Modules TSC: Release the GIL for all the time we are blocked.

Instead of giving the module background operations just a small time to
run in the beforeSleep() function, we can have the lock released for all
the time we are blocked in the multiplexing syscall.

src/ae.c

@@ -75,6 +75,7 @@ aeEventLoop *aeCreateEventLoop(int setsize) {
     eventLoop->stop = 0;
     eventLoop->maxfd = -1;
     eventLoop->beforesleep = NULL;
+    eventLoop->aftersleep = NULL;
     if (aeApiCreate(eventLoop) == -1) goto err;
     /* Events with mask == AE_NONE are not set. So let's initialize the
      * vector with it. */
@@ -397,7 +398,14 @@ int aeProcessEvents(aeEventLoop *eventLoop, int flags)
             }
         }
 
+        /* Call the multiplexing API, will return only on timeout or when
+         * some event fires. */
         numevents = aeApiPoll(eventLoop, tvp);
+
+        /* After sleep callback. */
+        if (eventLoop->aftersleep != NULL)
+            eventLoop->aftersleep(eventLoop);
+
         for (j = 0; j < numevents; j++) {
             aeFileEvent *fe = &eventLoop->events[eventLoop->fired[j].fd];
             int mask = eventLoop->fired[j].mask;
@@ -463,3 +471,7 @@ char *aeGetApiName(void) {
 void aeSetBeforeSleepProc(aeEventLoop *eventLoop, aeBeforeSleepProc *beforesleep) {
     eventLoop->beforesleep = beforesleep;
 }
+
+void aeSetAfterSleepProc(aeEventLoop *eventLoop, aeBeforeSleepProc *aftersleep) {
+    eventLoop->aftersleep = aftersleep;
+}

src/ae.h

@@ -98,6 +98,7 @@ typedef struct aeEventLoop {
     int stop;
     void *apidata; /* This is used for polling API specific data */
     aeBeforeSleepProc *beforesleep;
+    aeBeforeSleepProc *aftersleep;
 } aeEventLoop;
 
 /* Prototypes */
@@ -117,6 +118,7 @@ int aeWait(int fd, int mask, long long milliseconds);
 void aeMain(aeEventLoop *eventLoop);
 char *aeGetApiName(void);
 void aeSetBeforeSleepProc(aeEventLoop *eventLoop, aeBeforeSleepProc *beforesleep);
+void aeSetAfterSleepProc(aeEventLoop *eventLoop, aeBeforeSleepProc *aftersleep);
 int aeGetSetSize(aeEventLoop *eventLoop);
 int aeResizeSetSize(aeEventLoop *eventLoop, int setsize);
 

src/module.c

@@ -433,6 +433,7 @@ void moduleFreeContext(RedisModuleCtx *ctx) {
             "calls.",
             ctx->module->name);
     }
+    if (ctx->flags & REDISMODULE_CTX_THREAD_SAFE) freeClient(ctx->client);
 }
 
 /* Helper function for when a command callback is called, in order to handle
@@ -967,8 +968,10 @@ int RM_WrongArity(RedisModuleCtx *ctx) {
  * context of a thread safe context that was not initialized with a blocked
  * client object. */
 client *moduleGetReplyClient(RedisModuleCtx *ctx) {
-    if (ctx->client) return ctx->client;
-    if (ctx->blocked_client) return ctx->blocked_client->reply_client;
+    if (!(ctx->flags & REDISMODULE_CTX_THREAD_SAFE) && ctx->client)
+        return ctx->client;
+    if (ctx->blocked_client)
+        return ctx->blocked_client->reply_client;
     return NULL;
 }
 
@@ -3351,20 +3354,6 @@ void *RM_GetBlockedClientPrivateData(RedisModuleCtx *ctx) {
  * Thread Safe Contexts
  * -------------------------------------------------------------------------- */
 
-/* Operations executed in thread safe contexts use a global lock in order to
- * be ran at a safe time. This function unlocks and re-acquire the locks:
- * hopefully with *any* sane implementation of pthreads, this will allow the
- * modules to make progresses.
- *
- * This function is called in beforeSleep(). */
-void moduleCooperativeMultiTaskingCycle(void) {
-    if (dictSize(modules) == 0) return; /* No modules, no async ops. */
-    pthread_mutex_unlock(&moduleGIL);
-    /* Here hopefully thread modules waiting to be executed at a safe time
-     * should be able to acquire the lock. */
-    pthread_mutex_lock(&moduleGIL);
-}
-
 /* Return a context which can be used inside threads to make Redis context
  * calls with certain modules APIs. If 'bc' is not NULL then the module will
  * be bound to a blocked client, and it will be possible to use the
@@ -3381,7 +3370,9 @@ void moduleCooperativeMultiTaskingCycle(void) {
  * This is not needed when using `RedisModule_Reply*` functions, assuming
  * that a blocked client was used when the context was created, otherwise
  * no RedisModule_Reply* call should be made at all.
- */
+ *
+ * TODO: thread safe contexts do not inherit the blocked client
+ * selected database. */
 RedisModuleCtx *RM_GetThreadSafeContext(RedisModuleBlockedClient *bc) {
     RedisModuleCtx *ctx = zmalloc(sizeof(*ctx));
     RedisModuleCtx empty = REDISMODULE_CTX_INIT;
@@ -3391,6 +3382,11 @@ RedisModuleCtx *RM_GetThreadSafeContext(RedisModuleBlockedClient *bc) {
         ctx->module = bc->module;
     }
     ctx->flags |= REDISMODULE_CTX_THREAD_SAFE;
+    /* Even when the context is associated with a blocked client, we can't
+     * access it safely from another thread, so we create a fake client here
+     * in order to keep things like the currently selected database and similar
+     * things. */
+    ctx->client = createClient(-1);
     return ctx;
 }
 
@@ -3405,12 +3401,20 @@ void RM_FreeThreadSafeContext(RedisModuleCtx *ctx) {
  * a blocked client connected to the thread safe context. */
 void RM_ThreadSafeContextLock(RedisModuleCtx *ctx) {
     DICT_NOTUSED(ctx);
-    pthread_mutex_lock(&moduleGIL);
+    moduleAcquireGIL();
 }
 
 /* Release the server lock after a thread safe API call was executed. */
 void RM_ThreadSafeContextUnlock(RedisModuleCtx *ctx) {
     DICT_NOTUSED(ctx);
+    moduleReleaseGIL();
+}
+
+void moduleAcquireGIL(void) {
+    pthread_mutex_lock(&moduleGIL);
+}
+
+void moduleReleaseGIL(void) {
     pthread_mutex_unlock(&moduleGIL);
 }
 
@@ -3655,6 +3659,11 @@ void moduleCommand(client *c) {
     }
 }
 
+/* Return the number of registered modules. */
+size_t moduleCount(void) {
+    return dictSize(modules);
+}
+
 /* Register all the APIs we export. Keep this function at the end of the
  * file so that's easy to seek it to add new entries. */
 void moduleRegisterCoreAPI(void) {

src/modules/helloblock.c

@@ -105,6 +105,45 @@ int HelloBlock_RedisCommand(RedisModuleCtx *ctx, RedisModuleString **argv, int a
     return REDISMODULE_OK;
 }
 
+/* The thread entry point that actually executes the blocking part
+ * of the command HELLO.KEYS. */
+void *HelloKeys_ThreadMain(void *arg) {
+    RedisModuleBlockedClient *bc = arg;
+    RedisModuleCtx *ctx = RedisModule_GetThreadSafeContext(bc);
+
+    RedisModule_ThreadSafeContextLock(ctx);
+    RedisModule_ReplyWithLongLong(ctx,1234);
+    RedisModule_ThreadSafeContextUnlock(ctx);
+
+    RedisModule_UnblockClient(bc,NULL);
+    return NULL;
+}
+
+/* HELLO.KEYS -- Return all the keys in the current database without blocking
+ * the server. The keys do not represent a point-in-time state so only the keys
+ * that were in the database from the start to the end are guaranteed to be
+ * there. */
+int HelloKeys_RedisCommand(RedisModuleCtx *ctx, RedisModuleString **argv, int argc) {
+    REDISMODULE_NOT_USED(argv);
+    if (argc != 1) return RedisModule_WrongArity(ctx);
+
+    pthread_t tid;
+
+    /* Note that when blocking the client we do not set any callback: no
+     * timeout is possible since we passed '0', nor we need a reply callback
+     * because we'll use the thread safe context to accumulate a reply. */
+    RedisModuleBlockedClient *bc = RedisModule_BlockClient(ctx,NULL,NULL,NULL,0);
+
+    /* Now that we setup a blocking client, we need to pass the control
+     * to the thread. However we need to pass arguments to the thread:
+     * the reference to the blocked client handle. */
+    if (pthread_create(&tid,NULL,HelloKeys_ThreadMain,bc) != 0) {
+        RedisModule_AbortBlock(bc);
+        return RedisModule_ReplyWithError(ctx,"-ERR Can't start thread");
+    }
+    return REDISMODULE_OK;
+}
+
 /* This function must be present on each Redis module. It is used in order to
  * register the commands into the Redis server. */
 int RedisModule_OnLoad(RedisModuleCtx *ctx, RedisModuleString **argv, int argc) {
@@ -117,6 +156,9 @@ int RedisModule_OnLoad(RedisModuleCtx *ctx, RedisModuleString **argv, int argc)
     if (RedisModule_CreateCommand(ctx,"hello.block",
         HelloBlock_RedisCommand,"",0,0,0) == REDISMODULE_ERR)
         return REDISMODULE_ERR;
+    if (RedisModule_CreateCommand(ctx,"hello.keys",
+        HelloKeys_RedisCommand,"",0,0,0) == REDISMODULE_ERR)
+        return REDISMODULE_ERR;
 
     return REDISMODULE_OK;
 }

src/server.c

@@ -1172,9 +1172,6 @@ int serverCron(struct aeEventLoop *eventLoop, long long id, void *clientData) {
 void beforeSleep(struct aeEventLoop *eventLoop) {
     UNUSED(eventLoop);
 
-    /* Give some run time to modules threads using thread safe contexts. */
-    moduleCooperativeMultiTaskingCycle();
-
     /* Call the Redis Cluster before sleep function. Note that this function
      * may change the state of Redis Cluster (from ok to fail or vice versa),
      * so it's a good idea to call it before serving the unblocked clients
@@ -1219,6 +1216,19 @@ void beforeSleep(struct aeEventLoop *eventLoop) {
 
     /* Handle writes with pending output buffers. */
     handleClientsWithPendingWrites();
+
+    /* Before we are going to sleep, let the threads access the dataset by
+     * releasing the GIL. Redis main thread will not touch anything at this
+     * time. */
+    if (moduleCount()) moduleReleaseGIL();
+}
+
+/* This function is called immadiately after the event loop multiplexing
+ * API returned, and the control is going to soon return to Redis by invoking
+ * the different events callbacks. */
+void afterSleep(struct aeEventLoop *eventLoop) {
+    UNUSED(eventLoop);
+    if (moduleCount()) moduleAcquireGIL();
 }
 
 /* =========================== Server initialization ======================== */
@@ -3808,6 +3818,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv) {
     }
 
     aeSetBeforeSleepProc(server.el,beforeSleep);
+    aeSetAfterSleepProc(server.el,afterSleep);
     aeMain(server.el);
     aeDeleteEventLoop(server.el);
     return 0;

src/server.h

@@ -1294,7 +1294,9 @@ void unblockClientFromModule(client *c);
 void moduleHandleBlockedClients(void);
 void moduleBlockedClientTimedOut(client *c);
 void moduleBlockedClientPipeReadable(aeEventLoop *el, int fd, void *privdata, int mask);
-void moduleCooperativeMultiTaskingCycle(void);
+size_t moduleCount(void);
+void moduleAcquireGIL(void);
+void moduleReleaseGIL(void);
 
 /* Utils */
 long long ustime(void);