Program Startup

At program startup, the runtime system creates TLS for the main thread.

First, the runtime linker logically combines the TLS templates for all loaded dynamic objects, including the dynamic executable, into a single static template. Each dynamic objects's TLS template is assigned an offset within the combined template, tlsoffset_m, as follows.

• tlsoffset₁ = round(tlssize₁, align₁ )

• tlsoffset_m+1 = round(tlsoffset_m + tlssize_m+1, align_m+1)

tlssize_m+1 and align_m+1 are the size and alignment, respectively, for the allocation template for dynamic object m. Where 1 <= m <= M, and M is the total number of loaded dynamic objects. The round(offset, align) function returns an offset rounded up to the next multiple of align.

Next, the runtime linker computes the allocation size that is required for the startup TLS, tlssize_S. This size is equal to tlsoffset_M, plus an additional 512 bytes. This addition provides a backup reservation for static TLS references. Shared objects that make static TLS references, and are loaded after process initialization, are assigned to this backup reservation. However, this reservation is a fixed, limited size. In addition, this reservation is only capable of providing storage for uninitialized TLS data items. For maximum flexibility, shared objects should reference thread-local variables using a dynamic TLS model.

The static TLS arena associated with the calculated TLS size tlssize_S, is placed immediately preceding the thread pointer tp_t. Accesses to this TLS data is based off of subtractions from tp_t.

The static TLS arena is associated with a linked list of initialization records. Each record in this list describes the TLS initialization image for one loaded dynamic object. Each record contains the following fields.

• A pointer to the TLS initialization image.

• The size of the TLS initialization image.

• The tlsoffset_m of the object.

• A flag indicating whether the object uses a static TLS model.

The thread library uses this information to allocate storage for the initial thread. This storage is initialized, and a dynamic TLS vector for the initial thread is created.