1LIBPMEMBLK(7)              PMDK Programmer's Manual              LIBPMEMBLK(7)
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NAME

6       libpmemblk - persistent memory resident array of blocks
7

SYNOPSIS

9              #include <libpmemblk.h>
10              cc ... -lpmemblk -lpmem
11
12   Library API versioning:
13              const char *pmemblk_check_version(
14                  unsigned major_required,
15                  unsigned minor_required);
16
17   Managing library behavior:
18              void pmemblk_set_funcs(
19                  void *(*malloc_func)(size_t size),
20                  void (*free_func)(void *ptr),
21                  void *(*realloc_func)(void *ptr, size_t size),
22                  char *(*strdup_func)(const char *s));
23
24   Error handling:
25              const char *pmemblk_errormsg(void);
26
27   Other library functions:
28       A description of other libpmemblk functions can be found on the follow‐
29       ing manual pages:
30
31       pmemblk_bsize(3),   pmemblk_create(3),    pmemblk_ctl_exec(3),    pmem‐
32       blk_ctl_get(3),  pmemblk_ctl_set(3),  pmemblk_read(3),  pmemblk_set_ze‐
33       ro(3),
34

DESCRIPTION

36       libpmemblk provides an array of blocks in persistent memory (pmem) such
37       that  updates  to  a single block are atomic.  This library is intended
38       for applications using direct access storage (DAX),  which  is  storage
39       that  supports  load/store  access  without  paging blocks from a block
40       storage device.  Some types of non-volatile memory DIMMs (NVDIMMs) pro‐
41       vide  this  type  of  byte addressable access to storage.  A persistent
42       memory aware file system is typically used to expose the direct  access
43       to  applications.   Memory mapping a file from this type of file system
44       results in the load/store, non-paged access to pmem.  libpmemblk builds
45       on this type of memory mapped file.
46
47       This library is for applications that need a potentially large array of
48       blocks, all the same size, where any given block is updated  atomically
49       (the  update cannot be torn by program interruption such as power fail‐
50       ures).  This library builds on the low-level pmem support  provided  by
51       libpmem(3),  handling  the transactional update of the blocks, flushing
52       to persistence, and recovery for the application.  libpmemblk is one of
53       a collection of persistent memory libraries available, the others are:
54
55       · libpmemobj(7),  a general use persistent memory API, providing memory
56         allocation and transactional operations on variable-sized objects.
57
58       · libpmemlog(7), providing a pmem-resident log file.
59
60       · libpmem(7), low-level persistent memory support.
61
62       Under normal usage, libpmemblk will never print messages or  intention‐
63       ally  cause the process to exit.  The only exception to this is the de‐
64       bugging information, when enabled, as described under DEBUGGING AND ER‐
65       ROR HANDLING below.
66
67       To use the atomic block arrays supplied by libpmemblk, a memory pool is
68       first created using the pmemblk_create() function  described  in  pmem‐
69       blk_create(3).  The other libpmemblk functions operate on the resulting
70       block memory pool using the opaque handle, of type  PMEMblkpool*,  that
71       is  returned  by pmemblk_create() or pmemblk_open().  Internally, libp‐
72       memblk will use either pmem_persist(3) or msync(2)  when  it  needs  to
73       flush  changes, depending on whether the memory pool appears to be per‐
74       sistent memory or a regular file (see the pmem_is_pmem(3)  function  in
75       libpmem(7) for more information).  There is no need for applications to
76       flush changes directly when using the  block  memory  API  provided  by
77       libpmemblk.
78

CAVEATS

80       libpmemblk  relies on the library destructor being called from the main
81       thread.  For this reason, all functions that might trigger  destruction
82       (e.g.  dlclose(3)) should be called in the main thread.  Otherwise some
83       of the resources associated with that thread might not  be  cleaned  up
84       properly.
85

LIBRARY API VERSIONING

87       This  section  describes how the library API is versioned, allowing ap‐
88       plications to work with an evolving API.
89
90       The pmemblk_check_version() function is used to determine  whether  the
91       installed  libpmemblk  supports the version of the library API required
92       by an application.  The easiest way to do this is for  the  application
93       to  supply the compile-time version information, supplied by defines in
94       <ibpmemblk.h>, like this:
95
96              reason = pmemblk_check_version(PMEMBLK_MAJOR_VERSION,
97                                             PMEMBLK_MINOR_VERSION);
98              if (reason != NULL) {
99                  /* version check failed, reason string tells you why */
100              }
101
102       Any mismatch in the major version number is considered a failure, but a
103       library  with  a  newer minor version number will pass this check since
104       increasing minor versions imply backwards compatibility.
105
106       An application can also check specifically for the existence of an  in‐
107       terface  by  checking  for  the version where that interface was intro‐
108       duced.  These versions are documented in this man page as follows:  un‐
109       less  otherwise  specified, all interfaces described here are available
110       in version 1.0 of the library.  Interfaces added after version 1.0 will
111       contain the text introduced in version x.y in the section of this manu‐
112       al describing the feature.
113
114       When the version check performed by pmemblk_check_version() is success‐
115       ful,  the return value is NULL.  Otherwise the return value is a static
116       string describing the reason for failing the version check.  The string
117       returned by pmemblk_check_version() must not be modified or freed.
118

MANAGING LIBRARY BEHAVIOR

120       The pmemblk_set_funcs() function allows an application to override mem‐
121       ory allocation calls used internally by libpmemblk.   Passing  in  NULL
122       for  any  of the handlers will cause the libpmemblk default function to
123       be used.  The library does not make heavy  use  of  the  system  malloc
124       functions,  but  it  does allocate approximately 4-8 kilobytes for each
125       memory pool in use.
126

DEBUGGING AND ERROR HANDLING

128       The pmemblk_errormsg() function returns a pointer to  a  static  buffer
129       containing  the  last  error message logged for the current thread.  If
130       errno was set, the error message may include a description of the  cor‐
131       responding  error  code, as returned by strerror(3).  The error message
132       buffer is thread-local; errors encountered in one thread do not  affect
133       its value in other threads.  The buffer is never cleared by any library
134       function; its content is significant only when the return value of  the
135       immediately preceding call to a libpmemblk function indicated an error,
136       or if errno was set.  The application must not modify or free the error
137       message string, but it may be modified by subsequent calls to other li‐
138       brary functions.
139
140       Two versions of libpmemblk are typically  available  on  a  development
141       system.   The  normal  version, accessed when a program is linked using
142       the -lpmemblk option, is optimized for performance.  That version skips
143       checks  that impact performance and never logs any trace information or
144       performs any run-time assertions.  If an error is detected in a call to
145       libpmemblk,  the  error message describing the failure may be retrieved
146       with pmemblk_errormsg() as described above.
147
148       A second version of libpmemblk, accessed when a program  uses  the  li‐
149       braries  under  /usr/lib/pmdk_debug,  contains  run-time assertions and
150       trace points.  The typical way to access the debug version  is  to  set
151       the  LD_LIBRARY_PATH  environment  variable  to  /usr/lib/pmdk_debug or
152       /usr/lib64/pmdk_debug, as appropriate.  Debugging output is  controlled
153       using the following environment variables.  These variables have no ef‐
154       fect on the non-debug version of the library.
155
156       · PMEMBLK_LOG_LEVEL
157
158       The value of PMEMBLK_LOG_LEVEL enables trace points in the  debug  ver‐
159       sion of the library, as follows:
160
161       · 0  - This is the default level when PMEMBLK_LOG_LEVEL is not set.  No
162         log messages are emitted at this level.
163
164       · 1 - Additional details on any errors detected are logged, in addition
165         to  returning  the errno-based errors as usual.  The same information
166         may be retrieved using pmemblk_errormsg().
167
168       · 2 - A trace of basic operations is logged.
169
170       · 3 - Enables a very verbose amount of function call tracing in the li‐
171         brary.
172
173       · 4 - Enables voluminous and fairly obscure tracing information that is
174         likely only useful to the libpmemblk developers.
175
176       Unless PMEMBLK_LOG_FILE is set, debugging output is written to stderr.
177
178       · PMEMBLK_LOG_FILE
179
180       Specifies the name of a file where all logging  information  should  be
181       written.  If the last character in the name is “-”, the PID of the cur‐
182       rent process will be appended to the file name when  the  log  file  is
183       created.  If PMEMBLK_LOG_FILE is not set, the logging output is written
184       to stderr.
185
186       See also libpmem(7) for information on other environment variables that
187       may affect libpmemblk behavior.
188

EXAMPLE

190       The following example illustrates how the libpmemblk API is used.
191
192              #include <fcntl.h>
193              #include <errno.h>
194              #include <stdlib.h>
195              #include <unistd.h>
196              #include <string.h>
197              #include <libpmemblk.h>
198
199              /* size of the pmemblk pool -- 1 GB */
200              #define POOL_SIZE ((size_t)(1 << 30))
201
202              /* size of each element in the pmem pool */
203              #define ELEMENT_SIZE 1024
204
205              int
206              main(int argc, char *argv[])
207              {
208                  const char path[] = "/pmem-fs/myfile";
209                  PMEMblkpool *pbp;
210                  size_t nelements;
211                  char buf[ELEMENT_SIZE];
212
213                  /* create the pmemblk pool or open it if it already exists */
214                  pbp = pmemblk_create(path, ELEMENT_SIZE, POOL_SIZE, 0666);
215
216                  if (pbp == NULL)
217                      pbp = pmemblk_open(path, ELEMENT_SIZE);
218
219                  if (pbp == NULL) {
220                      perror(path);
221                      exit(1);
222                  }
223
224                  /* how many elements fit into the file? */
225                  nelements = pmemblk_nblock(pbp);
226                  printf("file holds %zu elements", nelements);
227
228                  /* store a block at index 5 */
229                  strcpy(buf, "hello, world");
230                  if (pmemblk_write(pbp, buf, 5) < 0) {
231                      perror("pmemblk_write");
232                      exit(1);
233                  }
234
235                  /* read the block at index 10 (reads as zeros initially) */
236                  if (pmemblk_read(pbp, buf, 10) < 0) {
237                      perror("pmemblk_read");
238                      exit(1);
239                  }
240
241                  /* zero out the block at index 5 */
242                  if (pmemblk_set_zero(pbp, 5) < 0) {
243                      perror("pmemblk_set_zero");
244                      exit(1);
245                  }
246
247                  /* ... */
248
249                  pmemblk_close(pbp);
250              }
251
252       See  <http://pmem.io/pmdk/libpmemblk> for more examples using the libp‐
253       memblk API.
254

BUGS

256       Unlike libpmemobj(7), data replication is not supported in  libpmemblk.
257       Thus, specifying replica sections in pool set files is not allowed.
258

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

260       libpmemblk builds on the persistent memory programming model recommend‐
261       ed   by   the   SNIA   NVM   Programming    Technical    Work    Group:
262       <http://snia.org/nvmp>
263

SEE ALSO

265       msync(2),   dlclose(3),   pmemblk_bsize(3),   pmemblk_create(3),  pmem‐
266       blk_ctl_exec(3),    pmemblk_ctl_get(3),    pmemblk_ctl_set(3),    pmem‐
267       blk_read(3),   pmemblk_set_zero(3),  pmem_is_pmem(3),  pmem_persist(3),
268       strerror(3),    libpmem(7),    libpmemlog(7),     libpmemobj(7)     and
269       <http://pmem.io>
270
271
272
273PMDK - pmemblk API version 1.1    2018-10-17                     LIBPMEMBLK(7)
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