Outer Perimeters

The module writer can also specify an outer perimeter. An outer perimeter is the linked list of all inner perimeters for all queues associated with the specified module. Entering the outer perimeter is equivalent to entering each of the inner perimeters. As this can also be an expensive operation, the outer perimeter is only entered synchronously, and upon successful completion of a qwriter(PERIM_OUTER) makes the outer perimeter exclusive. This also has the effect of making each of the inner perimeters exclusive.

Use of outer perimeters is reserved for module data that has an effect on all queue instances of the module, such as module state that might allow messages to pass between other instances of the module, information that allows a driver to configure shared hardware, or at open/close time when information is needed for all open instances for a module.

Outer perimeters, at this time, have only one concurrency modifier. This is D_MTOCEXCL, and instructs the framework to enter the outer perimeter on each open and close of queues for the module.