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LIBPMEMBLK(7)		   PMDK	Programmer's Manual		 LIBPMEMBLK(7)

NAME
       libpmemblk - persistent memory resident array of	blocks

SYNOPSIS
	      #include <libpmemblk.h>
	      cc ... -lpmemblk -lpmem

   Library API versioning:
	      const char *pmemblk_check_version(
		  unsigned major_required,
		  unsigned minor_required);

   Managing library behavior:
	      void pmemblk_set_funcs(
		  void *(*malloc_func)(size_t size),
		  void (*free_func)(void *ptr),
		  void *(*realloc_func)(void *ptr, size_t size),
		  char *(*strdup_func)(const char *s));

   Error handling:
	      const char *pmemblk_errormsg(void);

   Other library functions:
       A description of	other libpmemblk functions can be found	on the follow-
       ing manual pages:

       pmemblk_bsize(3),   pmemblk_create(3),	 pmemblk_ctl_exec(3),	 pmem-
       blk_ctl_get(3),	pmemblk_ctl_set(3),  pmemblk_read(3),  pmemblk_set_ze-
       ro(3),

DESCRIPTION
       libpmemblk provides an array of blocks in persistent memory (pmem) such
       that  updates  to  a single block are atomic.  This library is intended
       for applications	using direct access storage (DAX),  which  is  storage
       that  supports  load/store  access  without  paging blocks from a block
       storage device.	Some types of non-volatile memory DIMMs	(NVDIMMs) pro-
       vide  this  type	 of  byte addressable access to	storage.  A persistent
       memory aware file system	is typically used to expose the	direct	access
       to  applications.   Memory mapping a file from this type	of file	system
       results in the load/store, non-paged access to pmem.  libpmemblk	builds
       on this type of memory mapped file.

       This library is for applications	that need a potentially	large array of
       blocks, all the same size, where	any given block	is updated  atomically
       (the  update cannot be torn by program interruption such	as power fail-
       ures).  This library builds on the low-level pmem support  provided  by
       libpmem(3),  handling  the transactional	update of the blocks, flushing
       to persistence, and recovery for	the application.  libpmemblk is	one of
       a collection of persistent memory libraries available, the others are:

       o libpmemobj(7),	 a general use persistent memory API, providing	memory
	 allocation and	transactional operations on variable-sized objects.

       o libpmemlog(7),	providing a pmem-resident log file.

       o libpmem(7), low-level persistent memory support.

       Under normal usage, libpmemblk will never print messages	or  intention-
       ally  cause the process to exit.	 The only exception to this is the de-
       bugging information, when enabled, as described under DEBUGGING AND ER-
       ROR HANDLING below.

       To use the atomic block arrays supplied by libpmemblk, a	memory pool is
       first created using the pmemblk_create()	function  described  in	 pmem-
       blk_create(3).  The other libpmemblk functions operate on the resulting
       block memory pool using the opaque handle, of type  PMEMblkpool*,  that
       is  returned  by	pmemblk_create() or pmemblk_open().  Internally, libp-
       memblk will use either pmem_persist(3) or msync(2)  when	 it  needs  to
       flush  changes, depending on whether the	memory pool appears to be per-
       sistent memory or a regular file	(see the pmem_is_pmem(3)  function  in
       libpmem(7) for more information).  There	is no need for applications to
       flush changes directly when using the  block  memory  API  provided  by
       libpmemblk.

CAVEATS
       libpmemblk  relies on the library destructor being called from the main
       thread.	For this reason, all functions that might trigger  destruction
       (e.g.  dlclose(3)) should be called in the main thread.	Otherwise some
       of the resources	associated with	that thread might not  be  cleaned  up
       properly.

LIBRARY	API VERSIONING
       This  section  describes	how the	library	API is versioned, allowing ap-
       plications to work with an evolving API.

       The pmemblk_check_version() function is used to determine  whether  the
       installed  libpmemblk  supports the version of the library API required
       by an application.  The easiest way to do this is for  the  application
       to  supply the compile-time version information,	supplied by defines in
       <ibpmemblk.h>, like this:

	      reason = pmemblk_check_version(PMEMBLK_MAJOR_VERSION,
					     PMEMBLK_MINOR_VERSION);
	      if (reason != NULL) {
		  /* version check failed, reason string tells you why */
	      }

       Any mismatch in the major version number	is considered a	failure, but a
       library	with  a	 newer minor version number will pass this check since
       increasing minor	versions imply backwards compatibility.

       An application can also check specifically for the existence of an  in-
       terface	by  checking  for  the version where that interface was	intro-
       duced.  These versions are documented in	this man page as follows:  un-
       less  otherwise	specified, all interfaces described here are available
       in version 1.0 of the library.  Interfaces added	after version 1.0 will
       contain the text	introduced in version x.y in the section of this manu-
       al describing the feature.

       When the	version	check performed	by pmemblk_check_version() is success-
       ful,  the return	value is NULL.	Otherwise the return value is a	static
       string describing the reason for	failing	the version check.  The	string
       returned	by pmemblk_check_version() must	not be modified	or freed.

MANAGING LIBRARY BEHAVIOR
       The pmemblk_set_funcs() function	allows an application to override mem-
       ory allocation calls used internally by libpmemblk.   Passing  in  NULL
       for  any	 of the	handlers will cause the	libpmemblk default function to
       be used.	 The library does not make heavy  use  of  the	system	malloc
       functions,  but	it  does allocate approximately	4-8 kilobytes for each
       memory pool in use.

DEBUGGING AND ERROR HANDLING
       The pmemblk_errormsg() function returns a pointer to  a	static	buffer
       containing  the	last  error message logged for the current thread.  If
       errno was set, the error	message	may include a description of the  cor-
       responding  error  code,	as returned by strerror(3).  The error message
       buffer is thread-local; errors encountered in one thread	do not	affect
       its value in other threads.  The	buffer is never	cleared	by any library
       function; its content is	significant only when the return value of  the
       immediately preceding call to a libpmemblk function indicated an	error,
       or if errno was set.  The application must not modify or	free the error
       message string, but it may be modified by subsequent calls to other li-
       brary functions.

       Two versions of libpmemblk are typically	 available  on	a  development
       system.	 The  normal  version, accessed	when a program is linked using
       the -lpmemblk option, is	optimized for performance.  That version skips
       checks  that impact performance and never logs any trace	information or
       performs	any run-time assertions.  If an	error is detected in a call to
       libpmemblk,  the	 error message describing the failure may be retrieved
       with pmemblk_errormsg() as described above.

       A second	version	of libpmemblk, accessed	when a program	uses  the  li-
       braries	under  /usr/lib/pmdk_debug,  contains  run-time	assertions and
       trace points.  The typical way to access	the debug version  is  to  set
       the  LD_LIBRARY_PATH  environment  variable  to	/usr/lib/pmdk_debug or
       /usr/lib64/pmdk_debug, as appropriate.  Debugging output	is  controlled
       using the following environment variables.  These variables have	no ef-
       fect on the non-debug version of	the library.

       o PMEMBLK_LOG_LEVEL

       The value of PMEMBLK_LOG_LEVEL enables trace points in the  debug  ver-
       sion of the library, as follows:

       o 0  - This is the default level	when PMEMBLK_LOG_LEVEL is not set.  No
	 log messages are emitted at this level.

       o 1 - Additional	details	on any errors detected are logged, in addition
	 to  returning	the errno-based	errors as usual.  The same information
	 may be	retrieved using	pmemblk_errormsg().

       o 2 - A trace of	basic operations is logged.

       o 3 - Enables a very verbose amount of function call tracing in the li-
	 brary.

       o 4 - Enables voluminous	and fairly obscure tracing information that is
	 likely	only useful to the libpmemblk developers.

       Unless PMEMBLK_LOG_FILE is set, debugging output	is written to stderr.

       o PMEMBLK_LOG_FILE

       Specifies the name of a file where all logging  information  should  be
       written.	 If the	last character in the name is "-", the PID of the cur-
       rent process will be appended to	the file name when  the	 log  file  is
       created.	 If PMEMBLK_LOG_FILE is	not set, the logging output is written
       to stderr.

       See also	libpmem(7) for information on other environment	variables that
       may affect libpmemblk behavior.

EXAMPLE
       The following example illustrates how the libpmemblk API	is used.

	      #include <fcntl.h>
	      #include <errno.h>
	      #include <stdlib.h>
	      #include <unistd.h>
	      #include <string.h>
	      #include <libpmemblk.h>

	      /* size of the pmemblk pool -- 1 GB */
	      #define POOL_SIZE	((size_t)(1 << 30))

	      /* size of each element in the pmem pool */
	      #define ELEMENT_SIZE 1024

	      int
	      main(int argc, char *argv[])
	      {
		  const	char path[] = "/pmem-fs/myfile";
		  PMEMblkpool *pbp;
		  size_t nelements;
		  char buf[ELEMENT_SIZE];

		  /* create the	pmemblk	pool or	open it	if it already exists */
		  pbp =	pmemblk_create(path, ELEMENT_SIZE, POOL_SIZE, 0666);

		  if (pbp == NULL)
		      pbp = pmemblk_open(path, ELEMENT_SIZE);

		  if (pbp == NULL) {
		      perror(path);
		      exit(1);
		  }

		  /* how many elements fit into	the file? */
		  nelements = pmemblk_nblock(pbp);
		  printf("file holds %zu elements", nelements);

		  /* store a block at index 5 */
		  strcpy(buf, "hello, world");
		  if (pmemblk_write(pbp, buf, 5) < 0) {
		      perror("pmemblk_write");
		      exit(1);
		  }

		  /* read the block at index 10	(reads as zeros	initially) */
		  if (pmemblk_read(pbp,	buf, 10) < 0) {
		      perror("pmemblk_read");
		      exit(1);
		  }

		  /* zero out the block	at index 5 */
		  if (pmemblk_set_zero(pbp, 5) < 0) {
		      perror("pmemblk_set_zero");
		      exit(1);
		  }

		  /* ... */

		  pmemblk_close(pbp);
	      }

       See  <http://pmem.io/pmdk/libpmemblk> for more examples using the libp-
       memblk API.

BUGS
       Unlike libpmemobj(7), data replication is not supported in  libpmemblk.
       Thus, specifying	replica	sections in pool set files is not allowed.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
       libpmemblk builds on the	persistent memory programming model recommend-
       ed   by	 the   SNIA   NVM   Programming	   Technical	Work	Group:
       <http://snia.org/nvmp>

SEE ALSO
       msync(2),   dlclose(3),	 pmemblk_bsize(3),   pmemblk_create(3),	 pmem-
       blk_ctl_exec(3),	   pmemblk_ctl_get(3),	  pmemblk_ctl_set(3),	 pmem-
       blk_read(3),   pmemblk_set_zero(3),  pmem_is_pmem(3),  pmem_persist(3),
       strerror(3),    libpmem(7),    libpmemlog(7),	 libpmemobj(7)	   and
       <http://pmem.io>

PMDK - pmemblk API version 1.1	  2019-07-10			 LIBPMEMBLK(7)

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | CAVEATS | LIBRARY API VERSIONING | MANAGING LIBRARY BEHAVIOR | DEBUGGING AND ERROR HANDLING | EXAMPLE | BUGS | ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS | SEE ALSO

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