From a0c4815433ccd57322f4f7703ca35e9ccfa59250 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: marha Date: Thu, 8 Oct 2009 13:15:52 +0000 Subject: Added MesaLib-7.6 --- mesalib/docs/README.THREADS | 52 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 52 insertions(+) create mode 100644 mesalib/docs/README.THREADS (limited to 'mesalib/docs/README.THREADS') diff --git a/mesalib/docs/README.THREADS b/mesalib/docs/README.THREADS new file mode 100644 index 000000000..fb6e0ff3d --- /dev/null +++ b/mesalib/docs/README.THREADS @@ -0,0 +1,52 @@ + + +Mesa Threads README +------------------- + +Thread safety was introduced in Mesa 2.6 by John Stone and +Christoph Poliwoda. + +It was redesigned in Mesa 3.3 so that thread safety is +supported by default (on systems which support threads, +that is). There is no measurable penalty on single +threaded applications. + +NOTE that the only _driver_ which is thread safe at this time +is the OS/Mesa driver! + + +At present the mthreads code supports three thread APIS: + 1) POSIX threads (aka pthreads). + 2) Solaris / Unix International threads. + 3) Win32 threads (Win 95/NT). + +Support for other thread libraries can be added src/glthread.[ch] + + +In order to guarantee proper operation, it is +necessary for both Mesa and application code to use the same threads API. +So, if your application uses Sun's thread API, then you should build Mesa +using one of the targets for Sun threads. + +The mtdemos directory contains some example programs which use +multiple threads to render to osmesa rendering context(s). + +Linux users should be aware that there exist many different POSIX +threads packages. The best solution is the linuxthreads package +(http://pauillac.inria.fr/~xleroy/linuxthreads/) as this package is the +only one that really supports multiprocessor machines (AFAIK). See +http://pauillac.inria.fr/~xleroy/linuxthreads/README for further +information about the usage of linuxthreads. + +If you are interested in helping with thread safety work in Mesa +join the Mesa developers mailing list and post your proposal. + + +Regards, + John Stone -- j.stone@acm.org johns@cs.umr.edu + Christoph Poliwoda -- poliwoda@volumegraphics.com + + +Version info: + Mesa 2.6 - initial thread support. + Mesa 3.3 - thread support mostly rewritten (Brian Paul) -- cgit v1.2.3