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OHASH_INIT(3) Library Functions Manual OHASH_INIT(3)

ohash_init, ohash_delete, ohash_lookup_interval, ohash_lookup_memory, ohash_find, ohash_remove, ohash_insert, ohash_first, ohash_next, ohash_entrieslight-weight open hashing

#include <stdint.h>
#include <stddef.h>
#include <ohash.h>

void
ohash_init(struct ohash *h, unsigned int size, struct ohash_info *info);

void
ohash_delete(struct ohash *h);

unsigned int
ohash_lookup_interval(struct ohash *h, const char *start, const char *end, uint32_t hv);

unsigned int
ohash_lookup_memory(struct ohash *h, const char *k, size_t s, uint32_t hv);

void *
ohash_find(struct ohash *h, unsigned int i);

void *
ohash_remove(struct ohash *h, unsigned int i);

void *
ohash_insert(struct ohash *h, unsigned int i, void *p);

void *
ohash_first(struct ohash *h, unsigned int *i);

void *
ohash_next(struct ohash *h, unsigned int *i);

unsigned int
ohash_entries(struct ohash *h);

These functions have been designed as a fast, extensible alternative to the usual hash table functions. They provide storage and retrieval of records indexed by keys, where a key is a contiguous sequence of bytes at a fixed position in each record. Keys can either be NUL-terminated strings or fixed-size memory areas. All functions take a pointer to an ohash structure as the h function argument. Storage for this structure should be provided by user code.

() initializes the table to store roughly 2 to the power size elements. info is a pointer to a struct ohash_info.

struct ohash_info {
	ptrdiff_t key_offset;
	void *data;	/* user data */
	void *(*calloc)(size_t, size_t, void *);
	void (*free)(void *, void *);
	void *(*alloc)(size_t, void *);
};

The offset field holds the position of the key in each record; the calloc and free fields are pointers to calloc(3) and free(3)-like functions, used for managing the table internal storage; the alloc field is only used by the utility function ohash_create_entry(3).

Each of these functions are called similarly to their standard counterpart, but with an extra void * parameter corresponding to the content of the field data, which can be used to communicate specific information to the functions.

() stores a copy of those fields internally, so info can be reclaimed after initialization.

() frees storage internal to h. Elements themselves should be freed by the user first, using for instance ohash_first() and ohash_next().

() and ohash_lookup_memory() are the basic look-up element functions. The hashing function result is provided by the user as hv. These return a "slot" in the ohash table h, to be used with ohash_find(), ohash_insert(), or ohash_remove(). This slot is only valid up to the next call to ohash_insert() or ohash_remove().

() handles string-like keys. ohash_lookup_interval() assumes the key is the interval between start and end, exclusive, though the actual elements stored in the table should only contain NUL-terminated keys.

() assumes the key is the memory area starting at k of size s. All bytes are significant in key comparison.

() retrieves an element from a slot i returned by the () functions. It returns NULL if the slot is empty.

() inserts a new element p at slot i. Slot i must be empty and element p must have a key corresponding to the () call.

() removes the element at slot i. It returns the removed element, for user code to dispose of, or NULL if the slot was empty.

() and () can be used to access all elements in an ohash table, like this:

for (n = ohash_first(h, &i); n != NULL; n = ohash_next(h, &i))
	do_something_with(n);

i points to an auxiliary unsigned integer used to record the current position in the ohash table. Those functions are safe to use even while entries are added to/removed from the table, but in such a case they don't guarantee that new entries will be returned. As a special case, they can safely be used to free elements in the table.

() returns the number of elements in the hash table.

Only ohash_init(), ohash_insert(), ohash_remove() and ohash_delete() may call the user-supplied memory functions:

p = (*info->calloc)(n, sizeof_record, info->data);
/* copy data from old to p */
(*info->free)(old, info->data);

It is the responsibility of the user memory allocation code to verify that those calls did not fail.

If memory allocation fails, () returns a useless hash table. ohash_insert() and ohash_remove() still perform the requested operation, but the returned table should be considered read-only. It can still be accessed by ohash_lookup*(), ohash_find(), ohash_first() and ohash_next() to dump relevant information to disk before aborting.

The open hashing functions are not thread-safe by design. In particular, in a threaded environment, there is no guarantee that a "slot" will not move between a ohash_lookup*() and a ohash_find(), ohash_insert() or ohash_remove() call.

Multi-threaded applications should explicitly protect ohash table access.

hcreate(3), ohash_interval(3)

Donald E. Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming, Vol. 3, pp. 506–550, 1973.

Those functions are completely non-standard and should be avoided in portable programs.

Those functions were designed and written for OpenBSD make(1) by Marc Espie in 1999.

April 23, 2019 OpenBSD-current