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authorLudovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org>2010-03-14 23:37:00 +0100
committerLudovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org>2010-03-14 23:41:10 +0100
commitdeec8986ff889724a6fa3fdd9d5e7221473956fe (patch)
tree42e49a939078580ead020246f5b59e9f60da40db
parentd3b5628c6de88ee08787aab5b1af96f913b77ed4 (diff)
downloadguile-deec8986ff889724a6fa3fdd9d5e7221473956fe.tar.gz
doc: Update "Multi-Threading" node.
* doc/ref/libguile-concepts.texi (Multi-Threading): Remove bits about the requirement not to block in guile mode.
-rw-r--r--doc/ref/libguile-concepts.texi26
1 files changed, 10 insertions, 16 deletions
diff --git a/doc/ref/libguile-concepts.texi b/doc/ref/libguile-concepts.texi
index 16f07e125..c14973027 100644
--- a/doc/ref/libguile-concepts.texi
+++ b/doc/ref/libguile-concepts.texi
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
@c -*-texinfo-*-
@c This is part of the GNU Guile Reference Manual.
-@c Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005
+@c Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2010
@c Free Software Foundation, Inc.
@c See the file guile.texi for copying conditions.
@@ -450,21 +450,15 @@ that are stored in local variables. When a thread puts itself into
guile mode for the first time, it gets a Scheme representation and is
listed by @code{all-threads}, for example.
-While in guile mode, a thread promises to reach a safe point
-reasonably frequently (@pxref{Asynchronous Signals}). In addition to
-running signal handlers, these points are also potential rendezvous
-points of all guile mode threads where Guile can orchestrate global
-things like garbage collection. Consequently, when a thread in guile
-mode blocks and does no longer frequent safe points, it might cause
-all other guile mode threads to block as well. To prevent this from
-happening, a guile mode thread should either only block in libguile
-functions (who know how to do it right), or should temporarily leave
-guile mode with @code{scm_without_guile}.
-
-For some common blocking operations, Guile provides convenience
-functions. For example, if you want to lock a pthread mutex while in
-guile mode, you might want to use @code{scm_pthread_mutex_lock} which is
-just like @code{pthread_mutex_lock} except that it leaves guile mode
+Threads in guile mode can block (e.g., do blocking I/O) without causing any
+problems@footnote{In Guile 1.8, a thread blocking in guile mode would prevent
+garbage collection to occur. Thus, threads had to leave guile mode whenever
+they could block. This is no longer needed with Guile 2.0.}; temporarily
+leaving guile mode with @code{scm_without_guile} before blocking slightly
+improves GC performance, though. For some common blocking operations, Guile
+provides convenience functions. For example, if you want to lock a pthread
+mutex while in guile mode, you might want to use @code{scm_pthread_mutex_lock}
+which is just like @code{pthread_mutex_lock} except that it leaves guile mode
while blocking.