MAKECONTEXT(3)		   Linux Programmers Manual	       MAKECONTEXT(3)



NAME
       makecontext, swapcontext - manipulate user context

SYNOPSIS
       #include 

       void makecontext(ucontext_t *ucp, void (*func)(), int argc, ...);

       int swapcontext(ucontext_t *oucp, ucontext_t *ucp);

DESCRIPTION
       In  a System V-like environment, one has the type ucontext_t defined in
        and the four functions getcontext(2), setcontext(2), make
       context()  and  swapcontext()  that  allow user-level context switching
       between multiple threads of control within a process.

       For the type and the first two functions, see getcontext(2).

       The makecontext() function modifies  the  context  pointed  to  by  ucp
       (which  was  obtained  from  a call to getcontext(2)).  Before invoking
       makecontext(), the caller must allocate a new stack  for  this  context
       and assign its address to ucp->uc_stack, and define a successor context
       and assign its address to ucp->uc_link.

       When this context is later activated (using setcontext(2)  or  swapcon
       text())	the  function func is called, and passed the series of integer
       (int) arguments that follow argc; the caller must specify the number of
       these  arguments  in  argc.   When this function returns, the successor
       context is activated.  If the successor context pointer	is  NULL,  the
       thread exits.

       The  swapcontext()  function saves the current context in the structure
       pointed to by oucp, and then activates the context pointed to by ucp.

RETURN VALUE
       When successful, swapcontext() does not return.	 (But  we  may	return
       later,  in case oucp is activated, in which case it looks like swapcon
       text() returns 0.)  On error, swapcontext() returns -1 and  sets  errno
       appropriately.

ERRORS
       ENOMEM Insufficient stack space left.

VERSIONS
       makecontext()  and  swapcontext()  are  provided in glibc since version
       2.1.

CONFORMING TO
       SUSv2, POSIX.1-2001.

NOTES
       The interpretation of  ucp->uc_stack  is  just  as  in  sigaltstack(2),
       namely,	this  struct contains the start and length of a memory area to
       be used as the stack, regardless of the	direction  of  growth  of  the
       stack.	Thus,  it is not necessary for the user program to worry about
       this direction.

EXAMPLE
       The example program below demonstrates the use of getcontext(2),  make
       context(), and swapcontext().  Running the program produces the follow
       ing output:

	   $ ./a.out
	   main: swapcontext(&uctx_main, &uctx_func2)
	   func2: started
	   func2: swapcontext(&uctx_func2, &uctx_func1)
	   func1: started
	   func1: swapcontext(&uctx_func1, &uctx_func2)
	   func2: returning
	   func1: returning
	   main: exiting

       #include 
       #include 
       #include 

       static ucontext_t uctx_main, uctx_func1, uctx_func2;

       #define handle_error(msg) \
	   do { perror(msg); exit(EXIT_FAILURE); } while (0)

       static void
       func1(void)
       {
	   printf("func1: started\n");
	   printf("func1: swapcontext(&uctx_func1, &uctx_func2)\n");
	   if (swapcontext(&uctx_func1, &uctx_func2) == -1)
	       handle_error("swapcontext");
	   printf("func1: returning\n");
       }

       static void
       func2(void)
       {
	   printf("func2: started\n");
	   printf("func2: swapcontext(&uctx_func2, &uctx_func1)\n");
	   if (swapcontext(&uctx_func2, &uctx_func1) == -1)
	       handle_error("swapcontext");
	   printf("func2: returning\n");
       }

       int
       main(int argc, char *argv[])
       {
	   char func1_stack[16384];
	   char func2_stack[16384];

	   if (getcontext(&uctx_func1) == -1)
	       handle_error("getcontext");
	   uctx_func1.uc_stack.ss_sp = func1_stack;
	   uctx_func1.uc_stack.ss_size = sizeof(func1_stack);
	   uctx_func1.uc_link = &uctx_main;
	   makecontext(&uctx_func1, func1, 0);

	   if (getcontext(&uctx_func2) == -1)
	       handle_error("getcontext");
	   uctx_func2.uc_stack.ss_sp = func2_stack;
	   uctx_func2.uc_stack.ss_size = sizeof(func2_stack);
	   /* Successor context is f1(), unless argc > 1 */
	   uctx_func2.uc_link = (argc > 1) ? NULL : &uctx_func1;
	   makecontext(&uctx_func2, func2, 0);

	   printf("main: swapcontext(&uctx_main, &uctx_func2)\n");
	   if (swapcontext(&uctx_main, &uctx_func2) == -1)
	       handle_error("swapcontext");

	   printf("main: exiting\n");
	   exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
       }

SEE ALSO
       getcontext(2),	 sigaction(2),	   sigaltstack(2),     sigprocmask(2),
       sigsetjmp(3)

COLOPHON
       This  page  is  part of release 3.05 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
       description of the project, and information about reporting  bugs,  can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



GNU				  2008-06-14			MAKECONTEXT(3)