63 lines
3.3 KiB
Markdown
63 lines
3.3 KiB
Markdown
Nyash GC Modes — Design and Usage
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Overview
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- Nyash adopts a pragmatic GC strategy that balances safety, performance, and simplicity.
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- Default is reference counting with a periodic cycle collector; advanced modes exist for tuning and debugging.
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User‑Facing Modes (recommended)
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- rc+cycle (default, safe)
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- Reference counting with periodic cycle detection/collection.
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- Recommended for most applications; memory leaks from cycles are handled.
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- minorgen (high‑performance)
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- Lightweight generational GC: moving nursery (Gen‑0), non‑moving upper generations.
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- Write barrier (old→new) is minimal; plugin/FFI objects remain non‑moving via handle indirection.
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Advanced Modes (for language dev/debug)
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- stw (debug/verification)
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- Non‑moving stop‑the‑world mark‑and‑sweep. Useful for strict correctness checks and leak cause isolation.
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- rc (baseline for comparisons)
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- rc+cycle with cycle detection disabled. For performance comparisons or targeted debugging.
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- off (expert, self‑responsibility)
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- Cycle detection and tracing off. Use only when cycles are guaranteed not to occur. Not recommended for long‑running services.
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Selection & Precedence
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- CLI: `--gc {auto,rc+cycle,minorgen,stw,rc,off}` (auto = rc+cycle)
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- ENV: `NYASH_GC_MODE` (overridden by CLI)
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- nyash.toml [env] applies last
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Instrumentation & Diagnostics
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- `NYASH_GC_METRICS=1`: print brief metrics (allocs/bytes/cycles/pauses)
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- `NYASH_GC_METRICS_JSON=1`: emit JSON metrics for CI/aggregation
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- `NYASH_GC_LEAK_DIAG=1`: on exit, dump suspected unreleased objects (Top‑K by type/site)
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- `NYASH_GC_ALLOC_THRESHOLD=<N>`: warn or fail when allocations/bytes exceed threshold
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Operational Guidance
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- Default: rc+cycle for stable operations.
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- Try minorgen when throughput/latency matter; it will fall back to rc+cycle on unsupported platforms or when plugin objects are declared non‑moving.
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- off/rc are for special cases only; prefer enabling leak diagnostics when using them in development.
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Implementation Roadmap (Step‑wise)
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1) Wiring & Observability
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- Introduce `GcMode`, `GcController`, unify roots (handles, globals, frames) and safepoints.
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- Add `LeakRegistry` (allocation ledger) and exit‑time dump.
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- Ship rc+cycle (trial deletion) behind the controller (dev default can be rc+cycle).
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2) minorgen (nursery)
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- Moving Gen‑0 with simple promotion; upper generations non‑moving mark‑sweep.
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- Minimal write barrier (old→new card marking). Plugin/FFI remain non‑moving.
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3) stw (dev verify)
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- Non‑moving STW mark‑and‑sweep for correctness checks.
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Notes
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- Safepoint and barrier MIR ops already exist and are reused as GC coordination hooks.
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- Handle indirection keeps future moving GCs compatible with plugin/FFI boundaries.
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LLVM Safepoints
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- Automatic safepoint insertion can be toggled for the LLVM harness/backend:
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- NYASH_LLVM_AUTO_SAFEPOINT=1 enables insertion (default 1)
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- Injection points: loop headers, function calls, externcalls, and selected boxcalls.
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- Safepoints call ny_check_safepoint/ny_safepoint in NyRT, which forwards to runtime hooks (GC.safepoint + scheduler poll).
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Controller & Metrics
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- The unified GcController implements GcHooks and aggregates metrics (safepoints/read/write/alloc).
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- CountingGc is a thin wrapper around GcController for compatibility.
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