diff options
author | Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org> | 2024-05-04 12:47:08 +0000 |
---|---|---|
committer | Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org> | 2024-05-04 12:47:08 +0000 |
commit | 29b5ab554790bb57337a3b6ab9dcd963cf69d22e (patch) | |
tree | be1456d2bc6c1fb078695fad7bc8f6b212062d3c /docs/threading.md | |
parent | Initial commit. (diff) | |
download | libgit2-upstream/1.7.2+ds.tar.xz libgit2-upstream/1.7.2+ds.zip |
Adding upstream version 1.7.2+ds.upstream/1.7.2+ds
Signed-off-by: Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'docs/threading.md')
-rw-r--r-- | docs/threading.md | 110 |
1 files changed, 110 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/docs/threading.md b/docs/threading.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..de085c8 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/threading.md @@ -0,0 +1,110 @@ +Threading in libgit2 +================== + +Unless otherwise specified, libgit2 objects cannot be safely accessed by +multiple threads simultaneously. + +There are also caveats on the cryptographic libraries libgit2 or its +dependencies link to (more on this later). For libgit2 itself, +provided you take the following into consideration you won't run into +issues: + +Sharing objects +--------------- + +Use an object from a single thread at a time. Most data structures do +not guard against concurrent access themselves. This is because they +are rarely used in isolation and it makes more sense to synchronize +access via a larger lock or similar mechanism. + +There are some objects which are read-only/immutable and are thus safe +to share across threads, such as references and configuration +snapshots. + +The `git_odb` object uses locking internally, and is thread-safe to use from +multiple threads simultaneously. + +Error messages +-------------- + +The error message is thread-local. The `git_error_last()` call must +happen on the same thread as the error in order to get the +message. Often this will be the case regardless, but if you use +something like the [GCD](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Central_Dispatch) +on macOS (where code is executed on an arbitrary thread), the code +must make sure to retrieve the error code on the thread where the error +happened. + +Threading and cryptographic libraries +======================================= + +On Windows +---------- + +When built as a native Windows DLL, libgit2 uses WinCNG and WinHTTP, +both of which are thread-safe. You do not need to do anything special. + +When using libssh2 which itself uses WinCNG, there are no special +steps necessary. If you are using a MinGW or similar environment where +libssh2 uses OpenSSL or libgcrypt, then the general case affects +you. + +On macOS +----------- + +By default we make use of CommonCrypto and SecureTransport for cryptographic +support. These are thread-safe and you do not need to do anything special. + +Note that libssh2 may still use OpenSSL itself. In that case, the +general case still affects you if you use ssh. + +General Case +------------ + +libgit2 will default to OpenSSL for HTTPS transport (except on Windows and +macOS, as mentioned above). On any system, mbedTLS _may_ be optionally +enabled as the security provider. OpenSSL is thread-safe starting at +version 1.1.0. If your copy of libgit2 is linked against that version, +you do not need to take any further steps. + +Older versions of OpenSSL are made to be thread-implementation agnostic, and the +users of the library must set which locking function it should use. libgit2 +cannot know what to set as the user of libgit2 may also be using OpenSSL independently and +the locking settings must then live outside the lifetime of libgit2. + +Even if libgit2 doesn't use OpenSSL directly, OpenSSL can still be used by +libssh2 depending on the configuration. If OpenSSL is used by +more than one library, you only need to set up threading for OpenSSL once. + +If libgit2 is linked against OpenSSL < 1.1.0, it provides a last-resort convenience function +`git_openssl_set_locking()` (available in `sys/openssl.h`) to use the +platform-native mutex mechanisms to perform the locking, which you can use +if you do not want to use OpenSSL outside of libgit2, or you +know that libgit2 will outlive the rest of the operations. It is then not +safe to use OpenSSL multi-threaded after libgit2's shutdown function +has been called. Note `git_openssl_set_locking()` only works if +libgit2 uses OpenSSL directly - if OpenSSL is only used as a dependency +of libssh2 as described above, `git_openssl_set_locking()` is a no-op. + +If your programming language offers a package/bindings for OpenSSL, +you should very strongly prefer to use that in order to set up +locking, as they provide a level of coordination which is impossible +when using this function. + +See the +[OpenSSL documentation](https://www.openssl.org/docs/crypto/threads.html) +on threading for more details, and http://trac.libssh2.org/wiki/MultiThreading +for a specific example of providing the threading callbacks. + +libssh2 may be linked against OpenSSL or libgcrypt. If it uses OpenSSL, +see the above paragraphs. If it uses libgcrypt, then you need to +set up its locking before using it multi-threaded. libgit2 has no +direct connection to libgcrypt and thus has no convenience functions for +it (but libgcrypt has macros). Read libgcrypt's +[threading documentation for more information](http://www.gnupg.org/documentation/manuals/gcrypt/Multi_002dThreading.html) + +It is your responsibility as an application author or packager to know +what your dependencies are linked against and to take the appropriate +steps to ensure the cryptographic libraries are thread-safe. We agree +that this situation is far from ideal but at this time it is something +the application authors need to deal with. |