[/
 / Copyright (c) 2003-2019 Christopher M. Kohlhoff (chris at kohlhoff dot com)
 /
 / Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying
 / file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt)
 /]

[section:concurrency_hint Concurrency Hints]

The [link boost_asio.reference.io_context.io_context `io_context` constructor]
allows programs to specify a concurrency hint. This is a suggestion to the
`io_context` implementation as to the number of active threads that should be
used for running completion handlers.

When the Windows I/O completion port backend is in use, this value is passed
to [^CreateIoCompletionPort].

When a reactor-based backend is used, the implementation recognises the
following special concurrency hint values:

[table
  [[Value][Description]]
  [
    [`1`]
    [
      The implementation assumes that the `io_context` will be run from a
      single thread, and applies several optimisations based on this
      assumption.
    
      For example, when a handler is posted from within another handler, the
      new handler is added to a fast thread-local queue (with the consequence
      that the new handler is held back until the currently executing handler
      finishes).
    ]
  ]
  [
    [`BOOST_ASIO_CONCURRENCY_HINT_UNSAFE`]
    [
      This special concurrency hint disables locking in both the scheduler and
      reactor I/O. This hint has the following restrictions:

      [mdash] Care must be taken to ensure that all operations on the
      `io_context` and any of its associated I/O objects (such as sockets and
      timers) occur in only one thread at a time.

      [mdash] Asynchronous resolve operations fail with `operation_not_supported`.

      [mdash] If a `signal_set` is used with the `io_context`, `signal_set`
      objects cannot be used with any other io_context in the program.
    ]
  ]
  [
    [`BOOST_ASIO_CONCURRENCY_HINT_UNSAFE_IO`]
    [
      This special concurrency hint disables locking in the reactor I/O. This
      hint has the following restrictions:

      [mdash] Care must be taken to ensure that run functions on the
      `io_context`, and all operations on the context's associated I/O objects
      (such as sockets and timers), occur in only one thread at a time.
    ]
  ]
  [
    [`BOOST_ASIO_CONCURRENCY_HINT_SAFE`]
    [
      The default. The `io_context` provides full thread safety, and distinct
      I/O objects may be used from any thread.
    ]
  ]
]

[teletype]
The concurrency hint used by default-constructed `io_context` objects can be
overridden at compile time by defining the `BOOST_ASIO_CONCURRENCY_HINT_DEFAULT`
macro. For example, specifying

  -DBOOST_ASIO_CONCURRENCY_HINT_DEFAULT=1

on the compiler command line means that a concurrency hint of `1` is used for
all default-constructed `io_context` objects in the program. Similarly, the
concurrency hint used by `io_context` objects constructed with `1` can be
overridden by defining `BOOST_ASIO_CONCURRENCY_HINT_1`. For example, passing

  -DBOOST_ASIO_CONCURRENCY_HINT_1=BOOST_ASIO_CONCURRENCY_HINT_UNSAFE
  
to the compiler will disable thread safety for all of these objects.

[endsect]
