pmemblk API version 1.0

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NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
MOST COMMONLY USED FUNCTIONS
LIBRARY API VERSIONING
MANAGING LIBRARY BEHAVIOR
DEBUGGING AND ERROR HANDLING
EXAMPLE
BUGS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
SEE ALSO

NAME

libpmemblk – persistent memory resident array of blocks

SYNOPSIS

#include <libpmemblk.h>
cc ... -lpmemblk -lpmem
Most commonly used functions:
PMEMblkpool *pmemblk_create(const char *path, size_t bsize,
		size_t poolsize, mode_t mode);
PMEMblkpool *pmemblk_open(const char *path, size_t bsize);
void pmemblk_close(PMEMblkpool *pbp);
size_t pmemblk_bsize(PMEMblkpool *pbp);
size_t pmemblk_nblock(PMEMblkpool *pbp);
int pmemblk_read(PMEMblkpool *pbp, void *buf, long long blockno);
int pmemblk_write(PMEMblkpool *pbp, const void *buf, long long blockno);
int pmemblk_set_zero(PMEMblkpool *pbp, long long blockno);
int pmemblk_set_error(PMEMblkpool *pbp, long long blockno);
Library API versioning:
const char *pmemblk_check_version(
	unsigned major_required,
	unsigned minor_required);
Managing library behavior:
void pmemblk_set_funcs(
	void *(*malloc_func)(size_t size),
	void (*free_func)(void *ptr),
	void *(*realloc_func)(void *ptr, size_t size),
	char *(*strdup_func)(const char *s));
int pmemblk_check(const char *path, size_t bsize);
Error handling:
const char *pmemblk_errormsg(void);

DESCRIPTION

libpmemblk provides an array of blocks in persistent memory (pmem) such that updates to a single block are atomic. This library is intended for applications using direct access storage (DAX), which is storage that supports load/store access without paging blocks from a block storage device. Some types of non-volatile memory DIMMs (NVDIMMs) provide this type of byte addressable access to storage. A persistent memory aware file system is typically used to expose the direct access to applications. Memory mapping a file from this type of file system results in the load/store, non-paged access to pmem. libpmemblk builds on this type of memory mapped file.

This library is for applications that need a potentially large array of blocks, all the same size, where any given block is updated atomically (the update cannot be torn by program interruption such as power failures). This library builds on the low-level pmem support provided by libpmem(3), handling the transactional update of the blocks, flushing to persistence, and recovery for the application. libpmemblk is one of a collection of persistent memory libraries available, the others are:

  • libpmemobj(3), a general use persistent memory API, providing memory allocation and transactional operations on variable-sized objects.

  • libpmemlog(3), providing a pmem-resident log file.

  • libpmem(3), low-level persistent memory support.

Under normal usage, libpmemblk will never print messages or intentionally cause the process to exit. The only exception to this is the debugging information, when enabled, as described under DEBUGGING AND ERROR HANDLING below.

MOST COMMONLY USED FUNCTIONS

To use the atomic block arrays supplied by libpmemblk, a memory pool is first created. This is done with the pmemblk_create() function described in this section. The other functions described in this section then operate on the resulting block memory pool. Once created, the memory pool is represented by an opaque handle, of type PMEMblkpool*, which is passed to most of the other functions in this section. Internally, libpmemblk will use either pmem_persist() or msync(2) when it needs to flush changes, depending on whether the memory pool appears to be persistent memory or a regular file (see the pmem_is_pmem() function in libpmem(3) for more information). There is no need for applications to flush changes directly when using the block memory API provided by libpmemblk.

PMEMblkpool *pmemblk_open(const char *path, size_t bsize);

The pmemblk_open() function opens an existing block memory pool, returning a memory pool handle used with most of the functions in this section. path must be an existing file containing a block memory pool as created by pmemblk_create(). The application must have permission to open the file and memory map it with read/write permissions. If the bsize provided is non-zero, pmemblk_open() will verify the given block size matches the block size used when the pool was created. Otherwise, pmemblk_open() will open the pool without verification of the block size. The bsize can be determined using the pmemblk_bsize() function. If an error prevents the pool from being opened, pmemblk_open() returns NULL and sets errno appropriately. A block size mismatch with the bsize argument passed in results in errno being set to EINVAL.

PMEMblkpool *pmemblk_create(const char *path, size_t bsize,
		size_t poolsize, mode_t mode);

The pmemblk_create() function creates a block memory pool with the given total poolsize divided up into as many elements of size bsize as will fit in the pool. Since the transactional nature of a block memory pool requires some space overhead in the memory pool, the resulting number of available blocks is less than poolsize/bsize, and is made available to the caller via the pmemblk_nblock() function described below. Given the specifics of the implementation, the number of available blocks for the user cannot be less than 256. This translates to at least 512 internal blocks. path specifies the name of the memory pool file to be created. mode specifies the permissions to use when creating the file as described by creat(2). The memory pool file is fully allocated to the size poolsize using posix_fallocate(3). The caller may choose to take responsibility for creating the memory pool file by creating it before calling pmemblk_create() and then specifying poolsize as zero. In this case pmemblk_create() will take the pool size from the size of the existing file and will verify that the file appears to be empty by searching for any non-zero data in the pool header at the beginning of the file. The minimum file size allowed by the library for a block pool is defined in <libpmemblk.h> as PMEMBLK_MIN_POOL. bsize can be any non-zero value, however libpmemblk will silently round up the given size to PMEMBLK_MIN_BLK, as defined in <libpmemblk.h>.

Depending on the configuration of the system, the available space of non-volatile memory space may be divided into multiple memory devices. In such case, the maximum size of the pmemblk memory pool could be limited by the capacity of a single memory device. The libpmemblk allows building persistent memory resident array spanning multiple memory devices by creation of persistent memory pools consisting of multiple files, where each part of such a pool set may be stored on different pmem-aware filesystem.

Creation of all the parts of the pool set can be done with the pmemblk_create() function. However, the recommended method for creating pool sets is to do it by using the pmempool(1) utility.

When creating the pool set consisting of multiple files, the path argument passed to pmemblk_create() must point to the special set file that defines the pool layout and the location of all the parts of the pool set. The poolsize argument must be 0. The meaning of layout and mode arguments doesn’t change, except that the same mode is used for creation of all the parts of the pool set. If the error prevents any of the pool set files from being created, pmemblk_create() returns NULL and sets errno appropriately.

When opening the pool set consisting of multiple files, the path argument passed to pmemblk_open() must not point to the pmemblk memory pool file, but to the same set file that was used for the pool set creation. If an error prevents any of the pool set files from being opened, or if the actual size of any file does not match the corresponding part size defined in set file pmemblk_open() returns NULL and sets errno appropriately.

The set file is a plain text file, which must start with the line containing a PMEMPOOLSET string, followed by the specification of all the pool parts in the next lines. For each part, the file size and the absolute path must be provided.

The size has to be compliant with the format specified in IEC 80000-13, IEEE 1541 or the Metric Interchange Format. Standards accept SI units with obligatory B - kB, MB, GB, … (multiplier by 1000) and IEC units with optional “iB”

  • KiB, MiB, GiB, …, K, M, G, … - (multiplier by 1024).

The path of a part can point to a Device DAX and in such case the size argument can be set to an “AUTO” string, which means that the size of the device will be automatically resolved at pool creation time. When using Device DAX there’s also one additional restriction - it is not allowed to concatenate more than one Device DAX device in a single pool set if the configured internal alignment is other than 4KiB. In such case a pool set can consist only of a single part (single Device DAX). Please see ndctl-create-namespace(1) for information on how to configure desired alignment on Device DAX.

Device DAX is the device-centric analogue of Filesystem DAX. It allows memory ranges to be allocated and mapped without need of an intervening file system. For more information please see ndctl-create-namespace(1).

The minimum file size of each part of the pool set is the same as the minimum size allowed for a block pool consisting of one file. It is defined in <libpmemblk.h> as PMEMBLK_MIN_POOL. Lines starting with “#” character are ignored.

Here is the example “myblkpool.set” file:

PMEMPOOLSET
100G /mountpoint0/myfile.part0
200G /mountpoint1/myfile.part1
400G /mountpoint2/myfile.part2

The files in the set may be created by running the following command:

$ pmempool create blk <bsize> myblkpool.set

void pmemblk_close(PMEMblkpool *pbp);

The pmemblk_close() function closes the memory pool indicated by pbp and deletes the memory pool handle. The block memory pool itself lives on in the file that contains it and may be re-opened at a later time using pmemblk_open() as described above.

size_t pmemblk_bsize(PMEMblkpool *pbp);

The pmemblk_bsize() function returns the block size of the specified block memory pool. It’s the value which was passed as bsize to pmemblk_create(). pbp must be a block memory pool handle as returned by pmemblk_open() or pmemblk_create().

size_t pmemblk_nblock(PMEMblkpool *pbp);

The pmemblk_nblock() function returns the usable space in the block memory pool, expressed as the number of blocks available. pbp must be a block memory pool handle as returned by pmemblk_open() or pmemblk_create().

int pmemblk_read(PMEMblkpool *pbp, void *buf, long long blockno);

The pmemblk_read() function reads a block from memory pool pbp, block number blockno, into the buffer buf. On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned and errno is set. Reading a block that has never been written by pmemblk_write() will return a block of zeroes.

int pmemblk_write(PMEMblkpool *pbp, const void *buf, long long blockno);

The pmemblk_write() function writes a block from buf to block number blockno in the memory pool pbp. The write is atomic with respect to other reads and writes. In addition, the write cannot be torn by program failure or system crash; on recovery the block is guaranteed to contain either the old data or the new data, never a mixture of both. On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned and errno is set.

int pmemblk_set_zero(PMEMblkpool *pbp, long long blockno);

The pmemblk_set_zero() function writes zeros to block number blockno in memory pool pbp. Using this function is faster than actually writing a block of zeros since libpmemblk uses metadata to indicate the block should read back as zero. On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned and errno is set.

int pmemblk_set_error(PMEMblkpool *pbp, long long blockno);

The pmemblk_set_error() function sets the error state for block number blockno in memory pool pbp. A block in the error state returns errno EIO when read. Writing the block clears the error state and returns the block to normal use. On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned and errno is set.

CAVEATS

libpmemblk relies on the library destructor being called from the main thread. For this reason, all functions that might trigger destruction (e.g. dlclose()) should be called in the main thread. Otherwise some of the resources associated with that thread might not be cleaned up properly.

LIBRARY API VERSIONING

This section describes how the library API is versioned, allowing applications to work with an evolving API.

const char *pmemblk_check_version(
	unsigned major_required,
	unsigned minor_required);

The pmemblk_check_version() function is used to see if the installed libpmemblk supports the version of the library API required by an application. The easiest way to do this is for the application to supply the compile-time version information, supplied by defines in <ibpmemblk.h>, like this:

reason = pmemblk_check_version(PMEMBLK_MAJOR_VERSION,
                               PMEMBLK_MINOR_VERSION);
if (reason != NULL) {
	/* version check failed, reason string tells you why */
}

Any mismatch in the major version number is considered a failure, but a library with a newer minor version number will pass this check since increasing minor versions imply backwards compatibility.

An application can also check specifically for the existence of an interface by checking for the version where that interface was introduced. These versions are documented in this man page as follows: unless otherwise specified, all interfaces described here are available in version 1.0 of the library. Interfaces added after version 1.0 will contain the text introduced in version x.y in the section of this manual describing the feature.

When the version check performed by pmemblk_check_version() is successful, the return value is NULL. Otherwise the return value is a static string describing the reason for failing the version check. The string returned by pmemblk_check_version() must not be modified or freed.

MANAGING LIBRARY BEHAVIOR

The library entry points described in this section are less commonly used than the previous sections.

void pmemblk_set_funcs(
	void *(*malloc_func)(size_t size),
	void (*free_func)(void *ptr),
	void *(*realloc_func)(void *ptr, size_t size),
	char *(*strdup_func)(const char *s));

The pmemblk_set_funcs() function allows an application to override memory allocation calls used internally by libpmemblk. Passing in NULL for any of the handlers will cause the libpmemblk default function to be used. The library does not make heavy use of the system malloc functions, but it does allocate approximately 4-8 kilobytes for each memory pool in use.

int pmemblk_check(const char *path, size_t bsize);

The pmemblk_check() function performs a consistency check of the file indicated by path and returns 1 if the memory pool is found to be consistent. Any inconsistencies found will cause pmemblk_check() to return 0, in which case the use of the file with libpmemblk will result in undefined behavior. The debug version of libpmemblk will provide additional details on inconsistencies when PMEMBLK_LOG_LEVEL is at least 1, as described in the DEBUGGING AND ERROR HANDLING section below. When bsize is non-zero pmemblk_check() will compare it to the block size of the pool and return 0 when they don’t match. pmemblk_check() will return -1 and set errno if it cannot perform the consistency check due to other errors. pmemblk_check() opens the given path read-only so it never makes any changes to the file. This function is not supported on Device DAX.

DEBUGGING AND ERROR HANDLING

Two versions of libpmemblk are typically available on a development system. The normal version, accessed when a program is linked using the -lpmemblk option, is optimized for performance. That version skips checks that impact performance and never logs any trace information or performs any run-time assertions. If an error is detected during the call to libpmemblk function, an application may retrieve an error message describing the reason of failure using the following function:

const char *pmemblk_errormsg(void);

The pmemblk_errormsg() function returns a pointer to a static buffer containing the last error message logged for current thread. The error message may include description of the corresponding error code (if errno was set), as returned by strerror(3). The error message buffer is thread-local; errors encountered in one thread do not affect its value in other threads. The buffer is never cleared by any library function; its content is significant only when the return value of the immediately preceding call to libpmemblk function indicated an error, or if errno was set. The application must not modify or free the error message string, but it may be modified by subsequent calls to other library functions.

A second version of libpmemblk, accessed when a program uses the libraries under /usr/lib/nvml_debug, contains run-time assertions and trace points. The typical way to access the debug version is to set the environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH to /usr/lib/nvml_debug or /usr/lib64/nvml_debug depending on where the debug libraries are installed on the system. The trace points in the debug version of the library are enabled using the environment variable PMEMBLK_LOG_LEVEL, which can be set to the following values:

  • 0 - This is the default level when PMEMBLK_LOG_LEVEL is not set. No log messages are emitted at this level.

  • 1 - Additional details on any errors detected are logged (in addition to returning the errno-based errors as usual). The same information may be retrieved using pmemblk_errormsg().

  • 2 - A trace of basic operations is logged.

  • 3 - This level enables a very verbose amount of function call tracing in the library.

  • 4 - This level enables voluminous and fairly obscure tracing information that is likely only useful to the libpmemblk developers.

The environment variable PMEMBLK_LOG_FILE specifies a file name where all logging information should be written. If the last character in the name is “-”, the PID of the current process will be appended to the file name when the log file is created. If PMEMBLK_LOG_FILE is not set, the logging output goes to stderr.

Setting the environment variable PMEMBLK_LOG_LEVEL has no effect on the non-debug version of libpmemblk. See also libpmem(3) to get information about other environment variables affecting libpmemblk behavior.

EXAMPLE

The following example illustrates how the libpmemblk API is used.

#include <fcntl.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <libpmemblk.h>

/* size of the pmemblk pool -- 1 GB */
#define POOL_SIZE ((size_t)(1 << 30))

/* size of each element in the pmem pool */
#define ELEMENT_SIZE 1024

int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
	const char path[] = "/pmem-fs/myfile";
	PMEMblkpool *pbp;
	size_t nelements;
	char buf[ELEMENT_SIZE];

	/* create the pmemblk pool or open it if it already exists */
	pbp = pmemblk_create(path, ELEMENT_SIZE, POOL_SIZE, 0666);

	if (pbp == NULL)
		pbp = pmemblk_open(path, ELEMENT_SIZE);

	if (pbp == NULL) {
		perror(path);
		exit(1);
	}

	/* how many elements fit into the file? */
	nelements = pmemblk_nblock(pbp);
	printf("file holds %zu elements", nelements);

	/* store a block at index 5 */
	strcpy(buf, "hello, world");
	if (pmemblk_write(pbp, buf, 5) < 0) {
		perror("pmemblk_write");
		exit(1);
	}

	/* read the block at index 10 (reads as zeros initially) */
	if (pmemblk_read(pbp, buf, 10) < 0) {
		perror("pmemblk_read");
		exit(1);
	}

	/* zero out the block at index 5 */
	if (pmemblk_set_zero(pbp, 5) < 0) {
		perror("pmemblk_set_zero");
		exit(1);
	}

	/* ... */

	pmemblk_close(pbp);
}

See http://pmem.io/nvml/libpmemblk for more examples using the libpmemblk API.

BUGS

Unlike libpmemobj, data replication is not supported in libpmemblk. Thus, it is not allowed to specify replica sections in pool set files.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

libpmemblk builds on the persistent memory programming model recommended by the SNIA NVM Programming Technical Work Group: http://snia.org/nvmp

SEE ALSO

mmap(2), munmap(2), msync(2), strerror(3), libpmemobj(3), libpmemlog(3), libpmem(3), libvmem(3), ndctl-create-namespace(1) and http://pmem.io

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