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Original commit message from CVS: Added status of the documents
103 lines
5.2 KiB
Text
103 lines
5.2 KiB
Text
STATUS: pushregion/pullregion is gone
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-------------------------------------
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Changed the way things are scheduled, especially sources. A Src used to
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have a push() function, and optionally a pushregion() to deal with async
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reads, etc. That whole thing has gone away, in favor of providing a
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pull() function for the output (Src) pad instead, ala chain functions.
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This makes constructing cothreaded schedules out of non-loop elements
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somewhat easier. Basically there was always a question as to which pad
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was being dealt with. In the pullregion case, cothread-specific data was
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used to try to pass the region struct to the right place, which is a slow
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hack. And in general, the push function severely limited the kind of
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tricks that could be played when there's more than one output pad, such as
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a multi-out file reader with async capabilities on each pad independently.
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This changes the way cothread scheduling occurs. Instead of the hack to
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deal with Src's by calling their push() function (or optionally the
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pushregion(), in certain cases), we now are working towards a general
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mechanism where pads are the only thing that are dealt with directly.
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An optimization was made in the process of doing this: the loopfunction
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actually run as the outer [stack] frame of the cothread is now set more
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intelligently in create_plan() based on what kind of element it is. We
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now have:
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loopfunc_wrapper: used for loop-based elements, it simply calls the
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loopfunc in a loop, paying attention to COTHREAD_STOPPING (see
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below). It currently does other, soon to be depracated, stuff.
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pullsrc_wrapper: wraps a Src that's not loop-based (since your options
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are now loop- or pull-based)
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There will be a couple more to deal with other cases, such as Connections
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and chain-based elements. The general idea is that it's a lot more
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efficient to make the decisions once in create_plan than to keep doing
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this huge if/else chain in the wrapper. Just choose the right wrapper up
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front. It'll be most apparent performance-wise in the case of whichever
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element context is switched to first for each iteration, since the whole
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wrapper setup is done for every iteration.
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The tricky part is that there is now a bit of overloading of the function
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pointers in a pad. The current meanings (possibly to change a bit more
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soon) are:
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chainfunc: as always, chainfunc pointer is mirrored between peer pads
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(this may change, and the chain func may end up in pushfunc)
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pushfunc: SrcPad: gst_pad_pushfunc_proxy, cothread_switch to peer
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SinkPad: none (may take over chainfunc, see below) pullfunc:
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SrcPad: Src or Connection's function to construct buffers
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SinkPad: gst_pad_pullfunc_proxy, cothread_switch to peer
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There are a number of issues remaining with the scheduling, not the least
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of which is the fact that Connections are still dealt with the old way,
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with _push() functions and such. I'm trying to figure out a way to unify
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the system so it makes sense. Following the scheduling system is hard
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enough, trying to change it is murder.
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Another useful scheduling addition, mentioned above, is COTHREAD_STOPPING.
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It's an element flag that's used to signal whatever code is running in
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cothread context that it should be finishing up and exiting soon. An
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example of this is in plugins/cobin/spindentity.c. All the loops should
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now be composed of do/while loops, rather than while(1) loops:
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do {
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buf = gst_pad_pull(spindentity->sinkpad);
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gst_pad_push(spindentity->srcpad,buf);
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} while (!GST_ELEMENT_IS_COTHREAD_STOPPING(element));
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The reason for this is that COTHREAD_STOPPING may be set before the above
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loop ever gets started. It wouldn't do for the body of the loop to never
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once get called, that would simply stall the pipeline. Note that only the
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core library code is ever responsible for setting and unsetting this flag.
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All elements have to do is respond to it by cleanly exiting the loop and
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the function holding it.
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This is needed primarily to allow iterations to occur properly.
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Basically, there's a single entry point in the cothread scheduling loop,
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gst_bin_iterate_func() simply switches to this cothread. If the element
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in this context is allowed to loop infinitely, nothing would even switch
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back to the context from which the iterate() was originally called. This
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is a bit of a problem. The solution is for there to be an implicit switch
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back to the originating context. Now, even I'm not sure exactly how this
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works, but if the cothread that's switched to actually returns, execution
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returns back to the calling context, i.e. iterate_func().
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COTHREAD_STOPPING is therefore set just before switching into this
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(currently randomly chosen) context, on the assumption that it will return
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promptly after finishing its duties. The burden of clearing the flag
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falls to the various wrapper functions provided by the Bin code, thus
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element writers don't have to worry about doing that at all (and simply
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shouldn't).
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Related changes:
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All the sources in elements/ have been changed to reflect the new system.
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FIXMEs:
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1) gstpipeline.c calls gst_src_push at some point, dunno why, it's
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commented out now.
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2) any other sources, including vcdsrc, dvdsrc, and v4lsrc will break
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badly and need to be modified to work as pull-based sources.
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