QIO(9)                                                     QIO(9)

     NAME
          qio: qget, qdiscard, qconsume, qpass, qproduce, qcopy,
          qopen, qbread, qread, qbwrite, qwrite, qiwrite, qfree,
          qclose, qhangup, qreopen, qlen, qwindow, qcanread,
          qsetlimit, qnoblock, qflush, qfull - queued I/O for devices

     SYNOPSIS
          Queue*  qopen(int limit,int msg, void (*kick)(void*),void
          *arg)

          void    qhangup(Queue *q, char *reason)

          void    qclose(Queue *q)

          void    qreopen(Queue *q)

          void    qfree(Queue *q)

          long    qbwrite(Queue *q, Block *b)

          long    qwrite(Queue *q, void *buf, int len)

          int     qpass(Queue *q, Block *b)

          int     qpassnolim(Queue *q, Block *b)

          int     qproduce(Queue *q, void*buf, int len)

          int     qiwrite(Queue *q, void *buf, int len)

          Block*  qbread(Queue *q, int len)

          long    qread(Queue *q, void *buf, int len)

          Block*  qcopy(Queue *q, int len, ulong offset)

          Block*  qget(Queue *q)

          int     qconsume(Queue *q, void *buf, int len)

          int     qdiscard(Queue *q, int len)

          void    qflush(Queue *q)

          int     qlen(Queue *q)

          int     qwindow(Queue *q)

          int     qcanread(Queue *q)

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     QIO(9)                                                     QIO(9)

          void    qsetlimit(Queue *q, int limit)

          void    qnoblock(Queue *q, int nonblock)

          int     qfull(Queue *q)

     DESCRIPTION
          This suite of functions provides serial data buffering for
          device drivers.  Data is stored in a Queue structure as a
          sequence of variable-sized Blocks; see allocb(9).

          Qopen initialises and returns a pointer to a new Queue, con-
          figuring it according to the following parameters:

          limit  Set the queue limit (high water mark) in bytes.

          msg    Set message mode if non-zero; otherwise, stream mode
                 (discussed below).

          kick   Optional flow-control function called by qbread to
                 restart writers, and by qbwrite (also qiwrite) to
                 restart readers.

          arg    Argument to pass to kick

          Qhangup marks q as `hung up' for the given reason (Ehungup
          by default).  Subsequent attempts to write to the queue
          raise an error(9). Qhangup does not flush the queue: subse-
          quent read requests are handled normally until the queue
          empties.  Qread and the other functions then return their
          conventional values for a hungup stream: 0, -1 or a null
          pointer, depending on the function.  After a few such
          attempts by any process, an error(9) is raised (typically
          Ehungup) on each subsequent read.

          If queued data is left unread, and not flushed by qflush or
          qclose, the data will again be readable following a subse-
          quent qreopen.

          Qclose also marks a given q as `hung up', but removes and
          frees any queued data Blocks.  Qclose ignores calls when q
          is null.

          Qreopen makes a closed or hung up queue available for use
          again.  The queue's data limit is reset to the limit value
          given when the queue was first created by qopen, cancelling
          the effect of any previous call to qsetlimit.

          Qfree closes q with qclose and frees it.  The caller must
          ensure that no references remain; these functions do not
          keep a reference count.

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     QIO(9)                                                     QIO(9)

        Flow control
          The queue I/O routines provide a flow control mechanism to
          coordinate producers and consumers.  Each queue has a limit
          on the number of bytes queued, its `high water mark', ini-
          tially set when the queue is created, but adjustable by
          qsetlimit, below. The low water mark is not set explicitly:
          it is always half the current queue limit.  When the high
          water mark is exceeded, writes normally block until a reader
          drains the queue below its low water mark; the writer is
          then allowed to proceed.  Conversely, readers normally block
          when the queue is empty, until a writer arrives with data,
          or the queue is closed.

          A queue can be given a kick function when the queue is cre-
          ated by qopen. The function is invoked by qread and qbread,
          to prod an output routine when the queue falls below the
          low-water mark, and by qwrite, qbwrite and qiwrite, to
          notify a reader that a queue is no longer empty.  Because
          kick is called from the reading (or writing) process, or an
          interrupt handler, it must not block.

          Interrupt handlers must not sleep(9), and are therefore
          restricted to using only the non-blocking functions
          described below.

        Stream mode and message mode
          In stream mode, no read will return more than one block of
          data, but a read can split a block that contains more data
          than requested, leaving the remainder in a new block at the
          front of the Queue.  Writes of more than the maximum Block
          size (currently 128k bytes) are split into as many Blocks as
          required, each written separately to the queue, in order,
          but with possible flow-control between them.  The queue is
          locked meanwhile, however, so that data from other writers
          is not intermingled.

          In message mode, by contrast, a read will return at most one
          block's worth of data, but the remainder of a partially-read
          block will be discarded, not returned to the queue.  If a
          write count exceeds the maximum Block size, the excess data
          is discarded: at most a single block can be queued.

          The mode of the queue should be taken into account in the
          descriptions below of the following functions: qwrite,
          qiwrite, qbread and qconsume. No other functions are aware
          of the distinction.

        Write operations (flow controlled)
          Qwrite copies len bytes of data from buf into one or more
          Blocks which it places on the q. Qwrite always returns len.
          It can implement message mode.

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     QIO(9)                                                     QIO(9)

          Qbwrite places the single Block b on the tail of q, waking
          any sleeping reader.  If the queue is full, the writing pro-
          cess blocks until a reader has reduced the queued data to
          the low-water mark; if the queue is non-blocking (see
          qnoblock below), the data is discarded without notice.
          Qbwrite normally returns len, but raises an error(9) if the
          queue is closed (see qhangup and qclose). The block b is
          always freed.  Note that b can be empty (zero-length), to
          punctuate the data in a queue.  Qbwrite cannot handle a list
          of Blocks; qpass must be used instead.

        Non-blocking writes
          Qproduce returns -1immediately  if q is full.  Otherwise, it
          queues len bytes of data from buf in a single Block on q and
          returns the number of bytes written.

          Qpass attempts to place the list of Blocks headed by b on q,
          returning the number of bytes written if successful.  If q
          was full, it frees the Block list b and returns -1.

          Qpassnolim puts the Block list b on q regardless of flow
          control; it returns the number of bytes in the list b.

          Qiwrite is a variant of qwrite used exclusively by the ker-
          nel print function, to allow printing by interrupt handlers;
          qiwrite could be used with care by other routines, but
          qproduce is preferable.  Qiwrite writes the len bytes of
          data at buf into the q without regard to flow control; the
          writer never blocks.  The queue is assumed to be open.
          Qiwrite always returns len. It can implement message mode.

        Read operations (flow controlled)
          Qbread blocks until data arrives on q, then returns the
          first Block; it limits the data returned to len bytes (in
          the manner depending on the mode of q). It returns a null
          pointer if the queue has hung up.

          Qread reads a Block of up to len bytes from q using qbread,
          and copies the data in the Block into buf, then frees the
          Block and returns the number of bytes read.  Qread returns 0
          on end of file or error (hangup).  It can implement message
          mode.

          Qcopy returns a Block with a copy of data from the queue
          (the data remains on the queue).  The copy begins offset
          bytes into the queue's data and proceeds until len bytes
          have been copied or no more data remains.  The Block's read
          and write pointers delimit the data copied into it.  Qcopy
          can be used by a reliable transport protocol to copy a
          packet for transmission, leaving the data queued for possi-
          ble retransmission, if unacknowledged.

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     QIO(9)                                                     QIO(9)

        Non-blocking reads
          Qconsume returns -1 immediately if q is empty.  Otherwise,
          it copies up to len bytes from the first Block on the queue
          into buf, returning the number of bytes copied.  It can
          implement message mode.

          Qget returns a null pointer immediately if q is empty or
          closed.  Otherwise, it returns the first Block on the queue.

        Discard and flush
          Qdiscard removes the first len data bytes from q; it returns
          the number of bytes actually discarded, in case the queue is
          shorter than len. If the queue drains below the low-water
          mark, qdiscard wakes any sleeping writers.  Since it does
          not block, qdiscard can safely be called from interrupt han-
          dlers.  It is useful in transport protocol drivers to remove
          data from the queue once acknowledged.

          Qflush discards all data waiting on q, waking any waiting
          writer.

        Queue status
          The following functions return a Queue's status.  Note that
          between a call to one of these functions and another opera-
          tion, the state can change if a driver allows concurrent
          access by either another process or an interrupt handler.

          Qlen returns the number of bytes queued on q.

          Qwindow returns the number of bytes that can be written
          before reaching the queue's high-water mark.  A return of 0
          means that a write operation will certainly block; a non-
          zero return gives no guarantees (see qfull, below).

          Qcanread returns 1 if any data queued is queued. A subse-
          quent read operation will not block.

          Qfull returns non-zero if q is flow-controlled and a write
          would block or a non-blocking write would return an error.
          (Note that the implementation allows qwindow to return non-
          zero yet qfull to return true.)

        Queue control
          Qsetlimit sets the high water mark for the queue to limit.
          Note that qopen saves the initial queue limit.  If the queue
          is closed and reopened (by qreopen) that initial limit is
          restored.

          Qnoblock sets or resets non-blocking mode.  If nonblock is
          non-zero, the queue becomes non-blocking, and data written
          to a queue beyond its high water mark is discarded by calls
          that would otherwise block.

     Page 5                       Plan 9            (printed 12/21/24)

     QIO(9)                                                     QIO(9)

     SOURCE
          /sys/src/9/port/qio.c

     SEE ALSO
          allocb(9), ref(9)

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