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1 <HTML>
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2 <HEAD>
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3 <TITLE> Two-Level Tree Structure for Fast Pointer Lookup</TITLE>
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4 <AUTHOR> Hans-J. Boehm, Silicon Graphics (now at HP)</author>
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5 </HEAD>
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6 <BODY>
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7 <H1>Two-Level Tree Structure for Fast Pointer Lookup</h1>
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8 <P>
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9 The conservative garbage collector described
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10 <A HREF="http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/">here</a>
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11 uses a 2-level tree
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12 data structure to aid in fast pointer identification.
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13 This data structure is described in a bit more detail here, since
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14 <OL>
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15 <LI> Variations of the data structure are more generally useful.
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16 <LI> It appears to be hard to understand by reading the code.
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17 <LI> Some other collectors appear to use inferior data structures to
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18 solve the same problem.
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19 <LI> It is central to fast collector operation.
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20 </ol>
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21 A candidate pointer is divided into three sections, the <I>high</i>,
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22 <I>middle</i>, and <I>low</i> bits. The exact division between these
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23 three groups of bits is dependent on the detailed collector configuration.
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24 <P>
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25 The high and middle bits are used to look up an entry in the table described
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26 here. The resulting table entry consists of either a block descriptor
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27 (<TT>struct hblkhdr *</tt> or <TT>hdr *</tt>)
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28 identifying the layout of objects in the block, or an indication that this
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29 address range corresponds to the middle of a large block, together with a
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30 hint for locating the actual block descriptor. Such a hint consist
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31 of a displacement that can be subtracted from the middle bits of the candidate
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32 pointer without leaving the object.
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33 <P>
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34 In either case, the block descriptor (<TT>struct hblkhdr</tt>)
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35 refers to a table of object starting addresses (the <TT>hb_map</tt> field).
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36 The starting address table is indexed by the low bits if the candidate pointer.
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37 The resulting entry contains a displacement to the beginning of the object,
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38 or an indication that this cannot be a valid object pointer.
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39 (If all interior pointer are recognized, pointers into large objects
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40 are handled specially, as appropriate.)
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41
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42 <H2>The Tree</h2>
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43 <P>
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44 The rest of this discussion focuses on the two level data structure
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45 used to map the high and middle bits to the block descriptor.
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46 <P>
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47 The high bits are used as an index into the <TT>GC_top_index</tt> (really
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48 <TT>GC_arrays._top_index</tt>) array. Each entry points to a
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49 <TT>bottom_index</tt> data structure. This structure in turn consists
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50 mostly of an array <TT>index</tt> indexed by the middle bits of
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51 the candidate pointer. The <TT>index</tt> array contains the actual
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52 <TT>hdr</tt> pointers.
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53 <P>
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54 Thus a pointer lookup consists primarily of a handful of memory references,
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55 and can be quite fast:
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56 <OL>
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57 <LI> The appropriate <TT>bottom_index</tt> pointer is looked up in
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58 <TT>GC_top_index</tt>, based on the high bits of the candidate pointer.
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59 <LI> The appropriate <TT>hdr</tt> pointer is looked up in the
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60 <TT>bottom_index</tt> structure, based on the middle bits.
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61 <LI> The block layout map pointer is retrieved from the <TT>hdr</tt>
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62 structure. (This memory reference is necessary since we try to share
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63 block layout maps.)
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64 <LI> The displacement to the beginning of the object is retrieved from the
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65 above map.
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66 </ol>
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67 <P>
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68 In order to conserve space, not all <TT>GC_top_index</tt> entries in fact
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69 point to distinct <TT>bottom_index</tt> structures. If no address with
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70 the corresponding high bits is part of the heap, then the entry points
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71 to <TT>GC_all_nils</tt>, a single <TT>bottom_index</tt> structure consisting
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72 only of NULL <TT>hdr</tt> pointers.
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73 <P>
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74 <TT>Bottom_index</tt> structures contain slightly more information than
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75 just <TT>hdr</tt> pointers. The <TT>asc_link</tt> field is used to link
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76 all <TT>bottom_index</tt> structures in ascending order for fast traversal.
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77 This list is pointed to be <TT>GC_all_bottom_indices</tt>.
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78 It is maintained with the aid of <TT>key</tt> field that contains the
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79 high bits corresponding to the <TT>bottom_index</tt>.
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80
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81 <H2>64 bit addresses</h2>
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82 <P>
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83 In the case of 64 bit addresses, this picture is complicated slightly
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84 by the fact that one of the index structures would have to be huge to
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85 cover the entire address space with a two level tree. We deal with this
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86 by turning <TT>GC_top_index</tt> into a chained hash table, instead of
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87 a simple array. This adds a <TT>hash_link</tt> field to the
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88 <TT>bottom_index</tt> structure.
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89 <P>
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90 The "hash function" consists of dropping the high bits. This is cheap to
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91 compute, and guarantees that there will be no collisions if the heap
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92 is contiguous and not excessively large.
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93
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94 <H2>A picture</h2>
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95 <P>
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96 The following is an ASCII diagram of the data structure.
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97 This was contributed by Dave Barrett several years ago.
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98 <PRE>
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99
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100 Data Structure used by GC_base in gc3.7:
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101 21-Apr-94
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102
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103
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104
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105
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106 63 LOG_TOP_SZ[11] LOG_BOTTOM_SZ[10] LOG_HBLKSIZE[13]
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107 +------------------+----------------+------------------+------------------+
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108 p:| | TL_HASH(hi) | | HBLKDISPL(p) |
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109 +------------------+----------------+------------------+------------------+
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110 \-----------------------HBLKPTR(p)-------------------/
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111 \------------hi-------------------/
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112 \______ ________/ \________ _______/ \________ _______/
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113 V V V
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114 | | |
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115 GC_top_index[] | | |
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116 --- +--------------+ | | |
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117 ^ | | | | |
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118 | | | | | |
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119 TOP +--------------+<--+ | |
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120 _SZ +-<| [] | * | |
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121 (items)| +--------------+ if 0 < bi< HBLKSIZE | |
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122 | | | | then large object | |
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123 | | | | starts at the bi'th | |
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124 v | | | HBLK before p. | i |
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125 --- | +--------------+ | (word- |
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126 v | aligned) |
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127 bi= |GET_BI(p){->hash_link}->key==hi | |
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128 v | |
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129 | (bottom_index) \ scratch_alloc'd | |
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130 | ( struct bi ) / by get_index() | |
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131 --- +->+--------------+ | |
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132 ^ | | | |
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133 ^ | | | |
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134 BOTTOM | | ha=GET_HDR_ADDR(p) | |
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135 _SZ(items)+--------------+<----------------------+ +-------+
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136 | +--<| index[] | |
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137 | | +--------------+ GC_obj_map: v
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138 | | | | from / +-+-+-----+-+-+-+-+ ---
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139 v | | | GC_add < 0| | | | | | | | ^
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140 --- | +--------------+ _map_entry \ +-+-+-----+-+-+-+-+ |
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141 | | asc_link | +-+-+-----+-+-+-+-+ MAXOBJSZ
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142 | +--------------+ +-->| | | j | | | | | +1
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143 | | key | | +-+-+-----+-+-+-+-+ |
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144 | +--------------+ | +-+-+-----+-+-+-+-+ |
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145 | | hash_link | | | | | | | | | | v
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146 | +--------------+ | +-+-+-----+-+-+-+-+ ---
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147 | | |<--MAX_OFFSET--->|
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148 | | (bytes)
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149 HDR(p)| GC_find_header(p) | |<--MAP_ENTRIES-->|
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150 | \ from | =HBLKSIZE/WORDSZ
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151 | (hdr) (struct hblkhdr) / alloc_hdr() | (1024 on Alpha)
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152 +-->+----------------------+ | (8/16 bits each)
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153 GET_HDR(p)| word hb_sz (words) | |
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154 +----------------------+ |
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155 | struct hblk *hb_next | |
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156 +----------------------+ |
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157 |mark_proc hb_mark_proc| |
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158 +----------------------+ |
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159 | char * hb_map |>-------------+
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160 +----------------------+
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161 | ushort hb_obj_kind |
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162 +----------------------+
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163 | hb_last_reclaimed |
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164 --- +----------------------+
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165 ^ | |
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166 MARK_BITS| hb_marks[] | *if hdr is free, hb_sz + DISCARD_WORDS
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167 _SZ(words)| | is the size of a heap chunk (struct hblk)
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168 v | | of at least MININCR*HBLKSIZE bytes (below),
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169 --- +----------------------+ otherwise, size of each object in chunk.
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170
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171 Dynamic data structures above are interleaved throughout the heap in blocks of
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172 size MININCR * HBLKSIZE bytes as done by gc_scratch_alloc which cannot be
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173 freed; free lists are used (e.g. alloc_hdr). HBLK's below are collected.
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174
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175 (struct hblk)
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176 --- +----------------------+ < HBLKSIZE --- --- DISCARD_
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177 ^ |garbage[DISCARD_WORDS]| aligned ^ ^ HDR_BYTES WORDS
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178 | | | | v (bytes) (words)
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179 | +-----hb_body----------+ < WORDSZ | --- ---
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180 | | | aligned | ^ ^
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181 | | Object 0 | | hb_sz |
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182 | | | i |(word- (words)|
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183 | | | (bytes)|aligned) v |
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184 | + - - - - - - - - - - -+ --- | --- |
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185 | | | ^ | ^ |
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186 n * | | j (words) | hb_sz BODY_SZ
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187 HBLKSIZE | Object 1 | v v | (words)
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188 (bytes) | |--------------- v MAX_OFFSET
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189 | + - - - - - - - - - - -+ --- (bytes)
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190 | | | !All_INTERIOR_PTRS ^ |
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191 | | | sets j only for hb_sz |
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192 | | Object N | valid object offsets. | |
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193 v | | All objects WORDSZ v v
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194 --- +----------------------+ aligned. --- ---
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195
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196 DISCARD_WORDS is normally zero. Indeed the collector has not been tested
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197 with another value in ages.
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198 </pre>
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199 </body>
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