Boost C++ Libraries

call/cc (call with current continuation) is a universal control operator (well-known from the programming language Scheme) that captures the current continuation as a first-class object and pass it as an argument to another continuation.

A continuation (abstract concept of functional programming languages) represents the state of the control flow of a program at a given point in time. Continuations can be suspended and resumed later in order to change the control flow of a program.

Modern micro-processors are registers machines; the content of processor registers represent a continuation of the executed program at a given point in time. Operating systems simulate parallel execution of programs on a single processor by switching between programs (context switch) by preserving and restoring the continuation, e.g. the content of all registers.

callcc()

callcc() is the C++ equivalent to Scheme's call/cc operator. It captures the current continuation (the rest of the computation; code after callcc()) and triggers a context switch. The context switch is achieved by preserving certain registers (including instruction and stack pointer), defined by the calling convention of the ABI, of the current continuation and restoring those registers of the resumed continuation. The control flow of the resumed continuation continues. The current continuation is suspended and passed as argument to the resumed continuation.

callcc() expects a context-function with signature 'continuation(continuation && c)'. The parameter c represents the current continuation from which this continuation was resumed (e.g. that has called callcc()).

On return the context-function of the current continuation has to specify an continuation to which the execution control is transferred after termination of the current continuation.

If an instance with valid state goes out of scope and the context-function has not yet returned, the stack is traversed in order to access the control structure (address stored at the first stack frame) and continuation's stack is deallocated via the StackAllocator.

continuation

continuation represents a continuation; it contains the content of preserved registers and manages the associated stack (allocation/deallocation). continuation is a one-shot continuation - it can be used only once, after calling continuation::resume() or continuation::resume_with() it is invalidated.

continuation is only move-constructible and move-assignable.

As a first-class object continuation can be applied to and returned from a function, assigned to a variable or stored in a container.

A continuation is continued by calling resume()/resume_with().

Usage

namespace ctx=boost::context;
int a;
ctx::continuation source=ctx::callcc(
    [&a](ctx::continuation && sink){
        a=0;
        int b=1;
        for(;;){
            sink=sink.resume();
            int next=a+b;
            a=b;
            b=next;
        }
        return std::move(sink);
    });
for (int j=0;j<10;++j) {
    std::cout << a << " ";
    source=source.resume();
}

output:
    0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34

This simple example demonstrates the basic usage of call/cc as a generator. The continuation sink represents the main-continuation (function main()). sink is captured (current-continuation) by invoking callcc() and passed as parameter to the lambda.

Because the state is invalidated (one-shot continuation) by each call of continuation::resume(), the new state of the continuation, returned by continuation::resume(), needs to be assigned to sink after each call.

The lambda that calculates the Fibonacci numbers is executed inside the continuation represented by source. Calculated Fibonacci numbers are transferred between the two continuations via variable a (lambda capture reference).

The locale variables b and next remain their values during each context switch. This is possible due source has its own stack and the stack is exchanged by each context switch.

Parameter passing

Data can be transferred between two continuations via global pointers, calling wrappers (like std::bind) or lambda captures.

namespace ctx=boost::context;
int i=1;
ctx::continuation c1=callcc([&i](ctx::continuation && c2){
            std::printf("inside c1,i==%d\n",i);
            i+=1;
            return c2.resume();
        });
std::printf("i==%d\n",i);

output:
    inside c1,i==1
    i==2

callcc(<lambda>) enters the lambda in continuation represented by c1 with lambda capture reference i=1. The expression c2.resume() resumes the continuation c2. On return of callcc(<lambda>), the variable i has the value of i+1.

Exception handling

If the function executed inside a context-function emits an exception, the application is terminated by calling std::terminate(). std::exception_ptr can be used to transfer exceptions between different continuations.

Executing function on top of a continuation

Sometimes it is useful to execute a new function on top of a resumed continuation. For this purpose continuation::resume_with() has to be used. The function passed as argument must accept a rvalue reference to continuation and return void.

namespace ctx=boost::context;
int data=0;
ctx::continuation c=ctx::callcc([&data](ctx::continuation && c) {
                    std::cout << "f1: entered first time: " << data << std::endl;
                    data+=1;
                    c=c.resume();
                    std::cout << "f1: entered second time: " << data << std::endl;
                    data+=1;
                    c=c.resume();
                    std::cout << "f1: entered third time: " << data << std::endl;
                    return std::move(c);
                });
std::cout << "f1: returned first time: " << data << std::endl;
data+=1;
c=c.resume();
std::cout << "f1: returned second time: " << data << std::endl;
data+=1;
c=c.resume_with([&data](ctx::continuation && c){
                    std::cout << "f2: entered: " << data << std::endl;
                    data=-1;
                    return std::move( c);
                });
std::cout << "f1: returned third time" << std::endl;

output:
    f1: entered first time: 0
    f1: returned first time: 1
    f1: entered second time: 2
    f1: returned second time: 3
    f2: entered: 4
    f1: entered third time: -1
    f1: returned third time

The expression c.resume_with(...) executes a lambda on top of continuation c, e.g. an additional stack frame is allocated on top of the stack. This lambda assigns -1 to data and returns to the second invocation of c.resume().

Another option is to execute a function on top of the continuation that throws an exception.

namespace ctx=boost::context;
struct my_exception : public std::runtime_error {
    ctx::continuation    c;
    my_exception(ctx::continuation && c_,std::string const& what) :
        std::runtime_error{ what },
        c{ std::move( c_) } {
    }
};

ctx::continuation c=ctx::callcc([](ctx::continuation && c) {
    for (;;) {
        try {
            std::cout << "entered" << std::endl;
            c=c.resume();
        } catch (my_exception & ex) {
            std::cerr << "my_exception: " << ex.what() << std::endl;
            return std::move(ex.c);
        }
    }
    return std::move(c);
});
c = c.resume_with(
       [](ctx::continuation && c){
           throw my_exception(std::move(c),"abc");
           return std::move( c);
       });

output:
    entered
    my_exception: abc

In this exception my_exception is throw from a function invoked on-top of continuation c and catched inside the for-loop.

Stack unwinding

On construction of continuation a stack is allocated. If the context-function returns the stack will be destructed. If the context-function has not yet returned and the destructor of an valid continuation instance (e.g. continuation::operator bool() returns true) is called, the stack will be destructed too.

Allocating control structures on top of stack

Allocating control structures on top of the stack requires to allocated the stack_context and create the control structure with placement new before continuation is created.

namespace ctx=boost::context;
// stack-allocator used for (de-)allocating stack
fixedsize_stack salloc(4048);
// allocate stack space
stack_context sctx(salloc.allocate());
// reserve space for control structure on top of the stack
void * sp=static_cast<char*>(sctx.sp)-sizeof(my_control_structure);
std::size_t size=sctx.size-sizeof(my_control_structure);
// placement new creates control structure on reserved space
my_control_structure * cs=new(sp)my_control_structure(sp,size,sctx,salloc);
...
// destructing the control structure
cs->~my_control_structure();
...
struct my_control_structure  {
    // captured continuation
    ctx::continuation   c;

    template< typename StackAllocator >
    my_control_structure(void * sp,std::size_t size,stack_context sctx,StackAllocator salloc) :
        // create captured continuation
        c{} {
        c=ctx::callcc(std::allocator_arg,preallocated(sp,size,sctx),salloc,entry_func);
    }
    ...
};

Inverting the control flow

namespace ctx=boost::context;
/*
 * grammar:
 *   P ---> E '\0'
 *   E ---> T {('+'|'-') T}
 *   T ---> S {('*'|'/') S}
 *   S ---> digit | '(' E ')'
 */
class Parser{
   char next;
   std::istream& is;
   std::function<void(char)> cb;

   char pull(){
        return std::char_traits<char>::to_char_type(is.get());
   }

   void scan(){
       do{
           next=pull();
       }
       while(isspace(next));
   }

public:
   Parser(std::istream& is_,std::function<void(char)> cb_) :
      next(), is(is_), cb(cb_)
    {}

   void run() {
      scan();
      E();
   }

private:
   void E(){
      T();
      while (next=='+'||next=='-'){
         cb(next);
         scan();
         T();
      }
   }

   void T(){
      S();
      while (next=='*'||next=='/'){
         cb(next);
         scan();
         S();
      }
   }

   void S(){
      if (isdigit(next)){
         cb(next);
         scan();
      }
      else if(next=='('){
         cb(next);
         scan();
         E();
         if (next==')'){
             cb(next);
             scan();
         }else{
             throw std::runtime_error("parsing failed");
         }
      }
      else{
         throw std::runtime_error("parsing failed");
      }
   }
};

std::istringstream is("1+1");
// execute parser in new continuation
ctx::continuation source;
// user-code pulls parsed data from parser
// invert control flow
char c;
bool done=false;
source=ctx::callcc(
        [&is,&c,&done](ctx::continuation && sink){
        // create parser with callback function
        Parser p(is,
                 [&sink,&c](char c_){
                    // resume main continuation
                    c=c_;
                    sink=sink.resume();
                 });
            // start recursive parsing
            p.run();
            // signal termination
            done=true;
            // resume main continuation
            return std::move(sink);
        });
while(!done){
    printf("Parsed: %c\n",c);
    source=source.resume();
}

output:
    Parsed: 1
    Parsed: +
    Parsed: 1

In this example a recursive descent parser uses a callback to emit a newly passed symbol. Using call/cc the control flow can be inverted, e.g. the user-code pulls parsed symbols from the parser - instead to get pushed from the parser (via callback).

The data (character) is transferred between the two continuations.