Docs-Intro.cpp revision 3f8dc16a69546ae938abc5b07b62693316cfb0ce
/* $Id$ */
/** @file
* This file contains the introduction to Main for developers.
*/
/*
* Copyright (C) 2011-2013 Oracle Corporation
*
* This file is part of VirtualBox Open Source Edition (OSE), as
* available from http://www.virtualbox.org. This file is free software;
* you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU
* General Public License (GPL) as published by the Free Software
* Foundation, in version 2 as it comes in the "COPYING" file of the
* VirtualBox OSE distribution. VirtualBox OSE is distributed in the
* hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY of any kind.
*/
/** @page pg_main Main API
*
* First of all, check out the "Technical background" chapter in the manual, pay
* attention to the "VirtualBox executables and components" chapter. It lists
* three processes, (1) VBoxSVC, (2) VirtualBox in manager mode and (3)
* VirtualBox in VM mode. This will be referred to as (1) server, (2) client
* and (3) VM process, respectively.
*
*
* @section sec_main_walk_thru_suspend IConsole::Pause Walkthru
*
* The instigator can be a client (VirtualBox in manager mode, VBoxManage
* controlvm, web services, ++) or the VM process it self (i.e. you select
* pause via the menu or the host key short cut).
*
* We will not cover the case where the guest triggers a suspend.
*
* Approximate sequence of events:
* - Client calls IConsole::Pause.
* - The COM/XPCOM routes this to the VM process, invoking Console::Pause() in
* ConsoleImpl.cpp. (The IConsole::Pause method in the client process is a
* COM/XPCOM stub method which does marshalling+IPC.)
* - Console::Pause validates the Console object state, the VM state and the VM
* handle.
* - Console::Pause calls VMR3Suspend to do the actual suspending.
* - VMR3Suspend() in VMM/VMMR3/VM.cpp calls VMMR3EmtRendezvous() to change the
* VM state synchronously on all EMTs (threads performing as virtual CPUs).
* - VMMR3EmtRendezvous() will first detect that the caller isn't an EMT and
* use VMR3ReqCallWait() to forward the call to an EMT.
* - When VMMR3EmtRendezvous() is called again on an EMT, it will signal the
* other EMTs by raising a force action flag (VM_FF_EMT_RENDEZVOUS) and then
* poke them via VMR3NotifyGlobalFFU(). Then wait for them all to arrive.
* - The other EMTs will call VMMR3EmtRendezvousFF as soon as they can.
* - When all EMTs are there, the calling back of vmR3Suspend() on each CPU in
* decending order will start.
* - When the CPU with the higest ID calls vmR3Suspend() the VM state is
* changed to VMSTATE_SUSPENDING or VMSTATE_SUSPENDING_EXT_LS.
* - When the CPU with ID 0 calls vmR3Suspend() the virtual device emulations
* and drivers get notified via PDMR3Suspend().
* - PDMR3Suspend() in VMM/VMMR3/PDM.cpp will iterate thru all device
* emulations and notify them that the VM is suspending by calling their
* PDMDEVREG::pfnSuspend / PDMUSBREG::pfnSuspend entry point (can be NULL).
* For each device it will iterate the chains of drivers and call their
* PDMDRVREG::pfnSuspend entry point as well.
* - Should a worker thread in a PDM device or PDM driver be busy and need some
* extra time to finish up / notice the pending suspend, the device or driver
* will ask for more time via PDMDevHlpSetAsyncNotification(),
* PDMDrvHlpSetAsyncNotification() or PDMUsbHlpSetAsyncNotification().
* PDMR3Suspend will then poll these devices and drivers frequently until all
* are done.
* - PDMR3Suspend() will return to vmR3Suspend() once all PDM devices and PDM
* drivers has responded to the pfnSuspend callback.
* - The virtual CPU with ID 0 returns from vmR3Suspend() to the rendezvous
* code and the EMTs are released.
* - The inner VMMR3EmtRendezvous() call returns and this in turn triggers the
* VMR3ReqCallWait() call to return (with the status code of the inner call).
* - The outer VMMR3EmtRendezvous() returns to VMR3Suspend().
* - VMR3Suspend() returns to Console::Pause().
* - Console::Pause() checks the result and flags provides error details on
* failure.
* - Console::Pause() returns to the COM/XPCOM marshalling/IPC stuff.
* - Switch back to client process.
* - The IConsole::Pause() call returns. The end.
*
* Summary of above: Client process calls into the VM process, VM process does a
* bunch of inter thread calls with all the EMT, EMT0 suspends the PDM devices
* and drivers.
*
* The EMTs will return to the outer execution loop, vmR3EmulationThreadWithId()
* in VMM/VMMR3/VMEmt.cpp, where they will mostly do sleep. They will not
* execute any guest code until VMR3Resume() is called.
*
*/