struct tcb { u32_t status; struct reg_context thread_context; void *stack; struct thread_info thread_params; u32_t executedTime; struct tcb *recoveryTask; u32_t sched_field; u32_t magic_key; };
This field holds the status information of the current thread. It can be one of THREAD_ON_CPU, THREAD_READY, THREAD_SUSPENDED THREAD_BLOCKED, THREAD_EXITED or THREAD_MISSED_DEADLINE.
This field is not directly updated by the kernel. The kernel thread library informs the scheduler about the status of a thread through the Scheduler API. It is upto the scheduler object to keep this field consistent. For example when a thread exits, the kernel calls the function set_mode(curr_thread,THREAD_EXITED) of the scheduler API. This approach of calling a scheduler function to update the status helps, when the sheduler needs to do additional work (apart from setting it's status) whenever the status of a thread changes. For example, for periodic threads, it might reset them when they exit.
This structure stores the context of a thread. The structure reg_context is architecture specific. This field is accessed by the kernel thread library only. (The scheduler object should not mess with it).
This field holds the initial thread parameters, like the start function, stack size, deadline etc. This information is required for resetting threads.
This field is a pointer to the stack of the thread.
This field can be used for keeping profiling information for the thread. This is currently not being used.
This field is meant for use by the scheduler object. The kernel never accessed this field.
Typically this field will be used by the scheduler object for constructing datastructure of tcb's. For example if the scheduler object stores the ready threads in a list, this field would be used as next pointer.
This field is used for debugging and should go away in the final release.