The 2.6 Linux kernel has a configuration option, CONFIG_PREEMPT, which will makes all kernel code outside of spinlock-protected regions and interrupt handlers preemptible. With this option, worst case latency drops to single digit milliseconds, but some device drivers can have interrupt handlers that can introduce latency much worse than that. If the real-time Linux application requires latencies faster then single-digit milliseconds, then they will need to use CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT patch.
How does the CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT patch work?
The RT-Preempt patch converts Linux into a fully preemptible kernel. The magic is done with:
- Making in-kernel locking-primitives (using spinlocks) preemptible though reimplementation with rtmutexes:
- Critical sections protected by i.e. spinlock_t and rwlock_t are now preemptible. The creation of non-preemptible sections (in kernel) is still possible with raw_spinlock_t (same APIs like spinlock_t)
- Implementing priority inheritance for in-kernel spinlocks and semaphores. For more information on priority inversion and priority inheritance please consult Introduction to Priority Inversion
- Converting interrupt handlers into preemptible kernel threads: The RT-Preempt patch treats soft interrupt handlers in kernel thread context, which is represented by a task_struct like a common userspace process. However it is also possible to register an IRQ in kernel context.
- Converting the old Linux timer API into separate infrastructures for high resolution kernel timers plus one for timeouts, leading to userspace POSIX timers with high resolution.
How to start using the CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT patch?
Please see the RT PREEMPT HOWTO for a detailed description. The short version is to get the latest -rt patch from http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/projects/rt/, then get the related vanilla kernel from http://kernel.org, apply the patch to the kernel, configure, and compile the kernel.
What mailing lists are available to discuss the CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT patch?
Please see the mailing lists page in the rt wiki.
Architecture
Which Architecture are supporting realtime and who is maintainer?
| Processor | Supported | Contact(s) |
|---|---|---|
| alpha | ||
| arm | Yes | |
| arm26 | ||
| avr32 | ||
| blackfin | ||
| cris | ||
| frv | ||
| h8300 | ||
| i386 | Yes | |
| ia64 | ||
| m32r | ||
| m86k | No | |
| m68knommu | No | |
| mips | ||
| parisc | ||
| powerpc | Yes | |
| ppc | ||
| s390 | ||
| sh | ||
| sh64 | ||
| sparc | ||
| sparc64 | ||
| um | ||
| v850 | ||
| x86_64 | Yes | |
| xtensa |
What is the procedure to support realtime in new architecture?
TBA
Configuring/compiling questions
How to enable/disable realtime support?
TBA
Change realtime support run time or statically?
TBA
Required parameters for configuring realtime kernel?
TBA
Optional parameters for configuring realtime kernel, but they effect realtime performance?
TBA
Realtime samples/Performance questions
What effects by realtime support and how much and samples to test it and who maintains these samples?
| Area | Effected by Realtime(%) | Samples | Contact(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| scheduling | |||
| Interrupt latency | |||
| IPC | |||
| Filesystem | |||
| Device drivers | |||
| Network | |||
| X-Windows |
Realtime Applications questions
List of realtime APIs?
TBA
Is any API available which allows me to switch from Task A to Task B and/or Thread A to Thread B?
TBA
How to write realtime applications?
TBA
Which programming languages are suitable for writing realtime applications?
It depends on your latency requirements, but usually these are advisable:
- C is preferred;
- C++ is possible if some constraints are taken into account (see HOWTO: Build an RT-application)
What are important things to keep in mind while writing realtime applications?
Taking care of the following during the initial startup phase:
- Call directly from the main() entry the mlockall() call.
- Create all threads at startup time of the application, and touch each page of the entire stack of each thread. Never start threads dynamically during RT show time, this will ruin RT behavior.
- Never use system calls that are known to generate pagefaults, such as fopen(). (Opening of files does the mmap() system call, which generates a page-fault).
- Do not use 'compile time static arrays' without initializing them directly after startup, before RT show time.
more information: HOWTO: Build an RT-application
Do I need to recompile my applications to get realtime performance?
Recompile is not necessary. Userland does not notice any difference if it is running on RT or not, except for a much better RT-responsiveness, only changing the kernel is enough.
But, usually, locking bugs in userland applications become much more visible due the more dynamic and fine grained scheduling of the kernel. These are not new bugs, but bugs already existing in the applications, which only become visible on RT (Notice that these bugs are also likely to occur on SMP systems).
Also:
- A bad designed application on non-RT will never behave realtime on RT. See also HOWTO: Build an RT-application.
- Never protect shared/global data in userland processes with semaphores (yes, many people do that...), but use PTHREAD_PRIO_INHERIT mutexes instead. (PTHREAD_PRIO_INHERIT mutexes are only supported in Glibc 2.5 and higher. uClibc based filesystems do not support this)
