Ada 2012 Reference Manual
D.2.6 Earliest Deadline First Dispatching
The deadline of a task is an indication of the urgency of the task; it represents a point on an ideal physical time line. The deadline might affect how resources are allocated to the task.
This subclause defines a package for representing the deadline of a task and a dispatching policy that defines Earliest Deadline First (EDF) dispatching. An aspect is defined to assign an initial deadline to a task.
Paragraphs 3 through 6 were moved to Annex J, “Obsolescent Features”.
Static Semantics
The policy_identifier EDF_Across_Priorities is a task dispatching policy.
The following language-defined library package exists:
with Ada.Real_Time;
with Ada.Task_Identification;
package Ada.Dispatching.EDF is
subtype Deadline is Ada.Real_Time.Time;
Default_Deadline : constant Deadline :=
Ada.Real_Time.Time_Last;
procedure Set_Deadline (D : in Deadline;
T : in Ada.Task_Identification.Task_Id :=
Ada.Task_Identification.Current_Task);
procedure Delay_Until_And_Set_Deadline (
Delay_Until_Time : in Ada.Real_Time.Time;
Deadline_Offset : in Ada.Real_Time.Time_Span);
function Get_Deadline (T : Ada.Task_Identification.Task_Id :=
Ada.Task_Identification.Current_Task) return Deadline;
end Ada.Dispatching.EDF;
with Ada.Task_Identification;
package Ada.Dispatching.EDF is
subtype Deadline is Ada.Real_Time.Time;
Default_Deadline : constant Deadline :=
Ada.Real_Time.Time_Last;
procedure Set_Deadline (D : in Deadline;
T : in Ada.Task_Identification.Task_Id :=
Ada.Task_Identification.Current_Task);
procedure Delay_Until_And_Set_Deadline (
Delay_Until_Time : in Ada.Real_Time.Time;
Deadline_Offset : in Ada.Real_Time.Time_Span);
function Get_Deadline (T : Ada.Task_Identification.Task_Id :=
Ada.Task_Identification.Current_Task) return Deadline;
end Ada.Dispatching.EDF;
For a task type (including the anonymous type of a single_task_declaration) or subprogram, the following language-defined representation aspect may be specified:
Relative_Deadline
The aspect Relative_Deadline is an expression, which shall be of type Real_Time.Time_Span.
Legality Rules
The Relative_Deadline aspect shall not be specified on a task interface type.
Post-Compilation Rules
If the EDF_Across_Priorities policy is specified for a partition, then the Ceiling_Locking policy (see D.3) shall also be specified for the partition.
If the EDF_Across_Priorities policy appears in a Priority_Specific_Dispatching pragma (see D.2.2) in a partition, then the Ceiling_Locking policy (see D.3) shall also be specified for the partition.
Dynamic Semantics
The Relative_Deadline aspect has no effect if it is specified for a subprogram other than the main subprogram.
The initial absolute deadline of a task for which aspect Relative_Deadline is specified is the value of Real_Time.Clock + the expression that is the value of the aspect, where this entire expression, including the call of Real_Time.Clock, is evaluated between task creation and the start of its activation. If the aspect Relative_Deadline is not specified, then the initial absolute deadline of a task is the value of Default_Deadline. The environment task is also given an initial deadline by this rule, using the value of the Relative_Deadline aspect of the main subprogram (if any).
The procedure Set_Deadline changes the absolute deadline of the task to D. The function Get_Deadline returns the absolute deadline of the task.
The procedure Delay_Until_And_Set_Deadline delays the calling task until time Delay_Until_Time. When the task becomes runnable again it will have deadline Delay_Until_Time + Deadline_Offset.
On a system with a single processor, the setting of the deadline of a task to the new value occurs immediately at the first point that is outside the execution of a protected action. If the task is currently on a ready queue it is removed and re-entered on to the ready queue determined by the rules defined below.
When EDF_Across_Priorities is specified for priority range Low..High all ready queues in this range are ordered by deadline. The task at the head of a queue is the one with the earliest deadline.
A task dispatching point occurs for the currently running task T to which policy EDF_Across_Priorities applies:
- when a change to the deadline of T occurs;
- there is a task on the ready queue for the active priority of T with a deadline earlier than the deadline of T; or
- there is a nonempty ready queue for that processor with a higher priority than the active priority of the running task.
In these cases, the currently running task is said to be preempted and is returned to the ready queue for its active priority.
For a task T to which policy EDF_Across_Priorities applies, the base priority is not a source of priority inheritance; the active priority when first activated or while it is blocked is defined as the maximum of the following:
- the lowest priority in the range specified as EDF_Across_Priorities that includes the base priority of T;
- the priorities, if any, currently inherited by T;
- the highest priority P, if any, less than the base priority of T such that one or more tasks are executing within a protected object with ceiling priority P and task T has an earlier deadline than all such tasks; and furthermore T has an earlier deadline than all other tasks on ready queues with priorities in the given EDF_Across_Priorities range that are strictly less than P.
When a task T is first activated or becomes unblocked, it is added to the ready queue corresponding to this active priority. Until it becomes blocked again, the active priority of T remains no less than this value; it will exceed this value only while it is inheriting a higher priority.
When the setting of the base priority of a ready task takes effect and the new priority is in a range specified as EDF_Across_Priorities, the task is added to the ready queue corresponding to its new active priority, as determined above.
For all the operations defined in Dispatching.EDF, Tasking_Error is raised if the task identified by T has terminated. Program_Error is raised if the value of T is Null_Task_Id.
Bounded (Run-Time) Errors
If EDF_Across_Priorities is specified for priority range Low..High, it is a bounded error to declare a protected object with ceiling priority Low or to assign the value Low to attribute 'Priority. In either case either Program_Error is raised or the ceiling of the protected object is assigned the value Low+1.
Erroneous Execution
If a value of Task_Id is passed as a parameter to any of the subprograms of this package and the corresponding task object no longer exists, the execution of the program is erroneous.
Documentation Requirements
On a multiprocessor, the implementation shall document any conditions that cause the completion of the setting of the deadline of a task to be delayed later than what is specified for a single processor.
NOTES
18 If two adjacent priority ranges, A..B and B+1..C are specified to have policy EDF_Across_Priorities, then this is not equivalent to this policy being specified for the single range, A..C.
19 The above rules implement the preemption-level protocol (also called Stack Resource Policy protocol) for resource sharing under EDF dispatching. The preemption-level for a task is denoted by its base priority. The definition of a ceiling preemption-level for a protected object follows the existing rules for ceiling locking.
