This allows the pooling allocator to precisely control how each allocation should be dropped.
This is important to the pooling allocator, because it needs to know what arena, chunk, page, run, etc. is being freed, exactly.
The ability to allocate a buffer on a sub-region of some recoverable memory will be useful when porting over the arena-based pooling allocator from Netty.
This greatly simplifies the semantics around the const buffers.
When they can no longer be made writable, there is no longer any need for "deconstification".
I decided to call the method "makeReadOnly" to distinguish it from "asReadOnly" that is seen in ByteBuf and ByteBuffer. The latter two return read-only _views_ of the buffer, while makeReadOnly changes the state of the buffer in-place.
The const buffers of the various implementations are now able to share the underlying memory.
At least until they are forced not to.
Const buffers will behave ust like normal buffers, except they start out as read-only.
When they are made writable, or sliced, then they will allocate their own independent copy of the memory.
That way, const buffers can have their contents changed, and behave just like normal buffers.
The const-ness is a pure optimisation that should not have any externally observable behaviour.
Motivation:
We need a new implementation of our new API that supports Java 11, since that is what Netty 5 will most likely baseline on.
We also need an implementation that does not rely on Unsafe.
This leaves us with ByteBuffer as the underlying currency of memory.
Modification:
- Add a NioBuffer implementation and associated supporting classes.
- The entry-point for this is a new MemoryManagers API, which is used to pick the implementation and provide the on-/off-heap MemoryManager implementations.
- Add a mechanism to configure/override which MemoryManagers implementation to use.
- The MemoryManagers implementations are service-loadable, so new ones can be discovered at runtime.
- The existing MemorySegment based implementation also get a MemoryManagers implementation.
- Expand the BufferTest to include all combinations of all implementations. We now run 360.000 tests in BufferTest.
- Some common infrastructure, like ArcDrop, is moved to its own package.
- Add a module-info.java to control the service loading, and the visibility in the various packages.
- Some pom.xml file updates to support our now module based project.
Result:
We have an implementation that should work on Java 11, but we currently don't build or test on 11.
More work needs to happen before that is a reality.
Motivation:
It is kind of a weird internal and hidden state, that slices were special.
For instance, slices could not be sent, and they could never obtain ownership.
This means buffers from slices behaved differently from allocated buffers.
In doing so, they violated both the principle that magic should stay hidden, and the principle of consistent behaviour.
Modification:
- The special reference-counting drop implementation that was added to support bifurcation, has been renamed to ArcDrop (for atomic reference counting).
- The ArcDrop is then used throughout the MemSegBuffer implementation to account for every instance where multiple buffers reference the same memory, e.g. slices and the like.
- Borrows of a buffer is then the sum of borrows from the buffer itself, and its ArcDrop.
- Ownership is thus tied to both the buffer itself being owned, and the ArcDrop being in an owned state.
- SizeClassedMemoryPool is changed to pool recoverable memory instead of sends, because the sends could come from slices.
- We also take care to keep around a "base" memory segment, so that we don't return memory segment slices to the memory pool (doing so would leak the memory from the parent segment that is not part of the slice).
- CleanerPooledDrop now keeps a weak reference to itself, rather than the buffer, which is more correct anyway, but now also required because we cannot rely on the buffer reference the cleaner was created with.
- The CleanerPooledDrop now takes care to drop the buffer that is actually passed to it, rather than what it was referencing from some earlier point.
- MemoryManager can now disclose the size of recoverable memory, so that SizeClassedMemoryPool can pick the correct size pool to return memory to. It cannot rely on the passed down buffer instance for this, because that buffer might have been a slice.
Result:
It is now possible for slices to obtain ownership when their parent buffer is closed.
