Document revision date: 30 March 2001

The performance benefits of Fast I/O result from streamlining high-volume I/O requests. The Fast I/O system service interfaces are optimized to avoid the overhead of general-purpose services. For example, I/O request packets (IRPs) are now permanently allocated and used repeatedly for I/O rather than allocated and deallocated anew for each I/O.

The greatest benefits stem from having user data buffers and user I/O status structures permanently locked down and mapped using system space. This allows Fast I/O to do the following:

• Avoid per-I/O buffer lockdown or unlocking for direct I/O.
• Avoid allocation and deallocation for buffered I/O of a separate system buffer, because the user buffer is always addressable.
• Complete Fast I/O operations at IPL 8, thereby avoiding the interrupt chaining usually required by the more general-purpose $QIO system service. For each I/O, this eliminates the IPL 4 IOPOST interrupt and a kernel AST.

In total, Fast I/O services eliminate four spinlock acquisitions per I/O (two for the MMG spinlock and two for the SCHED spinlock). The reduction in CPU cost per I/O is 20% for uniprocessor systems and 10% for multiprocessor systems.

23.22.1.2 Buffer Objects

Buffer objects accomplish the lockdown of user-process data structures. Buffer objects are process entities that are associated with a process's virtual address range. When a buffer object is created, all its physical pages in its address range are locked in memory and can be double-mapped into system space. These locked pages in a process's address range cannot be freed until the buffer object has been deleted. The Fast I/O environment uses this feature by locking the buffer object itself during $IO_SETUP. This prevents the buffer object and its associated pages from being deleted. The buffer object is unlocked during $IO_CLEANUP, or at image rundown. After creating a buffer object, the process remains fully pageable and swappable and the process retains normal virtual memory access to its pages in the buffer object.

If the buffer object contains process data structures to be passed to an OpenVMS system service, the OpenVMS system can use the buffer object to avoid any probing, lockdown, and unlocking overhead associated with these process data structures. Additionally, if the buffer object has performed double-mapping into system space, this allows the OpenVMS system direct access to the process memory from system context.

To date, only the Fast I/O services are supported with buffer objects. For example, a buffer object allows a programmer to eliminate I/O memory management overhead. On each I/O, each page of a user data buffer is probed and then locked down on I/O initiation and unlocked on I/O completion. Instead of incurring this overhead for each I/O, it can be done once at buffer object creation time. Subsequent I/O operations involving the buffer object can completely avoid this memory management overhead.

System Space Window Buffer Objects

The system space window buffer object allows several I/O related tasks to be performed entirely from system context at high IPL, without having to assume process context. When a buffer object is created, the system maps by default a section of system space (S2) to process pages associated with the buffer object. This protected system space window allows read and write access only from kernel mode. Because all of system space is equally accessible from within any context, it is now possible to avoid the context switch to assume the original user's process context. Optionally, the system space window can be in S0/S1 space, or it can be suppressed.

Buffer Object System Services

Two system services are used to create and delete buffer objects: SYS$CREATE_BUFOBJ_64 and SYS$DELETE_BUFOBJ. Both services can be called from any access mode. To create a buffer object, the SYS$CREATE_BUFOBJ_64 system service is called. This service expects as inputs an existing process memory range and returns a handle for the buffer object. The handle is an opaque identifier used to identify the buffer object on future requests. The SYS$DELETE_BUFOBJ system service is used to delete the buffer object and accepts as input the handle. Although image rundown deletes all existing buffer objects, it is good practice for the application to clean up properly.

Buffer Object Management

Buffer objects require system management. Because buffer objects tie up physical memory, extensive use of buffer objects require system management planning. All the bytes of memory in the buffer object are deducted from the systemwide SYSGEN parameter MAXBOBMEM (maximum buffer object memory). System managers must set this parameter correctly for the application loads that run on their systems. Additionally, two other SYSGEN parameters MAXBOBS0S1 and MAXBOBS2 are available for system managers. Table 23-5 shows these three parameters and their meanings.

Table 23-5 SYSGEN Buffer Object Parameters

Parameter	Meaning
MAXBOBMEM	Defines the maximum amount of physical memory, measured in pagelets, that can be associated with buffer objects. A page associated with a buffer object is counted against this parameter only once, even if it is associated with more than one buffer object at the same time. Memory resident pages are not counted against this parameter. However, pages locked in memory through the SYS$LCKPAG system service are counted. This is a DYNAMIC parameter.
MAXBOBS0S1	Defines the maximum amount of 32-bit system space, measured in pagelets, that can be used as windows to buffer objects. This is a DYNAMIC parameter.
MAXBOBS2	Defines the maximum amount of 64-bit system space, measured in pagelets, that can be used as windows to buffer objects. This is a DYNAMIC parameter.

The MAXBOBMEM, MAXBOBS0S1, and MAXBOBS2 parameters default to 100 Alpha pages, but for applications with large buffer pools it can be set much larger. To prevent user-mode code from tying up excessive physical memory, user-mode callers of $CREATE_BUFOBJ_64 must have a new system identifier, VMS$BUFFER_OBJECT_USER, assigned. The system manager can assign this identifier with the DCL command SET ACL command to a protected subsystem or application that creates buffer objects from user mode. It may also be appropriate to grant the identifier to a particular user with the Authorize utility command GRANT/IDENTIFIER, for example, to a programmer who is working on a development system.

Buffer Object Restrictions

There are several buffer object restrictions which are listed as follows:

• Buffer objects can only be associated with process space (P0, P1, or P2) pages.
• PFN-mapped pages cannot be associated with buffer objects.
• The special buffer object type without associated system space can only be used to describe Fast I/O data buffers. The IOSA must always be associated with a full buffer object with system space.

Further Fast I/O Information

For complete information about using Fast I/O, the Fast I/O system services, and the buffer objects system services that are in the following list, see the OpenVMS I/O User's Reference Manual, and the OpenVMS System Services Reference Manual: A--GETUAI and the OpenVMS System Services Reference Manual: GETUTC--Z:

SYS$CREATE_BUFOBJ_64
SYS$DELETE_BUFOBJ
SYS$IO_SETUP
SYS$IO_PERFORM
SYS$IO_CLEANUP

Like Fast I/O, Fast Path is an optional, high-performance feature designed to improve I/O performance. By restructuring and optimizing class and port device driver code around high-volume I/O code paths, Fast Path creates a streamlined path to the device. Fast Path is of interest to any application where enhanced I/O performance is desirable. Two examples are database systems and real-time applications, where the speed of transferring data to disk is often a vital concern.

Using Fast Path features does not require source-code changes. Minor interface changes are available for expert programmers who want to maximize Fast Path benefits.

At this time, Fast Path is not available on the OpenVMS VAX operating system.

23.22.2.1 Fast Path Features and Benefits

Fast Path achieves performance gains by reducing CPU time for I/O requests on both uniprocessor and SMP systems. The performance benefits are produced by:

• Reducing code paths through streamlining for the case of high-volume I/O
• Substituting port-specific spinlocks for global I/O subsystem spinlocks
• Affinitizing an I/O request for a given port to a specific CPU

The performance improvement can best be seen by contrasting the current OpenVMS I/O scheme to the new Fast Path scheme. While transparent to an OpenVMS user, each disk and tape device is tied to a specific port interconnect. All I/O for a device is sent out over its assigned port. Under the current OpenVMS I/O scheme, a multiprocessor I/O can be initiated on any CPU, but I/O completion must occur on the primary CPU. Under Fast Path, all I/O for a given port is affinitized to a specific CPU, eliminating the requirement for completing the I/O on the primary CPU. This means that the entire I/O can be initiated and completed on a single CPU. Because I/O operations are no longer split among different CPUs, performance increases as memory cache thrashing between CPUs decreases.

Fast Path also removes a possible SMP bottleneck on the primary CPU. If the primary CPU must be involved in all I/O, then once this CPU becomes saturated, no further increase in I/O throughput is possible. Spreading the I/O load evenly among CPUs in a multiprocessor system provides greater maximum I/O throughput on a multiprocessor system.

With most of the I/O code path executing under port-specific spinlocks and with each port assigned to a specific CPU, a scalable SMP model of parallel operation exists. Given multiple port and CPUs, I/O can be issued in parallel to a large degree.

23.22.2.2 Additional Information About Fast Path

For complete information about using Fast Path, see the OpenVMS I/O User's Reference Manual.

This chapter describes the run-time library (RTL) routines that allow access to various operating system components and it contains the following sections:

Section 24.1 describes how to use RTL routines to make system services return different types of strings.

Section 24.2 describes how to use RTL routines to provide access to the command language interpreter.

Section 24.3 describes how to use RTL routines to allow high-level language programs to use most VAX machine instructions or their Alpha equivalent.

Section 24.4 describes how to use RTL routines to allocate processwide resources to a single operating system process.

Section 24.5 describes how to use RTL routines to measure performance.

Section 24.6 describes how to use RTL routines to control output formatting.

Section 24.7 describes how to use RTL routines for miscellaneous interface routines.

Run-time library routines allow access to the following operating system components:

• System services
• Command language interpreter
• Some VAX machine instructions

You can usually call the OpenVMS system services directly from your program. However, system services return only fixed-length strings. In some applications, you may want the result of a system service to be returned as a character array, dynamic string, or variable-length string. For this reason, the RTL provides jacket routines for the system services that return strings.

You call jacket routines exactly as you would the corresponding system service, but you can pass an output argument of any valid string class. The routines write the output string using the semantics (fixed, varying, or dynamic) associated with the string's descriptor.

The jacket routines follow the conventions established for all RTL routines, except that the arguments are listed in the order of the arguments for the corresponding system service. Thus, they may not be listed in the standard RTL order (read, modify, write).

For example, the LIB$SYS_ASCTIM routine calls the SYS$ASCTIM system service to convert a binary date and time value to ASCII text. It returns the resulting string using the semantics that the calling program specifies in the destination string argument.

For further information about the operations of the system services, see the OpenVMS System Services Reference Manual.

The RTL routines provide access to only the system services that produce output strings, which are listed in Table 24-1. The corresponding RTL routines recognize all VAX string classes.

The RTL does not provide jacket routines for all the system services that accept strings as input. Your program should pass only fixed-length or dynamic input strings to all system services and RTL jacket routines.

Table 24-1 System Service Access Routines

Entry Point	System Service	Function
LIB$SYS_ASCTIM	$ASCTIM	Converts system time in binary form to ASCII text
LIB$SYS_FAO	$FAO	Converts a binary value to ASCII text
LIB$SYS_FAOL	$FAOL	Converts a binary value to ASCII text, using a list argument
LIB$SYS_GETMSG	$GETMSG	Obtains a system or user-defined message text
LIB$SYS_TRNLOG	$TRNLOG	Returns the translation of the specified logical name

24.2 Access to the Command Language Interpreter

Two command language interpreters (CLIs) are available on the operating system: DCL and MCR. The run-time library provides several routines that provide access to the CLI callback facility. These routines allow your program to call the current CLI. In most cases, these routines are called from programs that execute as part of a command procedure. They allow the command procedure and the CLI to exchange information.

These routines call the CLI associated with the current process to perform the specified function. In some cases, however, a CLI is not present. For example, the program may be running directly as a subprocess or as a detached process. If a CLI is not present, these routines return the status LIB$_NOCLI. Therefore, you should be sure that these routines are called when a CLI is active. Table 24-2 lists the RTL routines that access the CLI.

Table 24-2 CLI Access Routines

Entry Point	Function
LIB$GET_FOREIGN	Gets a command line
LIB$DO_COMMAND	Executes a command line after exiting the current program
LIB$RUN_PROGRAM	Runs another program after exiting the current program (chain)
LIB$GET_SYMBOL	Returns the value of a CLI symbol as a string
LIB$DELETE_SYMBOL	Deletes a CLI symbol
LIB$SET_SYMBOL	Defines or redefines a CLI symbol
LIB$DELETE_LOGICAL	Deletes a supervisor-mode process logical name
LIB$SET_LOGICAL	Defines or redefines a supervisor-mode process logical name
LIB$DISABLE_CTRL	Disables CLI interception of control characters
LIB$ENABLE_CTRL	Enables CLI interception of control characters
LIB$ATTACH	Attaches a terminal to another process
LIB$SPAWN	Creates a subprocess of the current process

The following routines execute only when the current CLI is DCL:

LIB$GET_SYMBOL
LIB$SET_SYMBOL
LIB$DELETE_SYMBOL
LIB$DISABLE_CTRL
LIB$ENABLE_CTRL
LIB$SPAWN
LIB$ATTACH

The LIB$GET_FOREIGN routine returns the contents of the command line that you use to activate an image. You can use it either to give your program access to the qualifiers of a foreign command or to prompt for further command line text.

A foreign command is a command that you can define and then use, as if it were a DCL or MCR command to run a program. When you use the foreign command at command level, the CLI parses the foreign command only and activates the image. It ignores any options or qualifiers that you have defined for the foreign command. Once the CLI has activated the image, the program can call LIB$GET_FOREIGN to obtain and parse the remainder of the command line (after the command itself) for whatever options it may contain.

The OpenVMS DCL Dictionary describes how to define a foreign command.

The action of LIB$GET_FOREIGN depends on the environment in which the image is activated:

• If you use a foreign command to invoke the image, you can call LIB$GET_FOREIGN to obtain the command qualifiers following the foreign command. You can also use LIB$GET_FOREIGN to prompt repeatedly for more qualifiers after the command. This technique is illustrated in the following example.
• If the image is in the SYS$SYSTEM: directory, the image can be invoked by the DCL command MCR or by the MCR CLI. In this case, LIB$GET_FOREIGN returns the command line text following the image name.
• If the image is invoked by the DCL command RUN, you can use LIB$GET_FOREIGN to prompt for additional text.
• If the image is not invoked by a foreign command or by MCR, or if there is no information remaining on the command line, and the user-supplied prompt is present, LIB$GET_INPUT is called to prompt for a command line. If the prompt is not present, LIB$GET_FOREIGN returns a zero-length string.

Example

The following PL/I example illustrates the use of the optional force-prompt argument to permit repeated calls to LIB$GET_FOREIGN. The command line text is retrieved on the first pass only; after this, the program prompts from SYS$INPUT.

EXAMPLE: ROUTINE OPTIONS (MAIN); %INCLUDE $STSDEF; /* Status-testing definitions */ DECLARE COMMAND_LINE CHARACTER(80) VARYING, PROMPT_FLAG FIXED BINARY(31) INIT(0), LIB$GET_FOREIGN ENTRY (CHARACTER(*) VARYING, CHARACTER(*) VARYING, FIXED BINARY(15), FIXED BINARY(31)) OPTIONS(VARIABLE) RETURNS (FIXED BINARY(31)), RMS$_EOF GLOBALREF FIXED BINARY(31) VALUE; /* Call LIB$GET_FOREIGN repeatedly to obtain and print subcommand text. Exit when end-of-file is found. */ DO WHILE ('1'B); /* Do while TRUE */ STS$VALUE = LIB$GET_FOREIGN (COMMAND_LINE,'Input: ',, PROMPT_FLAG); IF STS$SUCCESS THEN PUT LIST (' Command was ',COMMAND_LINE); ELSE DO; IF STS$VALUE ^= RMS$_EOF THEN PUT LIST ('Error encountered'); RETURN; END; PUT SKIP; /* Skip to next line */ END; /* End of DO WHILE loop */ END;

Assuming that this program is present as SYS$SYSTEM:EXAMPLE.EXE, you can define the foreign command EXAMPLE to invoke it, as follows:

$ EXAM*PLE :== $EXAMPLE

Note the optional use of the asterisk in the symbol name to denote an abbreviated command name. This permits the command name to be abbreviated as EXAM, EXAMP, EXAMPL or to be specified fully as EXAMPLE. See the OpenVMS DCL Dictionary for information about abbreviated command names.

Note that the use of the dollar sign ($) before the image name is required in foreign commands.

Now assume that a user runs the image by typing the foreign command and giving "subcommands" that the program displays:

$ EXAMP Subcommand 1 Command was SUBCOMMAND 1 Input: Subcommand 2 Command was SUBCOMMAND 2 Input: ^Z $

In this example, Subcommand 1 was obtained from the command line; the program prompts the user for the second subcommand. The program terminated when the user pressed the Ctrl/Z key sequence (displayed as ^Z) to indicate end-of-file.

24.2.2 Chaining from One Program to Another

The LIB$RUN_PROGRAM routine causes the current image to exit at the point of the call and directs the CLI, if present, to start running another program. If LIB$RUN_PROGRAM executes successfully, control passes to the second program; if not, control passes to the CLI. The calling program cannot regain control. This technique is called chaining.

This routine is provided primarily for compatibility with PDP-11 systems, on which chaining is used to extend the address space of a system. Chaining may also be useful in an operating system environment where address space is severely limited and large images are not possible. For example, you can use chaining to perform system generation on a small virtual address space because disk space is lacking.

With LIB$RUN_PROGRAM, the calling program can pass arguments to the next program in the chain only by using the common storage area. One way to do this is to direct the calling program to call LIB$PUT_COMMON to pass the information into the common area. The called program then calls LIB$GET_COMMON to retrieve the data.

In general, this practice is not recommended. There is no convenient way to specify the order and type of arguments passed into the common area, so programs that pass arguments in this way must know about the format of the data before it is passed. Fortran COMMON or BASIC MAP/COMMON areas are global OWN storage. When you use this type of storage, it is very difficult to keep your program modular and AST reentrant. Further, you cannot use LIB$RUN_PROGRAM if a CLI is present, as with image subprocesses and detached subprocesses.

Examples

The following PL/I example illustrates the use of LIB$RUN_PROGRAM. It prompts the user for the name of a program to run and calls the RTL routine to execute the specified program.

CHAIN: ROUTINE OPTIONS (MAIN) RETURNS (FIXED BINARY (31)); DECLARE LIB$RUN_PROGRAM ENTRY (CHARACTER (*)) /* Address of string /* descriptor */ RETURNS (FIXED BINARY (31)); /* Return status */ %INCLUDE $STSDEF; /* Include definition of return status values */ DECLARE COMMAND CHARACTER (80); GET LIST (COMMAND) OPTIONS (PROMPT('Program to run: ')); STS$VALUE = LIB$RUN_PROGRAM (COMMAND); /* If the function call is successful, the program will terminate here. Otherwise, return the error status to command level. */ RETURN (STS$VALUE); END CHAIN;

The following COBOL program also demonstrates the use of LIB$RUN_PROGRAM. When you compile and link these two programs, the first calls LIB$RUN_PROGRAM, which activates the executable image of the second. This call results in the following screen display:

THIS MESSAGE DISPLAYED BY PROGRAM PROG2 WHICH WAS RUN BY PROGRAM PROG1 USING LIB$RUN_PROGRAM

IDENTIFICATION DIVISION. PROGRAM-ID. PROG1. ENVIRONMENT DIVISION. DATA DIVISION. WORKING-STORAGE SECTION. 01 PROG-NAME PIC X(9) VALUE "PROG2.EXE". 01 STAT PIC 9(9) COMP. 88 SUCCESSFUL VALUE 1. ROUTINE DIVISION. 001-MAIN. CALL "LIB$RUN_PROGRAM" USING BY DESCRIPTOR PROG-NAME GIVING STAT. IF NOT SUCCESSFUL DISPLAY "ATTEMPT TO CHAIN UNSUCCESSFUL" STOP RUN. IDENTIFICATION DIVISION. PROGRAM-ID. PROG2. ENVIRONMENT DIVISION. DATA DIVISION. ROUTINE DIVISION. 001-MAIN. DISPLAY " ". DISPLAY "THIS MESSAGE DISPLAYED BY PROGRAM PROG2". DISPLAY " ". DISPLAY "WHICH WAS RUN BY PROGRAM PROG1". DISPLAY " ". DISPLAY "USING LIB$RUN_PROGRAM". STOP RUN.

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