Expand the documentation for the std::sync module

src/libstd/sync/mod.rs

@@ -10,10 +10,154 @@
 
 //! Useful synchronization primitives.
 //!
-//! This module contains useful safe and unsafe synchronization primitives.
-//! Most of the primitives in this module do not provide any sort of locking
-//! and/or blocking at all, but rather provide the necessary tools to build
-//! other types of concurrent primitives.
+//! ## The need for synchronization
+//!
+//! Conceptually, a Rust program is a series of operations which will
+//! be executed on a computer. The timeline of events happening in the
+//! program is consistent with the order of the operations in the code.
+//!
+//! Consider the following code, operating on some global static variables:
+//!
+//! ```rust
+//! static mut A: u32 = 0;
+//! static mut B: u32 = 0;
+//! static mut C: u32 = 0;
+//!
+//! fn main() {
+//!     unsafe {
+//!         A = 3;
+//!         B = 4;
+//!         A = A + B;
+//!         C = B;
+//!         println!("{} {} {}", A, B, C);
+//!         C = A;
+//!     }
+//! }
+//! ```
+//!
+//! It appears as if some variables stored in memory are changed, an addition
+//! is performed, result is stored in `A` and the variable `C` is
+//! modified twice.
+//!
+//! When only a single thread is involved, the results are as expected:
+//! the line `7 4 4` gets printed.
+//!
+//! As for what happens behind the scenes, when optimizations are enabled the
+//! final generated machine code might look very different from the code:
+//!
+//! - The first store to `C` might be moved before the store to `A` or `B`,
+//!   _as if_ we had written `C = 4; A = 3; B = 4`.
+//!
+//! - Assignment of `A + B` to `A` might be removed, since the sum can be stored
+//!   in a temporary location until it gets printed, with the global variable
+//!   never getting updated.
+//!
+//! - The final result could be determined just by looking at the code
+//!   at compile time, so [constant folding] might turn the whole
+//!   block into a simple `println!("7 4 4")`.
+//!
+//! The compiler is allowed to perform any combination of these
+//! optimizations, as long as the final optimized code, when executed,
+//! produces the same results as the one without optimizations.
+//!
+//! Due to the [concurrency] involved in modern computers, assumptions
+//! about the program's execution order are often wrong. Access to
+//! global variables can lead to nondeterministic results, **even if**
+//! compiler optimizations are disabled, and it is **still possible**
+//! to introduce synchronization bugs.
+//!
+//! Note that thanks to Rust's safety guarantees, accessing global (static)
+//! variables requires `unsafe` code, assuming we don't use any of the
+//! synchronization primitives in this module.
+//!
+//! [constant folding]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constant_folding
+//! [concurrency]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concurrency_(computer_science)
+//!
+//! ## Out-of-order execution
+//!
+//! Instructions can execute in a different order from the one we define, due to
+//! various reasons:
+//!
+//! - The **compiler** reordering instructions: If the compiler can issue an
+//!   instruction at an earlier point, it will try to do so. For example, it
+//!   might hoist memory loads at the top of a code block, so that the CPU can
+//!   start [prefetching] the values from memory.
+//!
+//!   In single-threaded scenarios, this can cause issues when writing
+//!   signal handlers or certain kinds of low-level code.
+//!   Use [compiler fences] to prevent this reordering.
+//!
+//! - A **single processor** executing instructions [out-of-order]:
+//!   Modern CPUs are capable of [superscalar] execution,
+//!   i.e. multiple instructions might be executing at the same time,
+//!   even though the machine code describes a sequential process.
+//!
+//!   This kind of reordering is handled transparently by the CPU.
+//!
+//! - A **multiprocessor** system executing multiple hardware threads
+//!   at the same time: In multi-threaded scenarios, you can use two
+//!   kinds of primitives to deal with synchronization:
+//!   - [memory fences] to ensure memory accesses are made visibile to
+//!   other CPUs in the right order.
+//!   - [atomic operations] to ensure simultaneous access to the same
+//!   memory location doesn't lead to undefined behavior.
+//!
+//! [prefetching]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cache_prefetching
+//! [compiler fences]: crate::sync::atomic::compiler_fence
+//! [out-of-order]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-of-order_execution
+//! [superscalar]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superscalar_processor
+//! [memory fences]: crate::sync::atomic::fence
+//! [atomic operations]: crate::sync::atomic
+//!
+//! ## Higher-level synchronization objects
+//!
+//! Most of the low-level synchronization primitives are quite error-prone and
+//! inconvenient to use, which is why the standard library also exposes some
+//! higher-level synchronization objects.
+//!
+//! These abstractions can be built out of lower-level primitives.
+//! For efficiency, the sync objects in the standard library are usually
+//! implemented with help from the operating system's kernel, which is
+//! able to reschedule the threads while they are blocked on acquiring
+//! a lock.
+//!
+//! The following is an overview of the available synchronization
+//! objects:
+//!
+//! - [`Arc`]: Atomically Reference-Counted pointer, which can be used
+//!   in multithreaded environments to prolong the lifetime of some
+//!   data until all the threads have finished using it.
+//!
+//! - [`Barrier`]: Ensures multiple threads will wait for each other
+//!   to reach a point in the program, before continuing execution all
+//!   together.
+//!
+//! - [`Condvar`]: Condition Variable, providing the ability to block
+//!   a thread while waiting for an event to occur.
+//!
+//! - [`mpsc`]: Multi-producer, single-consumer queues, used for
+//!   message-based communication. Can provide a lightweight
+//!   inter-thread synchronisation mechanism, at the cost of some
+//!   extra memory.
+//!
+//! - [`Mutex`]: Mutual Exclusion mechanism, which ensures that at
+//!   most one thread at a time is able to access some data.
+//!
+//! - [`Once`]: Used for thread-safe, one-time initialization of a
+//!   global variable.
+//!
+//! - [`RwLock`]: Provides a mutual exclusion mechanism which allows
+//!   multiple readers at the same time, while allowing only one
+//!   writer at a time. In some cases, this can be more efficient than
+//!   a mutex.
+//!
+//! [`Arc`]: crate::sync::Arc
+//! [`Barrier`]: crate::sync::Barrier
+//! [`Condvar`]: crate::sync::Condvar
+//! [`mpsc`]: crate::sync::mpsc
+//! [`Mutex`]: crate::sync::Mutex
+//! [`Once`]: crate::sync::Once
+//! [`RwLock`]: crate::sync::RwLock
 
 #![stable(feature = "rust1", since = "1.0.0")]