Want a 1ms tick from Linux without modifying Linux Kernel
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I need to develop an embedded application running on Linux, to be more specific, Wind River Linux 4.0 is my favorite for now. My application requires a timer, or scheduler, which is required to tick my application for about every 1ms. I say "about" because there is no strict timing requirements, and either 1.01ms or 0.98ms would be acceptable. In my application, written in C++, I will implement OBSERVER pattern and Listener paradigm to get a full-featured scheduler to dispatch events to processes at variable rates, say 5ms, 10ms, etc.
I would like to know if I can accomplish the above design without modifying the linux kernel, since under GPL, having a kernel module in my application will cause my application to be GPLed. At this moment I don't want to go that far yet. If there is something in the kernel already available, and can tick my application every 1ms, I would like to use it directly in my application. I hope this way will save me from the GPL license issue. Any thoughts? Thank you in advance!
http://linux.die.net/man/3/clock_gettime
use clock_getres clock_gettime with CLOCK_REALTIME like you could QueryPerformanceCounter/QueryPerformanceFrequency on Windows
-me
use clock_getres clock_gettime with CLOCK_REALTIME like you could QueryPerformanceCounter/QueryPerformanceFrequency on Windows
-me
Linux can do pretty good ms resolution events. I recommend just using Boost Deadline Timer. After googling for boost periodic timer this came up if you want a periodic timer.
Also, the OpenMP timer has absurdly small resolution and extremely high accuracy (also thread-safe!)
My out-of-the-box Debian and Ubuntu Linux systems have timeout on epoll_wait (and thus probably on everything else too, but I didn't test that explicitly) working at accurracies in the microsecond (micro, not milli) range without having to refer to any special RT stuff.
So, a millisecond should be no issue at all (assuming every "normal" Linux works more or less the same).
So, a millisecond should be no issue at all (assuming every "normal" Linux works more or less the same).
Quote:Original post by samoth
My out-of-the-box Debian and Ubuntu Linux systems have timeout on epoll_wait (and thus probably on everything else too, but I didn't test that explicitly) working at accurracies in the microsecond (micro, not milli) range without having to refer to any special RT stuff.
So, a millisecond should be no issue at all (assuming every "normal" Linux works more or less the same).
What is the *granularity* of epoll_wait? If you call epoll_wait 100μs apart, will it wait for 100μs or will it wait somewhere between 0 and 20ms (like Windows do)?
The former.
I tested that once when I had the exact same question (how to block somewhat reliably for 1ms) as the OP, and found that this is really nothing to worry about.
While I don't remember whether I ran the tests over 1 second, or 10 seconds, 100 seconds, or whatever time, the baseline was that if you ask it to block for 1μs a million times, the total time will add up to slightly over a second (as opposed to 2000 seconds). So, in wall time, you get pretty much exactly what you asked for, plus some syscall overhead. Which honestly, I found absolutely stunning.
I tested that once when I had the exact same question (how to block somewhat reliably for 1ms) as the OP, and found that this is really nothing to worry about.
While I don't remember whether I ran the tests over 1 second, or 10 seconds, 100 seconds, or whatever time, the baseline was that if you ask it to block for 1μs a million times, the total time will add up to slightly over a second (as opposed to 2000 seconds). So, in wall time, you get pretty much exactly what you asked for, plus some syscall overhead. Which honestly, I found absolutely stunning.
Using epoll() is overkill when you could just use timerfd_create() can friends for a nanosecond-level timer. Of course, you can multiplex a timerfd through epoll(), poll(), select(), or do a blocking read() in a thread (whatever your favorite multiplexing poison is), but using timerfd you can have multiple timers pending and leave the dispatch to the kernel, yielding simpler code and lower system overhead.
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Quote:Original post by Sneftel
Google "RT-PREEMPT".
Is it an overkill to turn the Linux into a fully preemptible kernel? I only need a 1ms tick. I hope something really simple. Thank you anyway.
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