optimize timer creation and possibly protect against some minor races

the major idea of this patch is not to depend on having the timer
pointer delivered to the signal handler, and instead use the thread
pointer to get the callback function address and argument. this way,
the parent thread can make the timer_create syscall while the child
thread is starting, and it should never have to block waiting for the
barrier.

2 files changed, 19 insertions, 16 deletions

diff --git a/src/internal/pthread_impl.h b/src/internal/pthread_impl.h
index f2d0ae8c..7ab6243d 100644
--- a/src/internal/pthread_impl.h
+++ b/src/internal/pthread_impl.h
@@ -46,8 +46,6 @@ struct pthread {
 
 struct __timer {
 	int timerid;
-	union sigval val;
-	void (*notify)(union sigval);
 	pthread_t thread;
 };
 
diff --git a/src/time/timer_create.c b/src/time/timer_create.c
index 2abec278..89099dd6 100644
--- a/src/time/timer_create.c
+++ b/src/time/timer_create.c
@@ -17,9 +17,12 @@ struct start_args {
 static void sighandler(int sig, siginfo_t *si, void *ctx)
 {
 	int st;
-	timer_t t = si->si_value.sival_ptr;
+	pthread_t self = __pthread_self();
+	void (*notify)(union sigval) = (void (*)(union sigval))self->start;
+	union sigval val = { .sival_ptr = self->start_arg };
+
 	pthread_setcancelstate(PTHREAD_CANCEL_DISABLE, &st);
-	t->notify(t->val);
+	notify(val);
 	pthread_setcancelstate(st, 0);
 }
 
@@ -31,17 +34,18 @@ static void killtimer(void *arg)
 
 static void *start(void *arg)
 {
+	pthread_t self = __pthread_self();
 	struct start_args *args = arg;
-	struct __timer t = {
-		.notify = args->sev->sigev_notify_function,
-		.val = args->sev->sigev_value,
-	};
+	struct __timer t = { .timerid = -1 };
 
+	/* Reuse no-longer-needed thread structure fields to avoid
+	 * needing the timer address in the signal handler. */
+	self->start = (void *(*)(void *))args->sev->sigev_notify_function;
+	self->start_arg = args->sev->sigev_value.sival_ptr;
 	args->t = &t;
 
-	pthread_barrier_wait(&args->b);
-
 	pthread_cleanup_push(killtimer, &t);
+	pthread_barrier_wait(&args->b);
 	pthread_setcanceltype(PTHREAD_CANCEL_ASYNCHRONOUS, 0);
 	/* Loop on async-signal-safe cancellation point */
 	for (;;) sleep(1);
@@ -95,18 +99,19 @@ int timer_create(clockid_t clk, struct sigevent *evp, timer_t *res)
 			errno = r;
 			return -1;
 		}
-		pthread_barrier_wait(&args.b);
-		t = args.t;
-		t->thread = td;
-		ksev.sigev_value.sival_ptr = t;
+		ksev.sigev_value.sival_ptr = 0;
 		ksev.sigev_signo = SIGCANCEL;
 		ksev.sigev_notify = 4; /* SIGEV_THREAD_ID */
 		ksev.sigev_tid = td->tid;
-		if (syscall(SYS_timer_create, clk, &ksev, &t->timerid) < 0) {
-			t->timerid = -1;
+		r = syscall(SYS_timer_create, clk, &ksev, &timerid);
+		pthread_barrier_wait(&args.b);
+		t = args.t;
+		if (r < 0) {
 			pthread_cancel(td);
 			return -1;
 		}
+		t->timerid = timerid;
+		t->thread = td;
 		break;
 	default:
 		errno = EINVAL;