BSDCan2012 - Slide Update J

BSDCan 2012
The Technical BSD Conference

Speakers
Kirk McKusick
Schedule
Day Talks - 1 - 2012-05-11
Room MRT 250
Start time 10:00
Duration 01:00
Info
ID 306
Event type Lecture
Track Hacking
Language used for presentation English

An Overview of Locking in the FreeBSD Kernel

The FreeBSD kernel uses seven different types of locks to ensure proper access to the resources that it manages. This talk describes the hierarchy of these locks from the low-level and simple to the high-level and full-featured.

The functionality of each type of lock is described along with the problem domain for which it is intended. The talk concludes by describing the witness system within the FreeBSD kernel that tracks the usage of all the locks in the system and reports any possible deadlocks that might occur because of improper acquisition ordering of locks.