docs: update docs

This commit is contained in:
Wim Taymans 2012-07-05 12:53:57 +02:00
parent e2bbfd294d
commit 964ea9eccb
3 changed files with 277 additions and 119 deletions

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@ -15,10 +15,16 @@ Requirements
- Must be able to attach artibtrary metadata to buffers
- efficient handling of subbuffer, copy, span, trim
Writability
-----------
Lifecycle
~~~~~~~~~
The Buffers is writable when the refcount is 1. This means that:
GstMemory extends from GstMiniObject and therefore uses its lifecycle
management (See part-miniobject.txt).
Writability
~~~~~~~~~~~
When a Buffers is writable as returned from gst_buffer_is_writable():
- metadata can be added/removed and the metadata can be changed
- GstMemory blocks can be added/removed

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@ -14,118 +14,6 @@ Requirements
and trim.
Allocators
~~~~~~~~~~
GstMemory objects are created by allocators. Allocators are created from
a GstMemoryInfo structure.
struct _GstMemoryInfo {
const gchar *mem_type;
GstAllocatorAllocFunction alloc;
GstMemoryMapFunction mem_map;
GstMemoryUnmapFunction mem_unmap;
GstMemoryFreeFunction mem_free;
GstMemoryCopyFunction mem_copy;
GstMemoryShareFunction mem_share;
GstMemoryIsSpanFunction mem_is_span;
};
Allocators are refcounted. It is also possible to register the allocator to the
GStreamer system. This way, the allocator can be retrieved by name.
After an allocator is created, new GstMemory can be created with
GstMemory * gst_allocator_alloc (const GstAllocator * allocator,
gsize maxsize, gsize align);
The GstMemory object is a refcounted object that must be freed with
gst_memory_unref ().
It is also possible to create a new GstMemory object that wraps existing
memory with:
GstMemory * gst_memory_new_wrapped (GstMemoryFlags flags,
gpointer data, gsize maxsize,
gsize offset, gsize size,
gpointer user_data,
GDestroyNotify notify);
Lifecycle
~~~~~~~~~
GstMemory objects are refcounted. When the GstMemory object is first created, it
has a refcount of 1.
Each variable holding a reference to the GstMemory object is responsible for
updating the refcount.
When the refcount reaches 0, and thus no objects hold a reference anymore, we
can free the memory. The GstMemoryFreeFunction of the allocator will be called
to cleanup the memory.
Access management
-----------------
GstMemory objects can be shared between multiple GstBuffer objects. It is
important that when a thread writes to the shared GstMemory that the other
buffers don't not see the changes.
We need 2 concepts:
- count how many objects are sharing this GstMemory (exclusive counter)
- control the READ/WRITE access to the GstMemory (locking)
* exclusive counter
Each object that wants to keep a reference to the GstMemory and doesn't want to
see the changes from other owners of the same GstMemory needs to lock the
GstMemory in EXCLUSIVE mode, which will increase the exclusive counter.
The exclusive counter counts the amount of objects that share this GstMemory
object. The counter is initially 0, meaning that the object is not shared with
any object. When a GstBuffer (or other object) receives a ref to a GstMemory,
it will lock in EXCLUSIVE mode.
When the GstMemory is removed from the buffer, both the ref count and the
exclusive counter will be decreased with gst_object_unref() and
gst_memory_unlock () respectively.
* locking
All read and write access must be performed between a gst_memory_lock() and
gst_memory_unlock() pair with the requested access method.
A gst_memory_lock() can fail when a WRITE lock is requested and the exclusive
counter is > 1. Indeed a GstMemory object with an exclusive counter > 1 is
locked EXCLUSIVELY by at least 2 objects and is therefore not writable.
Once the memory is locked with a certain access mode, it can be recursively
locked with the same or narrower access mode. For example, first locking the
memory in READWRITE mode allows you to recusively lock the memory in
READWRITE, READ and WRITE mode. Memory locked in READ mode cannot be locked
recursively in WRITE or READWRITE mode.
Note that multiple threads can READ lock the memory concurrently but cannot
lock the memory in WRITE mode because the exclusive counter must be > 1.
All calls to gst_memory_lock() need to be paired with one gst_memory_unlock()
call with the same access mode. When the last refcount of the memory is
removed, the should be no more outstanding locks.
Note that a shared counter of both 0 and 1 leaves the memory writable. The
reason is to make it easy to create and pass ownership of the memory to
another object while keeping it the memory writable. When the memory is
created with a shared count of 0, it is writable. When the memory is then
added to another object, the shared count is incremented to 1 and the memory
remains writable. The 0 share counter has a similar purpose as the floating
reference in GObject.
Memory layout
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@ -153,6 +41,58 @@ Memory layout
void gst_memory_resize (GstMemory *mem, gssize offset, gsize size);
Allocators
~~~~~~~~~~
GstMemory objects are created by allocators. Allocators are created from
a GstMemoryInfo structure.
struct _GstMemoryInfo {
const gchar *mem_type;
GstAllocatorAllocFunction alloc;
GstMemoryMapFunction mem_map;
GstMemoryUnmapFunction mem_unmap;
GstMemoryFreeFunction mem_free;
GstMemoryCopyFunction mem_copy;
GstMemoryShareFunction mem_share;
GstMemoryIsSpanFunction mem_is_span;
};
Allocators are refcounted. It is also possible to register the allocator to the
GStreamer system. This way, the allocator can be retrieved by name.
After an allocator is created, new GstMemory can be created with
GstMemory * gst_allocator_alloc (const GstAllocator * allocator,
gsize size,
GstAllocationParams *params);
GstAllocationParams contain extra info such as flags, alignment, prefix and
padding.
The GstMemory object is a refcounted object that must be freed with
gst_memory_unref ().
It is also possible to create a new GstMemory object that wraps existing
memory with:
GstMemory * gst_memory_new_wrapped (GstMemoryFlags flags,
gpointer data, gsize maxsize,
gsize offset, gsize size,
gpointer user_data,
GDestroyNotify notify);
Lifecycle
~~~~~~~~~
GstMemory extends from GstMiniObject and therefore uses its lifecycle
management (See part-miniobject.txt).
Data Access
~~~~~~~~~~~
@ -160,6 +100,9 @@ Data Access
call. This allows the implementation to monitor the access patterns or set up
the required memory mappings when needed.
The access of the memory object is controlled with the locking mechanism on
GstMiniObject (See part-miniobject.txt).
Mapping a memory region requires the caller to specify the access method: READ
and/or WRITE. Mapping a memory region will first try to get a lock on the
memory in the requested access mode. This means that the map operation can
@ -170,10 +113,10 @@ Data Access
After the data has been accessed in the object, the unmap call must be
performed, which will unlock the memory again.
It is allowed to map multiple times with different access modes. for each of
the map calls, an corresponding unmap call needs to be made. WRITE-only memory
cannot be mapped in READ mode and READ-only memory cannot be mapped in WRITE
mode.
It is allowed to recusively map multiple times with the same or narrower
access modes. for each of the map calls, an corresponding unmap call needs to
be made. WRITE-only memory cannot be mapped in READ mode and READ-only memory
cannot be mapped in WRITE mode.
The memory pointer returned from the map call is guaranteed to remain valid in
the requested mapping mode until the corresponding unmap call is performed on

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@ -0,0 +1,209 @@
GstMiniObject
-------------
This document describes the design of the miniobject base class.
The miniobject abstract base class is used to construct lightweight refcounted
and boxed types that are frequently created and destroyed.
Requirements
~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Be lightweight
- Refcounted
- I must be possible to control access to the object, ie. when the object is
readable and writable.
- Subclasses must be able to use their own allocator for the memory.
Usage
~~~~~
Users of the GstMiniObject infrastructure will need to define a structure that
includes the GstMiniObject structure as the first field.
struct {
GstMiniObject mini_object;
/* my fields */
...
} MyObject
The subclass should then implement a constructor method where it allocates the
memory for its structure and initializes the miniobject structure with
gst_mini_object_init(). Copy and Free functions are provided to the
gst_mini_object_init() function.
MyObject *
my_object_new()
{
MyObject *res = g_slice_new (MyObject);
gst_mini_object_init (GST_MINI_OBJECT_CAST (res), 0,
MY_TYPE_OBJECT,
(GstMiniObjectCopyFunction) _my_object_copy,
(GstMiniObjectDisposeFunction) NULL,
(GstMiniObjectFreeFunction) _my_object_free);
/* other init */
.....
return res;
}
The Free function is responsible for freeing the allocated memory for
the structure.
static void
_my_object_free (MyObject *obj)
{
/* other cleanup */
...
g_slice_free (MyObject, obj);
}
Lifecycle
~~~~~~~~~
GstMiniObject is refcounted. When a GstMiniObject is first created,
it has a refcount of 1.
Each variable holding a reference to a GstMiniObject is responsible for
updating the refcount. This includes incrementing the refcount with
gst_mini_object_ref() when a reference is kept to a miniobject or
gst_mini_object_unref() when a reference is released.
When the refcount reaches 0, and thus no objects hold a reference to the
miniobject anymore, we can free the miniobject.
When freeing the miniobject, first the GstMiniObjectDisposeFunction is called.
This function is allowed to revive the object again by incrementing the
refcount, in which case it should return FALSE from the dispose function. The
dispose function is used by GstBuffer to revive the buffer back into the
GstBufferPool when needed.
When the dispose function returns TRUE, the GstMiniObjectFreeFunction will be
called and the miniobject will be freed.
Copy
~~~~
A miniobject can be copied with gst_mini_object_copy(). This function will
call the custom copy function that was provided when registering the new
GstMiniObject subclass.
The copy function should try to preserve as much info from the original object
as possible.
The new copy should be writable.
Access management
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GstMiniObject can be shared between multiple threads. It is important that when
a thread writes to a GstMiniObject that the other threads don't not see the
changes.
To avoid exposing changes from one thread to another thread, the miniobjects
are managed in a Copy-On-Write way. A copy is only made when it is known that
the object is shared between multiple objects or threads.
There are 2 methods implemented for controlling access to the miniobject.
- A first method relies on the refcount of the object to control writability.
Objects using this method have the LOCKABLE flag unset.
- A second method relies on a separate counter for controlling
the access to the object. Objects using this method have the LOCKABLE flag
set.
You can check if an object is writable with gst_mini_object_is_writable() and
you can make any miniobject writable with gst_mini_object_make_writable().
This will create a writable copy when the object was not writable.
non-LOCKABLE GstMiniObjects
---------------------------
These GstMiniObjects have the LOCKABLE flag unset. They use the refcount value
to control writability of the object.
When the refcount of the miniobject is > 1, the objects it referenced by at
least 2 objects and is thus considered unwritable. A copy must be made before a
modification to the object can be done.
Using the refcount to control writability is problematic for many language
bindings that can keep additional references to the objects. This method is
mainly for historical reasons until all users of the miniobjects are
converted to use the LOCAKBLE flag.
LOCKABLE GstMiniObjects
-----------------------
These GstMiniObjects have the LOCKABLE flag set. They use a separate counter
for controlling writability and access to the object.
It consists of 2 components:
* exclusive counter
Each object that wants to keep a reference to a GstMiniObject and doesn't want to
see the changes from other owners of the same GstMiniObject needs to lock the
GstMiniObject in EXCLUSIVE mode, which will increase the exclusive counter.
The exclusive counter counts the amount of objects that share this
GstMiniObject. The counter is initially 0, meaning that the object is not shared with
any object.
When a reference to a GstMiniObject release, both the ref count and the
exclusive counter will be decreased with gst_mini_object_unref() and
gst_mini_object_unlock () respectively.
* locking
All read and write access must be performed between a gst_mini_object_lock() and
gst_mini_object_unlock() pair with the requested access method.
A gst_mini_object_lock() can fail when a WRITE lock is requested and the exclusive
counter is > 1. Indeed a GstMiniObject object with an exclusive counter > 1 is
locked EXCLUSIVELY by at least 2 objects and is therefore not writable.
Once the GstMiniObject is locked with a certain access mode, it can be recursively
locked with the same or narrower access mode. For example, first locking the
GstMiniObject in READWRITE mode allows you to recusively lock the
GstMiniObject in
READWRITE, READ and WRITE mode. Memory locked in READ mode cannot be locked
recursively in WRITE or READWRITE mode.
Note that multiple threads can READ lock the GstMiniObject concurrently but cannot
lock the object in WRITE mode because the exclusive counter must be > 1.
All calls to gst_mini_object_lock() need to be paired with one
gst_mini_object_unlock() call with the same access mode. When the last refcount
of the object is removed, there should be no more outstanding locks.
Note that a shared counter of both 0 and 1 leaves the GstMiniObject writable. The
reason is to make it easy to create and pass ownership of the GstMiniObject to
another object while keeping it writable. When the GstMiniObject is
created with a shared count of 0, it is writable. When the GstMiniObject is then
added to another object, the shared count is incremented to 1 and the
GstMiniObject remains writable. The 0 share counter has a similar purpose as the floating
reference in GObject.
Weak references
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GstMiniObject has support for weak references. A callback will be called when
the object is freed for all registered weak references.
QData
~~~~~
Extra data can be associated with a GstMiniObject by using the QData API.