Libc-1044.40.1.tar.gz

[apple/libc.git] / stdlib / FreeBSD / psort.3

.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1991, 1993
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.\" the American National Standards Committee X3, on Information
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.\"     @(#)qsort.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
.\" $FreeBSD: src/lib/libc/stdlib/qsort.3,v 1.17 2007/01/09 00:28:10 imp Exp $
.\"
.Dd Nov 25, 2008
.Dt PSORT 3
.Os "Mac OS X"
.Sh NAME
.Nm psort ,
#ifdef UNIFDEF_BLOCKS
.Nm psort_b ,
#endif
.Nm psort_r
.Nd parallel sort functions
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.In stdlib.h
.Ft void
.Fo psort
.Fa "void *base"
.Fa "size_t nel"
.Fa "size_t width"
.Fa "int \*[lp]*compar\*[rp]\*[lp]const void *, const void *\*[rp]"
.Fc
#ifdef UNIFDEF_BLOCKS
.Ft void
.Fo psort_b
.Fa "void *base"
.Fa "size_t nel"
.Fa "size_t width"
.Fa "int \*[lp]^compar\*[rp]\*[lp]const void *, const void *\*[rp]"
.Fc
#endif
.Ft void
.Fo psort_r
.Fa "void *base"
.Fa "size_t nel"
.Fa "size_t width"
.Fa "void *thunk"
.Fa "int \*[lp]*compar\*[rp]\*[lp]void *, const void *, const void *\*[rp]"
.Fc
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
#ifdef UNIFDEF_BLOCKS
.Fn psort ,
.Fn psort_b ,
#else
.Fn psort
#endif
and
.Fn psort_r
functions are parallel sort routines that are drop-in compatible with the
corresponding
.Fn qsort
function (see
.Xr qsort 3
for a description of the arguments).
On multiprocessor machines, multiple threads may be created to simultaneously
perform the sort calculations, resulting in an overall faster sort result.
Overhead in managing the threads limits the maximum speed improvement to
somewhat less that the number of processors available.
For example, on a 4-processor machine, a typical sort on a large array might
result in 3.2 times faster sorting than a regular
.Fn qsort .
.Sh RESTRICTIONS
Because of the multi-threaded nature of the sort, the comparison function
is expected to perform its own synchronization that might be required for
data physically
.Em outside
the two objects passed to the comparison function.
However, no synchronization is required for the two
object themselves, unless some third party is also accessing those objects.
.Pp
Additional memory is temporary allocated to deal with the parallel nature
of the computation.
.Pp
Because of the overhead of maintaining multiple threads, the
.Fn psort
family of routines may choose to just call
.Xr qsort 3
when there is no advantage to parallelizing (for example, when the number of
objects in the array is too small, or only one processor is available).
.Pp
Like
.Xr qsort 3 ,
the sort is not stable.
.Sh RETURN VALUES
The
#ifdef UNIFDEF_BLOCKS
.Fn psort ,
.Fn psort_b
#else
.Fn psort
#endif
and
.Fn psort_r
functions
return no value.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr qsort 3
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr sort 1 ,
.Xr radixsort 3
.Rs
.%A Hoare, C.A.R.
.%D 1962
.%T "Quicksort"
.%J "The Computer Journal"
.%V 5:1
.%P pp. 10-15
.Re
.Rs
.%A Williams, J.W.J
.%D 1964
.%T "Heapsort"
.%J "Communications of the ACM"
.%V 7:1
.%P pp. 347-348
.Re
.Rs
.%A Knuth, D.E.
.%D 1968
.%B "The Art of Computer Programming"
.%V Vol. 3
.%T "Sorting and Searching"
.%P pp. 114-123, 145-149
.Re
.Rs
.%A McIlroy, P.M.
.%T "Optimistic Sorting and Information Theoretic Complexity"
.%J "Fourth Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms"
.%V January 1992
.Re
.Rs
.%A Bentley, J.L.
.%A McIlroy, M.D.
.%T "Engineering a Sort Function"
.%J "Software--Practice and Experience"
.%V Vol. 23(11)
.%P pp. 1249-1265
.%D November\ 1993
.Re
.Sh STANDARDS
The
.Fn qsort
function
conforms to
.St -isoC .