.. mode: -*- rst -*-

AMC pool class
==============

:Tag: design.mps.poolamc
:Author: Richard Brooksby
:Date: 1995-08-25
:Status: incomplete design
:Revision: $Id$
:Copyright: See `Copyright and License`_.
:Index terms:
   pair: AMC pool class; design
   single: pool class; AMC design


Guide Introduction
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

.. The intro and readership tags were found to be duplicated by
   changelist 182116 / commit e9841d23a but not referenced.  But that
   was just a consequence of two documents being smushed together by
   RHSK in changelist 168424 / commit b0433b3e9: a guide and a design.
   It would be good to sort that out.  See also
   <https://github.com/Ravenbrook/mps/issues/128>.  RB 2023-01-14

_`.guide.intro`: This document contains a guide (`.guide`_) to the MPS AMC
pool class, followed by the historical initial design
(`.initial-design`_).

_`.guide.readership`: Any MPS developer.


Guide
~~~~~

_`.guide`: The AMC pool class is a general-purpose automatic
(collecting) pool class. It is intended for most client objects. AMC
is "Automatic, Mostly Copying": it preserves objects by copying,
except when an ambiguous reference 'nails' the object in place. It is
generational. Chain: specify capacity and mortality of generations 0
to *N* − 1. Survivors from generation *N* − 1 get promoted into an
arena-wide "top" generation (often anachronistically called the
"dynamic" generation, which was the term on the Lisp Machine).


Segment states
--------------

_`.seg.state`: AMC segments are in one of three states: "mobile",
"boarded", or "stuck".

_`.seg.state.mobile`: Segments are normally **mobile**: all objects on
the seg are un-nailed, and thus may be preserved by copying.

_`.seg.state.boarded`: An ambiguous reference to any address within an
segment makes that segment **boarded**: a nailboard is allocated to
record ambiguous references ("nails"), but un-nailed objects on the
segment are still preserved by copying.

_`.seg.state.stuck`: Stuck segments only occur in emergency tracing: a
discovery fix to an object in a mobile segment is recorded in the only
non-allocating way available: by making the entire segment **stuck**.


Pads
----

(See job001809_ and job001811_, and mps/branch/2009-03-31/padding.)

.. _job001809: https://www.ravenbrook.com/project/mps/issue/job001809/
.. _job001811: https://www.ravenbrook.com/project/mps/issue/job001811/

_`.pad`: A pad is logically a trivial client object. Pads are created
by the MPS asking the client's format code to create them, to fill up
a space in a segment. Thereafter, the pad appears to the MPS as a
normal client object (that is: the MPS cannot distinguish a pad from a
client object).

_`.pad.reason`: AMC creates pads for three reasons: buffer empty
fragment (BEF), large segment padding (LSP), and non-mobile reclaim
(NMR). (Large segment pads were new with job001811_.)

_`.pad.reason.bef`: Buffer empty fragment (BEF) pads are made by
``amcSegBufferEmpty()`` whenever it detaches a non-empty buffer from
an AMC segment. Buffer detachment is most often caused because the
buffer is too small for the current buffer reserve request (which may
be either a client requested or a forwarding allocation). Detachment
may happen for other reasons, such as trace flip.

_`.pad.reason.lsp`: Large segment padding (LSP) pads are made by
``AMCBufferFill()`` when the requested fill size is "large" (see `The
LSP payoff calculation`_ below). ``AMCBufferFill()`` fills the buffer
to exactly the size requested by the current buffer reserve operation;
that is: it does not round up to the whole segment size. This prevents
subsequent small objects being placed in the same segment as a single
very large object. If the buffer fill size is less than the segment
size, ``AMCBufferFill()`` fills any remainder with a large segment
pad.

_`.pad.reason.nmr`: Non-mobile reclaim (NMR) pads are made by
``amcSegReclaimNailed()``, when performing reclaim on a non-mobile (that
is, either boarded or stuck) segment:

The more common NMR scenario is reclaim of a boarded segment after a
non-emergency trace. Ambiguous references into the segment are
recorded as nails. Subsequent exact references to a nailed object do
nothing further, but exact refs that do not match a nail cause
preserve-by-copy and leave a forwarding object. Unreachable objects
are not touched during the scan+fix part of the trace. On reclaim,
only nailed objects need to be preserved; others (namely forwarding
pointers and unreachable objects) are replaced by an NMR pad. (Note
that a BEF or LSP pad appears to be an unreachable object, and is
therefore overwritten by an NMR pad).

The less common NMR scenario is after emergency tracing. Boarded
segments still occur; they may have nailed objects from ambiguous
references, forwarding objects from pre-emergency exact fixes, nailed
objects from mid-emergency exact fixes, and unpreserved objects;
reclaim is as in the non-emergency case. Stuck segments may have
forwarding objects from pre-emergency exact fixes, objects from
mid-emergency fixes, and unreachable objects -- but the latter two are
not distinguishable because there is no nailboard. On reclaim, all
objects except forwarding pointers are preserved; each forwarding
object is replaced by an NMR pad.

If ``amcSegReclaimNailed()`` finds no objects to be preserved then it
calls ``SegFree()`` (new with job001809_).


Placement pads are okay
-----------------------

Placement pads are the BEF and LSP pads created in "to-space" when
placing objects into segments. This wasted space is an expected
space-cost of AMC's naive (but time-efficient) approach to placement
of objects into segments. This is normally not a severe problem. (The
worst case is a client that always requests ``amc->extendBy + 1`` byte
objects: this has an overhead of nearly ``ArenaGrainSize() / amc->extendBy``).


Retained pads could be a problem
--------------------------------

Retained pads are the NMR pads stuck in "from-space": non-mobile
segments that were condemned but have preserved-in-place objects
cannot be freed by ``amcSegReclaimNailed()``. The space around the
preserved objects is filled with NMR pads.

In the worst case, retained pads could waste an enormous amount of
space! A small (one-byte) object could retain a multi-page segment for
as long as the ambiguous reference persists; that is: indefinitely.
Imagine a 256-page (1 MiB) segment containing a very large object
followed by a handful of small objects. An ambiguous reference to one
of the small objects will unfortunately cause the entire 256-page
segment to be retained, mostly as an NMR pad; this is a massive
overhead of wasted space.

AMC mitigates this worst-case behaviour, by treating large segments
specially.


Small, medium, and large segments
---------------------------------

AMC categorises segments as **small** (up to ``amc->extendBy``), **medium**
(larger than small but smaller than large), or **large** (``amc->largeSize`` or
more)::

    size = SegSize(seg);
    if(size < amc->extendBy) {
      /* small */
    } else if(size < amc->largeSize) {
      /* medium */
    } else {
      /* large */
    }</code></pre></blockquote>

``amc->extendBy`` defaults to 4096 (rounded up to the arena
alignment), and is settable by using ``MPS_KEY_EXTEND_BY`` keyword
argument. ``amc->largeSize`` is currently 32768 -- see `The LSP payoff
calculation`_ below.

AMC might treat "Large" segments specially, in two ways:

- _`.large.single-reserve`: A large segment is only used for a single
  (large) buffer reserve request; the remainder of the segment (if
  any) is immediately padded with an LSP pad.

- _`.large.lsp-no-retain`: Nails to such an LSP pad do not cause
  ``amcSegReclaimNailed()`` to retain the segment.

`.large.single-reserve`_ is implemented. See job001811_.

`.large.lsp-no-retain`_ is **not** currently implemented.

The point of `.large.lsp-no-retain`_ would be to avoid retention of
the (large) segment when there is a spurious ambiguous reference to
the LSP pad at the end of the segment. Such an ambiguous reference
might happen naturally and repeatably if the preceding large object is
an array, the array is accessed by an ambiguous element pointer (for
example, on the stack), and the element pointer ends up pointing just
off the end of the large object (as is normal for sequential element
access in C) and remains with that value for a while. (Such an
ambiguous reference could also occur by chance, for example, by
coincidence with an ``int`` or ``float``, or when the stack grows to
include old unerased values).

Implementing `.large.lsp-no-retain`_ is a little tricky. A pad is
indistinguishable from a client object, so AMC has no direct way to
detect, and safely ignore, the final LSP object in the seg. If AMC
could *guarantee* that the single buffer reserve
(`.large.single-reserve`_) is only used for a single *object*, then
``amcSegReclaimNailed()`` could honour a nail at the start of a large
seg and ignore all others; this would be extremely simple to
implement. But AMC cannot guarantee this, because in the MPS
Allocation Point Protocol the client is permitted to make a large
buffer reserve and then fill it with many small objects. In such a
case, AMC must honour all nails (if the buffer reserve request was an
exact multiple of the arena grain size), or all nails except to the
last object (if there was a remainder filled with an LSP pad). Because
an LSP pad cannot be distinguished from a client object, and the
requested allocation size is not recorded, AMC cannot distinguish
these two conditions at reclaim time. Therefore AMC must record
whether or not the last object in the seg is a pad, in order to ignore
nails to it. This could be done by adding a flag to ``AMCSegStruct``.
(This can be done without increasing the structure size, by making the
``Bool new`` field smaller than its current 32 bits.)


The LSP payoff calculation
--------------------------

The LSP fix for job001811_ treats large segments differently. Without
it, after allocating a very large object (in a new very large
multi-page segment), MPS would happily place subsequent small objects
in any remaining space at the end of the segment. This would risk
pathological fragmentation: if these small objects were systematically
preserved by ambiguous refs, enormous NMR pads would be retained along
with them.

The payoff calculation is a bit like deciding whether or not to
purchase insurance. For single-page and medium-sized segments, we go
ahead and use the remaining space for subsequent small objects. This
is equivalent to choosing **not** to purchase insurance. If the small
objects were to be preserved by ambiguous refs, the retained NMR pads
would be big, but not massive. We expect such ambiguous refs to be
uncommon, so we choose to live with this slight risk of bad
fragmentation. The benefit is that the remaining space is used.

For large segments, we decide that the risk of using the remainder is
just too great, and the benefit too small, so we throw it away as an
LSP pad. This is equivalent to purchasing insurance: we choose to pay
a known small cost every time, to avoid risking an occasional
disaster.

To decide what size of segment counts as "large", we must decide how
much uninsured risk we can tolerate, versus how much insurance cost we
can tolerate. The likelihood of ambiguous references retaining objects
is entirely dependent on client behaviour. However, as a sufficient
"one size fits all" policy, I (RHSK 2009-09-14) have judged that
segments smaller than eight pages long do not need to be treated as
large: the insurance cost to "play safe" would be considerable
(wasting up to one page of remainder per seven pages of allocation),
and the fragmentation overhead risk is not that great (at most eight
times worse than the unavoidable minimum). So ``AMC_LARGE_SIZE_DEFAULT`` is
defined as 32768 in config.h. As long as the assumption that most segments
are not ambiguously referenced remains correct, I expect this policy
will be satisfactory.

To verify that this threshold is acceptable for a given client,
poolamc.c calculates metrics; see `Feedback about retained pages`_
below. If this one-size-fits-all approach is not satisfactory,
``amc->largeSize`` is a client-tunable parameter which defaults to
``AMC_LARGE_SIZE_DEFAULT``. It can be tuned by passing an
``MPS_KEY_LARGE_SIZE`` keyword argument to ``mps_pool_create_k()``.


Retained pages
--------------

The reasons why a segment and its pages might be retained are:

#. ambiguous reference to first-obj: unavoidable page retention (only
   the mutator can reduce this, if they so wish, by nulling out ambig
   references);
#. ambiguous reference to rest-obj: tuning MPS LSP policy could
   mitigate this, reducing the likelihood of rest-objs being
   co-located with large first-objs;
#. ambiguous reference to final pad: implementing
   `.large.lsp-no-retain`_ could mitigate this;
#. ambiguous reference to other (NMR) pad: hard to mitigate, as pads
   are indistinguishable from client objects;
#. emergency trace;
#. non-object-aligned ambiguous ref: fixed by job001809_;
#. other reason (for example, buffered at flip): not expected to be a
   problem.

This list puts the reasons that are more "obvious" to the client
programmer first, and the more obscure reasons last.


Feedback about retained pages
-----------------------------

(New with job001811_). AMC now accumulates counts of pages condemned
and retained during a trace, in categories according to size and
reason for retention, and emits this via the ``AMCTraceEnd`` telemetry
event. See comments on the ``PageRetStruct`` in ``poolamc.c``. These
page-based metrics are not as precise as actually counting the size of
objects, but they require much less intrusive code to implement, and
should be sufficient to assess whether AMC's page retention policies
and behaviour are acceptable.


Initial design
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_`.initial-design`: This section contains the original design for the
AMC Pool Class.


Introduction
------------

_`.intro`: This is the design of the AMC Pool Class. AMC stands for
Automatic Mostly-Copying. This design is highly fragmentory and some
may even be sufficiently old to be misleading.

_`.readership`: The intended readership is any MPS developer.


Overview
--------

_`.overview`: This class is intended to be the main pool class used by
Harlequin Dylan. It provides garbage collection of objects (hence
"automatic"). It uses generational copying algorithms, but with some
facility for handling small numbers of ambiguous references. Ambiguous
references prevent the pool from copying objects (hence "mostly
copying"). It provides incremental collection.

.. note::

   A lot of this design is awesomely old. David Jones, 1998-02-04.


Definitions
-----------

_`.def.grain`: Grain. An quantity of memory which is both aligned to
the pool's alignment and equal to the pool's alignment in size. That
is, the smallest amount of memory worth talking about.


Segments
--------

_`.seg.class`: AMC allocates segments of class ``AMCSegClass``, which
is a subclass of ``MutatorSegClass`` (see
design.mps.seg.over.hierarchy.mutatorseg_).

.. _design.mps.seg.over.hierarchy.mutatorseg: seg#.over.hierarchy.mutatorseg

_`.seg.gen`: AMC organizes the segments it manages into generations.

_`.seg.gen.map`: Every segment is in exactly one generation.

_`.seg.gen.ind`: The segment's ``gen`` field indicates which
generation (that the segment is in) (an ``AMCGenStruct`` see blah
below).

_`.seg.gen.get`: The map from segment to generation is implemented by
``amcSegGen()`` which deals with all this.


Fixing and nailing
------------------

.. note::

    This section contains placeholders for design rather than design
    really. David Jones, 1998-02-04.

_`.nailboard`: AMC uses a nailboard structure for recording ambiguous
references to segments. See design.mps.nailboard_.

.. _design.mps.nailboard: nailboard

_`.nailboard.create`: A nailboard is allocated dynamically whenever a
segment becomes newly ambiguously referenced. This table is used by
subsequent scans and reclaims in order to work out which objects were
ambiguously referenced.

_`.nailboard.destroy`: The nailboatrd is deallocated during reclaim.

_`.nailboard.emergency`: During emergency tracing two things relating
to nailboards happen that don't normally:

#. _`.nailboard.emergency.nonew`: Nailboards aren't allocated when we
   have new ambiguous references to segments.

   _`.nailboard.emergency.nonew.justify`: We could try and allocate a
   nailboard, but we're in emergency mode so short of memory so it's
   unlikely to succeed, and there would be additional code for yet
   another error path which complicates things.

#. _`.nailboard.emergency.exact`: nailboards are used to record exact
   references in order to avoid copying the objects.

   _`.nailboard.hyper-conservative`: Not creating new nailboards
   (`.nailboard.emergency.nonew`_ above) means that when we have a new
   reference to a segment during emergency tracing then we nail the
   entire segment and preserve everything in place.

_`.fix.nail.states`: Partition the segment states into four sets:

#. white segment and not nailed (and has no nailboard);
#. white segment and nailed and has no nailboard;
#. white segment and nailed and has nailboard;
#. the rest.

_`.fix.nail.why`: A segment is recorded as being nailed when either
there is an ambiguous reference to it, or there is an exact reference
to it and the object couldn't be copied off the segment (because there
wasn't enough memory to allocate the copy). In either of these cases
reclaim cannot simply destroy the segment (usually the segment will
not be destroyed because it will have live objects on it, though see
`.nailboard.limitations.middle`_ below). If the segment is nailed then
we might be using a nailboard to mark objects on the segment.
However, we cannot guarantee that being nailed implies a nailboard,
because we might not be able to allocate the nailboard. Hence all
these states actually occur in practice.

_`.fix.nail.distinguish`: The nailed bits in the segment descriptor
(``SegStruct``) are used to record the set of traces for which a
segment has nailed objects.

_`.nailboard.limitations.single`: Just having a single nailboard per
segment prevents traces from improving on the findings of each other:
a later trace could find that a nailed object is no longer nailed or
even dead. Until the nailboard is discarded, that is.

_`.nailboard.limitations.middle`: An ambiguous reference to a segment
that does not point into any object in that segment will cause that
segment to survive even though there are no surviving objects on it.


Emergency tracing
-----------------

_`.emergency.fix`: ``amcSegFixEmergency()`` is at the core of AMC's
emergency tracing policy (unsurprisingly). ``amcSegFixEmergency()``
chooses exactly one of three options:

#. use the existing nailboard structure to record the fix;
#. preserve and nail the segment in its entirety;
#. snapout an exact (or high rank) pointer to a broken heart to the
   broken heart's forwarding pointer.

If the rank of the reference is ``RankAMBIG`` then it either does (1)
or (2) depending on whether there is an existing nailboard or not.
Otherwise (the rank is exact or higher) if there is a broken heart it
is used to snapout the pointer. Otherwise it is as for an
``RankAMBIG`` reference: we either do (1) or (2).

_`.emergency.scan`: This is basically as before, the only complication
is that when scanning a nailed segment we may need to do multiple
passes, as ``amcSegFixEmergency()`` may introduce new marks into the
nail board.


Buffers
-------

_`.buffer.class`: AMC uses buffer of class ``AMCBufClass`` (a subclass
of SegBufClass).

_`.buffer.gen`: Each buffer allocates into exactly one generation.

_`.buffer.field.gen`: ``AMCBuf`` buffer contain a gen field which
points to the generation that the buffer allocates into.

_`.buffer.fill.gen`: ``AMCBufferFill()`` uses the generation (obtained
from the ``gen`` field) to initialise the segment's ``segTypeP`` field
which is how segments get allocated in that generation.

_`.buffer.condemn`: We condemn buffered segments, but not the contents
of the buffers themselves, because we can't reclaim uncommitted
buffers (see design.mps.buffer_ for details). If the segment has a
forwarding buffer on it, we detach it.

.. _design.mps.buffer: buffer

.. note::

    Why? Forwarding buffers are detached because they used to cause
    objects on the same segment to not get condemned, hence caused
    retention of garbage. Now that we condemn the non-buffered portion
    of buffered segments this is probably unnecessary. David Jones,
    1998-06-01.

    But it's probably more efficient than keeping the buffer on the
    segment, because then the other stuff gets nailed -- Pekka P.
    Pirinen, 1998-07-10.

If the segment has a mutator buffer on it, we nail the buffer. If the
buffer cannot be nailed, we give up condemning, since nailing the
whole segment would make it survive anyway. The scan methods skip over
buffers and fix methods don't do anything to things that have already
been nailed, so the buffer is effectively black.


Types
-----

_`.struct`: ``AMCStruct`` is the pool class AMC instance structure.

_`.struct.pool`: Like other pool class instances, it contains a
``PoolStruct`` containing the generic pool fields.

_`.struct.format`: The ``format`` field points to a ``Format``
structure describing the object format of objects allocated in the
pool. The field is initialized by ``AMCInit()`` from a parameter, and
thereafter it is not changed until the pool is destroyed.

.. note::

    Actually the format field is in the generic ``PoolStruct`` these
    days. David Jones, 1998-09-21.

.. note::

    There are lots more fields here.


Generations
-----------

_`.gen`: Generations partition the segments that a pool manages (see
`.seg.gen.map`_ above).

_`.gen.collect`: Generations are more or less the units of
condemnation in AMC. And also the granularity for forwarding (when
copying objects during a collection): all the objects which are copied
out of a generation use the same forwarding buffer for allocating the
new copies, and a forwarding buffer results in allocation in exactly
one generation.

_`.gen.rep`: Generations are represented using an ``AMCGenStruct``
structure.

_`.gen.create`: All the generations are created when the pool is
created (during ``AMCInitComm()``).

_`.gen.manage.ring`: An AMC's generations are kept on a ring attached
to the ``AMCStruct`` (the ``genRing`` field).

_`.gen.manage.array`: They are also kept in an array which is
allocated when the pool is created and attached to the ``AMCStruct``
(the gens field holds the number of generations, the ``gen`` field
points to an array of ``AMCGen``).

.. note::

    it seems to me that we could probably get rid of the ring. David
    Jones, 1998-09-22.

_`.gen.number`: There are ``AMCTopGen + 2`` generations in total.
"normal" generations numbered from 0 to ``AMCTopGen`` inclusive and an
extra "ramp" generation (see `.gen.ramp`_ below).

_`.gen.forward`: Each generation has an associated forwarding buffer
(stored in the ``forward`` field of ``AMCGen``). This is the buffer
that is used to forward objects out of this generation. When a
generation is created in ``AMCGenCreate()``, its forwarding buffer has
a null ``p`` field, indicating that the forwarding buffer has no
generation to allocate in. The collector will assert out (in
``AMCBufferFill()`` where it checks that ``buffer->p`` is an
``AMCGen``) if you try to forward an object out of such a generation.

_`.gen.forward.setup`: All the generation's forwarding buffer's are
associated with generations when the pool is created (just after the
generations are created in ``AMCInitComm()``).


Ramps
-----

_`.ramp`: Ramps usefully implement the begin/end
``mps_alloc_pattern_ramp()`` interface.

_`.gen.ramp`: To implement ramping (request.dylan.170423_), AMC uses a
special "ramping mode", where promotions are redirected. One
generation is designated the "ramp generation" (``amc->rampGen`` in
the code).

.. _request.dylan.170423: https://info.ravenbrook.com/project/mps/import/2001-11-05/mmprevol/request/dylan/170423

_`.gen.ramp.ordinary`: Ordinarily, that is whilst not ramping, objects
are promoted into the ramp generation from younger generations and are
promoted out to older generations. The generation that the ramp
generation ordinarily promotes into is designated the "after-ramp
generation" (``amc->afterRampGen``).

_`.gen.ramp.particular`: the ramp generation is the second oldest
generation and the after-ramp generation is the oldest generation.

_`.gen.ramp.possible`: In alternative designs it might be possible to
make the ramp generation a special generation that is only promoted
into during ramping, however, this is not done.

_`.gen.ramp.ramping`: The ramp generation is promoted into itself
during ramping mode;

_`.gen.ramp.after`: after this mode ends, the ramp generation is
promoted into the after-ramp generation as usual.

_`.gen.ramp.after.once`: Care is taken to
ensure that there is at least one collection where stuff is promoted
from the ramp generation to the after-ramp generation even if ramping
mode is immediately re-entered.

_`.ramp.mode`: This behaviour is controlled in a slightly convoluted
manner by a state machine. The rampMode field of the pool forms an
important part of the state of the machine.

There are five states: OUTSIDE, BEGIN, RAMPING, FINISH, and
COLLECTING. These appear in the code as ``RampOUTSIDE`` and so on.

_`.ramp.state.cycle.usual`: The usual progression of states is a
cycle: OUTSIDE → BEGIN → RAMPING → FINISH → COLLECTING → OUTSIDE.

_`.ramp.count`: The pool just counts the number of APs that have begun
ramp mode (and not ended). No state changes occur unless this count
goes from 0 to 1 (starting the first ramp) or from 1 to 0 (leaving the
last ramp). In other words, all nested ramps are ignored (see code in
``AMCRampBegin()`` and ``AMCRampEnd()``).

_`.ramp.state.invariant.count`: In the OUTSIDE state the count must be
zero. In the BEGIN and RAMPING states the count must be greater than
zero. In the FINISH and COLLECTING states the count is not
constrained.

_`.ramp.state.invariant.forward`: When in OUTSIDE, BEGIN, or
COLLECTING, the ramp generation forwards to the after-ramp generation.
When in RAMPING or FINISH, the ramp generation forwards to itself.

_`.ramp.outside`: The pool is initially in the OUTSIDE state. The only
transition away from the OUTSIDE state is to the BEGIN state, when a
ramp is entered.

_`.ramp.begin`: When the count goes up from zero, the state moves from
COLLECTING or OUTSIDE to BEGIN.

_`.ramp.begin.leave`: We can leave the BEGIN state to either the
OUTSIDE or the RAMPING state.

_`.ramp.begin.leave.outside`: We go to OUTSIDE if the count drops to 0
before a collection starts. This shortcuts the usual cycle of states
for small enough ramps.

_`.ramp.begin.leave.ramping`: We enter the RAMPING state if a
collection starts that condemns the ramp generation (pedantically when
a new GC begins, and a segment in the ramp generation is condemned, we
leave the BEGIN state, see ``amcSegWhiten()``). At this point we
switch the ramp generation to forward to itself
(`.gen.ramp.ramping`_).

_`.ramp.ramping.leave`: We leave the RAMPING state and go to the
FINISH state when the ramp count goes back to zero. Thus, the FINISH
state indicates that we have started collecting the ramp generation
while inside a ramp which we have subsequently finished.

_`.ramp.finish.remain`: We remain in the FINISH state until we next
start to collect the ramp generation (condemn it), regardless of
entering or leaving any ramps. This ensures that the ramp generation
will be collected to the after-ramp generation at least once.

_`.ramp.finish.leave`: When we next condemn the ramp generation, we
move to the COLLECTING state. At this point the forwarding generations
are switched back so that the ramp generation promotes into the
after-ramp generation on this collection.

_`.ramp.collecting.leave`: We leave the COLLECTING state when the GC
enters reclaim (specifically, when a segment in the ramp generation is
reclaimed), or when we begin another ramp. Ordinarily we enter the
OUTSIDE state, but if the client has started a ramp then we go
directly to the BEGIN state.

_`.ramp.collect-all` There used to be two flavours of ramps: the
normal one and the collect-all flavour that triggered a full GC after
the ramp end. This was a hack for producing certain Dylan statistics,
and no longer has any effect (the flag is passed to
``AMCRampBegin()``, but ignored there).


Headers
-------

_`.header`: AMC supports a fixed-size header on objects, with the
client pointers pointing after the header, rather than the base of the
memory block. See format documentation for details of the interface.

_`.header.client`: The code mostly deals in client pointers, only
computing the base and limit of a block when these are needed (such as
when an object is copied). In several places, the code gets a block of
some sort (a segment or a buffer) and creates a client pointer by
adding the header size (``pool->format->headerSize``).


Old and aging notes below here
------------------------------

``void AMCFinish(Pool pool)``

_`.finish.forward`: If the pool is being destroyed it is OK to destroy
the forwarding buffers, as the condemned set is about to disappear.


``void amcSegBufferEmpty(Seg seg, Buffer buffer)``

_`.flush`: Free the unused part of the buffer to the segment.

_`.flush.pad`: The segment is padded out with a dummy object so that
it appears full.

_`.flush.expose`: The segment needs exposing before writing the
padding object onto it. If the segment is being used for forwarding it
might already be exposed, in this case the segment attached to it must
be covered when it leaves the buffer. See `.fill.expose`_.

_`.flush.cover`: The segment needs covering whether it was being used
for forwarding or not. See `.flush.expose`_.


``Res AMCBufferFill(Addr *baseReturn, Addr *limitReturn, Pool pool, Buffer buffer, Size size)``

_`.fill`: Reserve was called on an allocation buffer which was reset,
or there wasn't enough room left in the buffer. Allocate a group for
the new object and attach it to the buffer.

_`.fill.expose`: If the buffer is being used for forwarding it may be
exposed, in which case the group attached to it should be exposed. See
`.flush.cover`_.


``Res amcSegFix(Seg seg, ScanState ss, Ref *refIO)``

_`.fix`: Fix a reference to an AMC segment.

Ambiguous references lock down an entire segment by removing it
from old-space and also marking it grey for future scanning.

Exact, final, and weak references are merged because the action for an
already forwarded object is the same in each case. After that
situation is checked for, the code diverges.

Weak references are either snapped out or replaced with
``ss->weakSplat`` as appropriate.

Exact and final references cause the referenced object to be copied to
new-space and the old copy to be forwarded (broken-heart installed) so
that future references are fixed up to point at the new copy.

_`.fix.exact.expose`: In order to allocate the new copy the forwarding
buffer must be exposed. This might be done more efficiently outside
the entire scan, since it's likely to happen a lot.

_`.fix.exact.grey`: The new copy must be at least as grey as the old
as it may have been grey for some other collection.


``Res amcSegScan(Bool *totalReturn, Seg seg, ScanState ss1)``

_`.scan`: Searches for a group which is grey for the trace and scans
it. If there aren't any, it sets the finished flag to true.


``void amcSegReclaim(Seg seg, Trace trace)``

_`.reclaim`: After a trace, destroy any groups which are still
condemned for the trace, because they must be dead.

_`.reclaim.grey`: Note that this might delete things which are grey
for other collections. This is OK, because we have conclusively proved
that they are dead -- the other collection must have assumed they were
alive. There might be a problem with the accounting of grey groups,
however.

_`.reclaim.buf`: If a condemned group still has a buffer attached, we
can't destroy it, even though we know that there are no live objects
there. Even the object the mutator is allocating is dead, because the
buffer is tripped.


Document History
----------------
- 1995-08-25 RB_ Incomplete design.

- 2002-06-07 RB_ Converted from MMInfo database design document.

- 2009-08-11 Richard Kistruck. Fix HTML duplicated anchor names
  (caused by auto-conversion to HTML).

- 2009-08-11 Richard Kistruck. Prepend Guide, using
  design/template-with-guide.html.

- 2009-09-14 Richard Kistruck. Guide covers: seg states; pads;
  retained pages.

- 2013-05-23 GDR_ Converted to reStructuredText.

.. _RB: https://www.ravenbrook.com/consultants/rb/
.. _GDR: https://www.ravenbrook.com/consultants/gdr/


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