Document User Managed Concurrency Groups syscalls, data structures,
state transitions, etc.
This is a text version of umcg.rst.
Signed-off-by: Peter Oskolkov <posk@xxxxxxxxxx>
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+UMCG USERSPACE API
+
+User Managed Concurrency Groups (UMCG) is an M:N threading
+subsystem/toolkit that lets user space application developers implement
+in-process user space schedulers.
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+ WHY? HETEROGENEOUS IN-PROCESS WORKLOADS
+ REQUIREMENTS
+ UMCG KERNEL API
+ SERVERS
+ WORKERS
+ UMCG TASK STATES
+ STRUCT UMCG_TASK
+ SYS_UMCG_CTL()
+ SYS_UMCG_WAIT()
+ STATE TRANSITIONS
+ SERVER-ONLY USE CASES
+
+
+WHY? HETEROGENEOUS IN-PROCESS WORKLOADS
+
+Linux kernel's CFS scheduler is designed for the "common" use case, with
+efficiency/throughput in mind. Work isolation and workloads of different
+"urgency" are addressed by tools such as cgroups, CPU affinity, priorities,
+etc., which are difficult or impossible to efficiently use in-process.
+
+For example, a single DBMS process may receive tens of thousands requests
+per second; some of these requests may have strong response latency
+requirements as they serve live user requests (e.g. login authentication);
+some of these requests may not care much about latency but must be served
+within a certain time period (e.g. an hourly aggregate usage report); some
+of these requests are to be served only on a best-effort basis and can be
+NACKed under high load (e.g. an exploratory research/hypothesis testing
+workload).
+
+Beyond different work item latency/throughput requirements as outlined
+above, the DBMS may need to provide certain guarantees to different users;
+for example, user A may "reserve" 1 CPU for their high-priority/low latency
+requests, 2 CPUs for mid-level throughput workloads, and be allowed to send
+as many best-effort requests as possible, which may or may not be served,
+depending on the DBMS load. Besides, the best-effort work, started when the
+load was low, may need to be delayed if suddenly a large amount of
+higher-priority work arrives. With hundreds or thousands of users like
+this, it is very difficult to guarantee the application's responsiveness
+using standard Linux tools while maintaining high CPU utilization.
+
+Gaming is another use case: some in-process work must be completed before a
+certain deadline dictated by frame rendering schedule, while other work
+items can be delayed; some work may need to be cancelled/discarded because
+the deadline has passed; etc.
+
+User Managed Concurrency Groups is an M:N threading toolkit that allows
+constructing user space schedulers designed to efficiently manage
+heterogeneous in-process workloads described above while maintaining high
+CPU utilization (95%+).
+
+
+REQUIREMENTS
+
+One relatively established way to design high-efficiency, low-latency
+systems is to split all work into small on-cpu work items, with
+asynchronous I/O and continuations, all executed on a thread pool with the
+number of threads not exceeding the number of available CPUs. Although this
+approach works, it is quite difficult to develop and maintain such a
+system, as, for example, small continuations are difficult to piece
+together when debugging. Besides, such asynchronous callback-based systems
+tend to be somewhat cache-inefficient, as continuations can get scheduled
+on any CPU regardless of cache locality.
+
+M:N threading and cooperative user space scheduling enables controlled CPU
+usage (minimal OS preemption), synchronous coding style, and better cache
+locality.
+
+Specifically:
+
+* a variable/fluctuating number M of "application" threads should be
+ "scheduled over" a relatively fixed number N of "kernel" threads, where
+ N is less than or equal to the number of CPUs available;
+* only those application threads that are attached to kernel threads are
+ scheduled "on CPU";
+* application threads should be able to cooperatively
+ yield to each other;
+* when an application thread blocks in kernel (e.g. in I/O), this becomes
+ a scheduling event ("block") that the userspace scheduler should be able
+ to efficiently detect, and reassign a waiting application thread to the
+ freeded "kernel" thread;
+* when a blocked application thread wakes (e.g. its I/O operation
+ completes), this even ("wake") should also be detectable by the
+ userspace scheduler, which should be able to either quickly dispatch the
+ newly woken thread to an idle "kernel" thread or, if all "kernel"
+ threads are busy, put it in the waiting queue;
+* in addition to the above, it would be extremely useful for a separate
+ in-process "watchdog" facility to be able to monitor the state of each
+ of the M+N threads, and to intervene in case of runaway workloads
+ (interrupt/preempt).
+
+
+UMCG KERNEL API
+
+Based on the requrements above, UMCG kernel API is build around the
+following ideas:
+
+* UMCG server: a task/thread representing "kernel threads", or CPUs from
+ the requirements above;
+* UMCG worker: a task/thread representing "application threads", to be
+ scheduled over servers;
+* UMCG task state: (NONE), RUNNING, BLOCKED, IDLE: states a UMCG task (a
+ server or a worker) can be in;
+* UMCG task state flag: LOCKED, PREEMPTED: additional state flags that
+ can be ORed with the task state to communicate additional information to
+ the kernel;
+* struct umcg_task: a per-task userspace set of data fields, usually
+ residing in the TLS, that fully reflects the current task's UMCG state
+ and controls the way the kernel manages the task;
+* sys_umcg_ctl(): a syscall used to register the current task/thread as a
+ server or a worker, or to unregister a UMCG task;
+* sys_umcg_wait(): a syscall used to put the current task to sleep and/or
+ wake another task, pontentially context-switching between the two tasks
+ on-CPU synchronously.
+
+
+SERVERS
+
+When a task/thread is registered as a server, it is in RUNNING state and
+behaves like any other normal task/thread. In addition, servers can
+interact with other UMCG tasks via sys_umcg_wait():
+
+* servers can voluntarily suspend their execution (wait), becoming IDLE;
+* servers can wake other IDLE servers;
+* servers can context-switch between each other.
+
+Note that if a server blocks in the kernel not via sys_umcg_wait(), it
+still retains its RUNNING state.
+
+
+WORKERS
+
+A worker cannot be RUNNING without having a server associated with it, so
+when a task is first registered as a worker, it enters the IDLE state.
+
+* a worker becomes RUNNING when a server calls sys_umcg_wait to
+ context-switch into it; the server goes IDLE, and the worker becomes
+ RUNNING in its place;
+* when a running worker blocks in the kernel, it becomes BLOCKED, its
+ associated server becomes RUNNING and the server's sys_umcg_wait() call
+ from the bullet above returns; this transition is sometimes called
+ "block detection";
+* when the syscall on which a BLOCKED worker completes, the worker
+ becomes IDLE and is added to the list of idle workers; if there is an
+ idle server waiting, the kernel wakes it; this transition is sometimes
+ called "wake detection";
+* running workers can voluntarily suspend their execution (wait),
+ becoming IDLE; their associated servers are woken;
+* a RUNNING worker can context-switch with an IDLE worker; the server of
+ the switched-out worker is transferred to the switched-in worker;
+* any UMCG task can "wake" an IDLE worker via sys_umcg_wait(); unless
+ this is a server running the worker as described in the first bullet in
+ this list, the worker remain IDLE but is added to the idle workers list;
+ this "wake" operation exists for completeness, to make sure
+ wait/wake/context-switch operations are available for all UMCG tasks;
+* the userspace can preempt a RUNNING worker by marking it
+ RUNNING|PREEMPTED and sending a signal to it; the userspace should have
+ installed a NOP signal handler for the signal; the kernel will then
+ transition the worker into IDLE|PREEMPTED state and wake its associated
+ server.
+
+
+UMCG TASK STATES
+
+Important: all state transitions described below involve at least two
+steps: the change of the state field in struct umcg_task, for example
+RUNNING to IDLE, and the corresponding change in struct task_struct state,
+for example a transition between the task running on CPU and being
+descheduled and removed from the kernel runqueue. The key principle of UMCG
+API design is that the party initiating the state transition modifies the
+state variable.
+
+For example, a task going IDLE first changes its state from RUNNING to IDLE
+in the userpace and then calls sys_umcg_wait(), which completes the
+transition.
+
+Note on documentation: in include/uapi/linux/umcg.h, task states have the
+form UMCG_TASK_RUNNING, UMCG_TASK_BLOCKED, etc. In this document these are
+usually referred to simply RUNNING and BLOCKED, unless it creates
+ambiguity. Task state flags, e.g. UMCG_TF_PREEMPTED, are treated similarly.
+
+UMCG task states reflect the view from the userspace, rather than from the
+kernel. There are three fundamental task states:
+
+* RUNNING: indicates that the task is schedulable by the kernel; applies
+ to both servers and workers;
+* IDLE: indicates that the task is not schedulable by the kernel (see
+ umcg_idle_loop() in kernel/sched/umcg.c); applies to both servers and
+ workers;
+* BLOCKED: indicates that the worker is blocked in the kernel; does not
+ apply to servers.
+
+In addition to the three states above, two state flags help with state
+transitions:
+
+* LOCKED: the userspace is preparing the worker for a state transition
+ and "locks" the worker until the worker is ready for the kernel to act
+ on the state transition; used similarly to preempt_disable or
+ irq_disable in the kernel; applies only to workers in RUNNING or IDLE
+ state; RUNNING|LOCKED means "this worker is about to become RUNNING,
+ while IDLE|LOCKED means "this worker is about to become IDLE or
+ unregister;
+* PREEMPTED: the userspace indicates it wants the worker to be preempted;
+ there are no situations when both LOCKED and PREEMPTED flags are set at
+ the same time.
+
+
+STRUCT UMCG_TASK
+
+From include/uapi/linux/umcg.h:
+
+struct umcg_task {
+ uint64_t state_ts; /* r/w */
+ uint32_t next_tid; /* r */
+ uint32_t flags; /* reserved */
+ uint64_t idle_workers_ptr; /* r/w */
+ uint64_t idle_server_tid_ptr; /* r* */
+};
+
+Each UMCG task is identified by struct umcg_task, which is provided to the
+kernel when the task is registered via sys_umcg_ctl().
+
+* uint64_t state_ts: the current state of the task this struct
+ identifies, as described in the previous section, combined with a
+ unique timestamp indicating when the last state change happened.
+
+ Readable/writable by both the kernel and the userspace.
+
+ bits 0 - 5: task state (RUNNING, IDLE, BLOCKED);
+ bits 6 - 7: state flags (LOCKED, PREEMPTED);
+ bits 8 - 12: reserved; must be zeroes;
+ bits 13 - 17: for userspace use;
+ bits 18 - 63: timestamp.
+
+ Timestamp: a 46-bit CLOCK_MONOTONIC timestamp, at 16ns resolution.
+
+ It is highly benefitical to tag each state change with a unique
+ timestamp:
+
+ - timestamps will naturally provide instrumentation to measure
+ scheduling delays, both in the kernel and in the userspace;
+ - uniqueness of timestamps (module overflow) guarantees that state
+ change races, especially ABA races, are easily detected and avoided.
+
+ Each timestamp represents the moment in time the state change happened,
+ in nanoseconds, with the lower 4 bits and the upper 16 bits stripped.
+
+ In this document 'umcg_task.state' is often used to talk about
+ 'umcg_task.state_ts' field, as timestamps do not carry semantic
+ meaning at the moment.
+
+ This is how umcg_task.state_ts is updated in the kernel:
+
+ /* kernel side */
+ /**
+ * umcg_update_state: atomically update umcg_task.state_ts, set new timestamp.
+ * @state_ts - points to the state_ts member of struct umcg_task to update;
+ * @expected - the expected value of state_ts, including the timestamp;
+ * @desired - the desired value of state_ts, state part only;
+ * @may_fault - whether to use normal or _nofault cmpxchg.
+ *
+ * The function is basically cmpxchg(state_ts, expected, desired), with extra
+ * code to set the timestamp in @desired.
+ */
+ static int umcg_update_state(u64 __user *state_ts, u64 *expected, u64 desired,
+ bool may_fault)
+ {
+ u64 curr_ts = (*expected) >> (64 - UMCG_STATE_TIMESTAMP_BITS);
+ u64 next_ts = ktime_get_ns() >> UMCG_STATE_TIMESTAMP_GRANULARITY;
+
+ /* Cut higher order bits. */
+ next_ts &= ((1ULL << UMCG_STATE_TIMESTAMP_BITS) - 1);
+
+ if (next_ts == curr_ts)
+ ++next_ts;
+
+ /* Remove an old timestamp, if any. */
+ desired &= ((1ULL << (64 - UMCG_STATE_TIMESTAMP_BITS)) - 1);
+
+ /* Set the new timestamp. */
+ desired |= (next_ts << (64 - UMCG_STATE_TIMESTAMP_BITS));
+
+ if (may_fault)
+ return cmpxchg_user_64(state_ts, expected, desired);
+
+ return cmpxchg_user_64_nofault(state_ts, expected, desired);
+ }
+
+* uint32_t next_tid: contains the TID of the task to context-switch-into
+ in sys_umcg_wait(); can be zero; writable by the userspace, readable by
+ the kernel; if this is a RUNNING worker, this field contains the TID of
+ the server that should be woken when this worker blocks; see
+ sys_umcg_wait() for more details;
+
+* uint32_t flags: reserved; must be zero.
+
+* uint64_t idle_workers_ptr: this field forms a single-linked list of
+ idle workers: all RUNNING workers have this field set to point to the
+ head of the list (a pointer variable in the userspace).
+
+ When a worker's blocking operation in the kernel completes, the kernel
+ changes the worker's state from BLOCKED to IDLE and adds the worker to
+ the top of the list of idle workers using this logic:
+
+ /* kernel side */
+ /**
+ * enqueue_idle_worker - push an idle worker onto idle_workers_ptr
+ * list/stack.
+ *
+ * Returns true on success, false on a fatal failure.
+ */
+ static bool enqueue_idle_worker(struct umcg_task __user *ut_worker)
+ {
+ u64 __user *node = &ut_worker->idle_workers_ptr;
+ u64 __user *head_ptr;
+ u64 first = (u64)node;
+ u64 head;
+
+ if (get_user_nosleep(head, node) || !head)
+ return false;
+
+ head_ptr = (u64 __user *)head;
+
+ if (put_user_nosleep(UMCG_IDLE_NODE_PENDING, node))
+ return false;
+
+ if (xchg_user_64(head_ptr, &first))
+ return false;
+
+ if (put_user_nosleep(first, node))
+ return false;
+
+ return true;
+ }
+
+ In the userspace the list is cleared atomically using this logic:
+
+ /* userspace side */
+ uint64_t *idle_workers = (uint64_t *)*head;
+
+ atomic_exchange(&idle_workers, NULL);
+
+ The userspace re-points workers' idle_workers_ptr to the list head
+ variable before the worker is allowed to become RUNNING again.
+
+ When processing the idle workers list, the userspace should wait for
+ workers marked as UMCG_IDLE_NODE_PENDING to have the flag cleared (see
+ enqueue_idle_worker() above).
+
+* uint64_t idle_server_tid_ptr: points to a variable in the userspace
+ that points to an idle server, i.e. a server in IDLE state waiting in
+ sys_umcg_wait(); read-only; workers must have this field set; not used
+ in servers.
+
+ When a worker's blocking operation in the kernel completes, the kernel
+ changes the worker's state from BLOCKED to IDLE, adds the worker to the
+ list of idle workers, and wakes the idle server if present; the kernel
+ atomically exchanges (*idle_server_tid_ptr) with 0, thus waking the idle
+ server, if present, only once. See State transitions below for more
+ details.
+
+
+SYS_UMCG_CTL()
+
+int sys_umcg_ctl(uint32_t flags, struct umcg_task *self) is used to
+register or unregister the current task as a worker or server. Flags can be
+one of the following:
+
+ UMCG_CTL_REGISTER: register a server;
+ UMCG_CTL_REGISTER | UMCG_CTL_WORKER: register a worker;
+ UMCG_CTL_UNREGISTER: unregister the current server or worker.
+
+When registering a task, self must point to struct umcg_task describing
+this server or worker; the pointer must remain valid until the task is
+unregistered.
+
+When registering a server, self->state must be RUNNING; all other fields in
+self must be zeroes.
+
+When registering a worker, self->state must be RUNNING;
+self->idle_server_tid_ptr and self->idle_workers_ptr must be valid pointers
+as described in struct umcg_task; self->next_tid must be zero.
+
+When unregistering a task, self must be NULL.
+
+
+SYS_UMCG_WAIT()
+
+int sys_umcg_wait(uint32_t flags, uint64_t abs_timeout) operates on
+registered UMCG servers and workers: struct umcg_task *self provided to
+sys_umcg_ctl() when registering the current task is consulted in addition
+to flags and abs_timeout parameters.
+
+The function can be used to perform one of the three operations:
+
+* wait: if self->next_tid is zero, sys_umcg_wait() puts the current
+ task to sleep;
+* wake: if self->next_tid is not zero, and flags & UMCG_WAIT_WAKE_ONLY,
+ the task identified by next_tid is woken;
+* context switch: if self->next_tid is not zero, and !(flags &
+ UMCG_WAIT_WAKE_ONLY), the current task is put to sleep and the next task
+ is woken, synchronously switching between the tasks on the current CPU
+ on the fast path.
+
+Flags can be zero or a combination of the following values:
+
+* UMCG_WAIT_WAKE_ONLY: wake the next task, don't put the current task to
+ sleep;
+* UMCG_WAIT_WF_CURRENT_CPU: wake the next task on the curent CPU; this
+ flag has an effect only if UMCG_WAIT_WAKE_ONLY is set: context switching
+ is always attempted to happen on the curent CPU.
+
+The section below provides more details on how servers and workers interact
+via sys_umcg_wait(), during worker block/wake events, and during worker
+preemption.
+
+
+STATE TRANSITIONS
+
+As mentioned above, the key principle of UMCG state transitions is that the
+party initiating the state transition modifies the state of affected tasks.
+
+Below, "TASK:STATE" indicates a task T, where T can be either W for worker
+or S for server, in state S, where S can be one of the three states,
+potentially ORed with a state flag. Each individual state transition is an
+atomic operation (cmpxchg) unless indicated otherwise. Also note that the
+order of state transitions is important and is part of the contract between
+the userspace and the kernel. The kernel is free to kill the task (SIGKILL)
+if the contract is broken.
+
+Some worker state transitions below include adding LOCKED flag to worker
+state. This is done to indicate to the kernel that the worker is
+transitioning state and should not participate in the block/wake detection
+routines, which can happen due to interrupts/pagefaults/signals.
+
+IDLE|LOCKED means that a running worker is preparing to sleep, so
+interrupts should not lead to server wakeup; RUNNING|LOCKED means that an
+idle worker is going to be "scheduled to run", but may not yet have its
+server set up properly.
+
+Key state transitions:
+
+* server to worker context switch ("schedule a worker to run"):
+ S:RUNNING+W:IDLE => S:IDLE+W:RUNNING:
+ in the userspace, in the context of the server S running:
+ S:RUNNING => S:IDLE (mark self as idle)
+ W:IDLE => W:RUNNING|LOCKED (mark the worker as running)
+ W.next_tid := S.tid; S.next_tid := W.tid (link the server with
+ the worker)
+ W:RUNNING|LOCKED => W:RUNNING (unlock the worker)
+ S: sys_umcg_wait() (make the syscall)
+ the kernel context switches from the server to the worker; the
+ server sleeps until it becomes RUNNING during one of the
+ transitions below;
+
+* worker to server context switch (worker "yields"): S:IDLE+W:RUNNING =>
+S:RUNNING+W:IDLE:
+ in the userspace, in the context of the worker W running (note that
+ a running worker has its next_tid set to point to its server):
+ W:RUNNING => W:IDLE|LOCKED (mark self as idle)
+ S:IDLE => S:RUNNING (mark the server as running)
+ W: sys_umcg_wait() (make the syscall)
+ the kernel removes the LOCKED flag from the worker's state and
+ context switches from the worker to the server; the worker sleeps
+ until it becomes RUNNING;
+
+* worker to worker context switch: W1:RUNNING+W2:IDLE =>
+ W1:IDLE+W2:RUNNING:
+ in the userspace, in the context of W1 running:
+ W2:IDLE => W2:RUNNING|LOCKED (mark W2 as running)
+ W1:RUNNING => W1:IDLE|LOCKED (mark self as idle)
+ W2.next_tid := W1.next_tid; S.next_tid := W2.tid (transfer the
+ server W1 => W2)
+ W1:next_tid := W2.tid (indicate that W1 should context-switch
+ into W2)
+ W2:RUNNING|LOCKED => W2:RUNNING (unlock W2)
+ W1: sys_umcg_wait() (make the syscall)
+ same as above, the kernel removes the LOCKED flag from the W1's
+ state and context switches to next_tid;
+
+* worker wakeup: W:IDLE => W:RUNNING:
+ in the userspace, a server S can wake a worker W without "running"
+ it:
+ S:next_tid :=W.tid
+ W:next_tid := 0
+ W:IDLE => W:RUNNING
+ sys_umcg_wait(UMCG_WAIT_WAKE_ONLY) (make the syscall)
+ the kernel will wake the worker W; as the worker does not have a
+ server assigned, "wake detection" will happen, the worker will be
+ immediately marked as IDLE and added to idle workers list; an idle
+ server, if any, will be woken (see 'wake detection' below);
+
+ Note: if needed, it is possible for a worker to wake another
+ worker: the waker marks itself "IDLE|LOCKED", points its next_tid
+ to the wakee, makes the syscall, restores its server in next_tid,
+ marks itself as RUNNING.
+
+* block detection: worker blocks in the kernel: S:IDLE+W:RUNNING =>
+ S:RUNNING+W:BLOCKED:
+ when a worker blocks in the kernel in RUNNING state (not LOCKED),
+ before descheduling the task from the CPU the kernel performs
+ these operations:
+ W:RUNNING => W:BLOCKED
+ S := W.next_tid
+ S:IDLE => S:RUNNING
+ try_to_wake_up(S)
+ if any of the first three operations above fail, the worker is
+ killed via SIGKILL. Note that ttwu(S) is not required to succeed,
+ as the server may still be transitioning to sleep in
+ sys_umcg_wait(); before actually putting the server to sleep its
+ UMCG state is checked and, if it is RUNNING, sys_umcg_wait()
+ returns to the userspace;
+ if the worker has its LOCKED flag set, block detection does not
+ trigger, as the worker is assumed to be in the userspace
+ scheduling code.
+
+* wake detection: worker wakes in the kernel: W:BLOCKED => W:IDLE:
+ all workers' returns to the userspace are intercepted:
+ start: (a label)
+ if W:RUNNING & W.next_tid != 0: let the worker exit to the
+ userspace, as this is a RUNNING worker with a server;
+ W:* => W:IDLE (previously blocked or woken without servers
+ workers are not allowed to return to the userspace);
+ the worker is appended to W.idle_workers_ptr idle workers list;
+ S := *W.idle_server_tid_ptr; if (S != 0) S:IDLE => S.RUNNING;
+ ttwu(S)
+ idle_loop(W): this is the same idle loop that sys_umcg_wait()
+ uses: it breaks only when the worker becomes RUNNING; when
+ the idle loop exits, it is assumed that the userspace has
+ properly removed the worker from the idle workers list
+ before marking it RUNNING;
+ goto start; (repeat from the beginning).
+
+ the logic above is a bit more complicated in the presence of
+ LOCKED or PREEMPTED flags, but the main invariants
+ stay the same:
+ only RUNNING workers with servers assigned are allowed to run
+ in the userspace (unless LOCKED);
+ newly IDLE workers are added to the idle workers list; any
+ user-initiated state change assumes the userspace
+ properly removed the worker from the list;
+ as with wake detection, any "breach of contract" by the
+ userspace will result in the task termination via SIGKILL.
+
+* worker preemption: S:IDLE+W:RUNNING => S:RUNNING+W:IDLE|PREEMPTED:
+ when the userspace wants to preempt a RUNNING worker, it changes it
+ state, atomically, RUNNING => RUNNING|PREEMPTED and sends a
+ signal to the worker via tgkill(); the signal handler, previously
+ set up by the userspace, can be a NOP (note that only RUNNING
+ workers can be preempted);
+
+ if the worker, at the moment the signal arrived, continued to be
+ running on-CPU in the userspace, the "wake detection" code will be
+ triggered that, in addition to what was described above, will
+ check if the worker is in RUNNING|PREEMPTED state:
+ W:RUNNING|PREEMPTED => W:IDLE|PREEMPTED
+ S := W.next_tid
+ S:IDLE => S:RUNNING
+ try_to_wakeup(S)
+
+ if the signal arrives after the worker blocks in the kernel,
+ the "block detection" happened as described above, with the
+ following change:
+ W:RUNNING|PREEMPTED => W:BLOCKED|PREEMPTED
+ S := W.next_tid
+ S:IDLE => S:RUNNING
+ try_to_wake_up(S)
+
+ in any case, the worker's server is woken, with its attached
+ worker (S.next_tid) either in BLOCKED|PREEMPTED or IDLE|PREEMPTED
+ state.
+
+
+SERVER-ONLY USE CASES
+
+Some workloads/applications may benefit from fast and synchronous on-CPU
+user-initiated context switches without the need for full userspace
+scheduling (block/wake detection). These applications can use "standalone"
+UMCG servers to wait/wake/context-switch. At the moment only in-process
+operations are allowed. In the future this restriction will be lifted,
+and wait/wake/context-switch operations between servers in related processes
+be permitted (when it is safe to do so, e.g. if the processes belong
+to the same user and/or cgroup).
+
+These "worker-less" operations involve trivial RUNNING <==> IDLE state
+changes, not discussed here for brevity.
--
2.25.1
