Previously we blindly just called update_next_timer_due() when
ever we modified the timer list. Since we know the list is sorted
this is a bit wasteful, and we can do better.
This change refactors the code so we only update the next due time
when necessary. In places where it was possible the code was modified
to directly modify the next due time, instead of having to go to the
front of the list to fetch it.
The public consumers of the timer API shouldn't need to know
the how timer id's are tracked internally. Expose a typedef
instead to allow the internal implementation to be protected
from potential churn in the future.
It's also just good API design.
The current API of add_timer makes it hard to use as
you are forced to do a bunch of time arithmetic at the
caller. Ideally we would have overloads for common time
types like timespec or timeval to keep the API as straight
forward as possible. This change moves us in that direction.
While I'm here, we should really also use the machines actual
ticks per second, instead of the OPTIMAL_TICKS_PER_SECOND_RATE.
As suggested by Joshua, this commit adds the 2-clause BSD license as a
comment block to the top of every source file.
For the first pass, I've just added myself for simplicity. I encourage
everyone to add themselves as copyright holders of any file they've
added or modified in some significant way. If I've added myself in
error somewhere, feel free to replace it with the appropriate copyright
holder instead.
Going forward, all new source files should include a license header.
PR #591 defines the rationale for kernel-level timers. They're most
immediately useful for TCP retransmission, but will most likely see use
in many other areas as well.
