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<title>needstack(3) - Plan 9 from User Space</title>
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<tr><td width=20><td><b>NEEDSTACK(3)</b><td align=right><b>NEEDSTACK(3)</b>
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    <br>
<p><font size=+1><b>NAME     </b></font><br>

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    needstack &ndash; check for execution stack overflow<br>
    
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<p><font size=+1><b>SYNOPSIS     </b></font><br>

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    <tt><font size=+1>#include &lt;u.h&gt; 
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    </font></tt>
    <tt><font size=+1>#include &lt;libc.h&gt; 
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    </font></tt>
    <tt><font size=+1>int &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;needstack(int n)<br>
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<p><font size=+1><b>DESCRIPTION     </b></font><br>

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    Stack overflow in the thread library leads to bugs that are difficult
    to diagnose. The Plan 9 libraries are careful about not allocating
    large structures on the stack, so typically four or eight kilobytes
    is plenty of stack for a thread. Other libraries are not always
    as careful. Calling <i>needstack</i> indicates to the thread library
    that an external routine is about to be called that will require
    <i>n</i> bytes of stack space. If there is not enough space left on the
    stack, the thread library prints an error and terminates the program.
    The call <tt><font size=+1>needstack(0)</font></tt> can be used to check whether the stack is
    currently overflowed. 
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    <i>Needstack</i> is defined in <tt><font size=+1>libc.h</font></tt> so that library functions used
    in threaded and non-threaded contexts can call it. The implementation
    of <i>needstack</i> in <tt><font size=+1>lib9</font></tt> is a no-op. 
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    <i>Needstack</i> should be thought of as a comment checked at run time,
    like <a href="../man3/assert.html"><i>assert</i>(3)</a>.<br>
    
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<p><font size=+1><b>EXAMPLE     </b></font><br>

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    The X Window library implementation of <i>XLookupString</i> allocates
    some very large buffers on the stack, so <tt><font size=+1>/usr/local/plan9/src/libdraw/x11&#8722;itrans.c</font></tt>
    calls <tt><font size=+1>needstack(20*1024)</font></tt> before making calls to <i>XLookupString</i>.
    If a thread (in this case, the keyboard-reading thread used inside
    the <a href="../man3/draw.html"><i>draw</i>(3)</a>
    library) does not allocate a large enough stack, the problem is
    diagnosed immediately rather than left to corrupt memory.<br>
    
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<p><font size=+1><b>SOURCE     </b></font><br>

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    <tt><font size=+1>/usr/local/plan9/src/lib9/needstack.c<br>
    /usr/local/plan9/src/libthread<br>
    </font></tt>
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<p><font size=+1><b>SEE ALSO    </b></font><br>

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    <a href="../man3/thread.html"><i>thread</i>(3)</a><br>
    
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