In worker executables the small-object allocator state, the collector's
live and old-freed counts and the weak dispose hook were four separate
thread-locals, and every allocation or free touched them all. On
Darwin each distinct thread-local costs a _tlv_get_addr call per
function, so a runtime free made four such calls.
They now share one ScrThreadHot block (macros keep the runtime sources
unchanged; ordinary and library builds keep separate globals). The
emitted inline paths address the fields at fixed offsets from a single
llvm.threadlocal.address, which LLVM shares across a function.
tsc-ts self-check, macOS, Worker build vs non-worker build: 1.12x ->
1.10x.
Every emitted pending check of a worker executable loaded the
thread-local active exception cell and the thread-local stop signal.
On Darwin each thread-local access is a call (_tlv_get_addr), and LLVM
does not share them across a function's checks: compareTypes made 61
such calls, and the single-threaded tsc-ts self-check spent 19% of its
time in them (a Worker build ran 1.67x slower than the same program
without Worker on macOS).
The checks now load one ordinary global, scr_exc_alert, which is
nonzero while any script thread may have an exception pending in its
active cell or must stop. Zero proves nothing is pending anywhere, so
the check falls through; otherwise the out-of-line scr_exc_pending
answers for the calling thread, observes termination and settles the
thread's share. Each thread holds at most one share: raised by throws,
rethrows, the termination sentinel, fiber switches and payload moves
into the active cell, dropped by take, clear, moves out of the active
cell and the slow path. A share is only changed by its own thread, so a
thread's raise is visible to all of its later checks. worker.terminate()
holds one more reference until the worker's script has ended, so the
worker reaches its slow path and stops. An exception in flight in one
thread costs the others slow-path calls only until it is caught.
The stop signal is runtime-private again; the active cell stays
exported for ordinary executables' inline checks.
tsc-ts self-check, macOS, Worker build vs non-worker build: 1.67x ->
1.18x (check phase 1.65x -> 1.09x).
Every thread-local of a worker executable lives in the executable's own
TLS block: the program's internal ones and the runtime's external ones
alike. The emitter declared them with LLVM's default general-dynamic
model, which the linker relaxes to `mov %fs:0` plus an add at each
access. On ELF targets the program's thread-locals are now local-exec
and the runtime's initial-exec, so each access is one %fs-relative
address that LLVM folds into the load or store. Darwin (one model),
Windows, WASI and shared-library thread instances are unchanged.
Linux tsc-ts in a Worker build: 5.01 s -> 4.96 s (7 interleaved runs,
non-worker build 4.55 s); the 16.5k relaxed sequences became direct
%fs accesses.
Worker executables compiled the small-object allocator out and sent
every allocation and free through the system allocator, because
several script threads would race on one set of free lists. Each script
thread now owns an arena: scr_sa is thread-local in worker builds and
describes one of 32 equal slices of a single process-wide reservation,
so the owning arena of any block is address arithmetic. A thread claims
an arena on its first allocation and parks it, free lists and bump
pointers intact, when it exits; the next thread continues from there.
Memory is never unmapped, so blocks a worker leaves behind (published
immortal objects) stay valid after it exits. A block freed by another
thread goes to its owner's lock-free remote list, drained on the owner's
slow path; realloc moves foreign blocks into the caller's arena.
The emitted constructor and release fast paths are inlined for worker
programs too, addressing the thread-local allocator state, live count
and dispose hook through llvm.threadlocal.address.
The allocator unit test gains a worker build that hands blocks across
threads and reclaims a parked arena, also under ThreadSanitizer.
Upstream native workers (095b6193) compile the runtime with -DSCR_WORKERS,
which makes scr_cyc_live and scr_weak_dispose_hook thread-local, and the
small-object allocator is compiled out there. The inline allocation paths
address those as ordinary globals, so worker programs keep the out-of-line
runtime calls, exactly like thread-instanced libraries.
A worker-threads test pins that worker LLVM references neither the
allocator state nor the thread-local counters, and that worker programs
keep the fiber path for async bodies (the entry 07 adaptation).
- Add native worker execution with isolated module state, structured messages, and lifecycle controls.
- Support shared buffers and integer atomics with coordinated runtime ownership and cancellation.
- Extend compiler, runtime-pack, differential, and compatibility coverage for native concurrency.
Malte Ubl