JPH0546443A - Process terminating method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform the quick invalidation processing of unnecessary memory areas by eliminating a need of dependence of the data processing of a FIFO memory in a data aquiring means upon reception of the confirmation message from a data gathering means and accurately discriminating unnecessary data even in the case of remaining of this data. CONSTITUTION:When receiving data transfer from a data gathering means 5 through a FIFO memory 6, a data acquiring means 1 outputs a data gathering end message 9 to the FIFO memory 6 at the time of terminating the process. Thereafter, the data acquiring means 1 successively reads out data 8 from the FIFO memory 6 and immediately terminates the process at the time of read of the data gathering end message 9.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a process termination method in a computer system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a computer system, for example, when some kind of failure occurs, a predetermined failure processing program stores failure information in a predetermined storage area. The failure information is read out in order and used for failure analysis. FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a conventional data acquisition system. This system is, for example, a system for taking out data from a data file storing failure information as described above and acquiring necessary data. The data acquisition means 1 is composed of a personal computer or the like for performing such data acquisition and its processing. This data acquisition means 1 is provided with a console 2 and a magnetic disk device 3. Data such as fault information is written in the data file 4-1 stored in the magnetic disk device 4. A data collecting unit 5 is provided to transfer data from the magnetic disk device 4 to the data acquiring unit 1.

In the example shown in the figure, the data collection means 5 writes the data read from the magnetic disk device 4 into the first-in first-out memory 6, and the data acquisition means 1 reads out the data from the first-in first-out memory 6 and processes it. ing. That is, as shown in the drawing, the data 8 is read by the data acquisition means 1 in the order written in the first-in first-out memory 6 by the data collection means 5, and the processing is performed. Further, this processing is to perform digital display on the console 2 and writing necessary data to the output file 3-1 provided in the magnetic disk device 3. In this system, the data acquisition means 1 is provided with an execution flag register 7 for controlling the operation of the data collection means 5. When the data acquisition means 1 sets an execution flag in the execution flag register 7,
The data collection means 5 refers to it and starts or stops data transfer.

[0004]

In the above data acquisition system, when the data collection means 5 refers to the execution flag set by the data acquisition means 1, the reference timing may be delayed. there were.
FIG. 3 shows an operation time chart of the conventional method. Figure 3
(A) shows the content of the execution flag of the data acquisition means 1 shown in FIG. 1, and is controlled so that it is turned on at time t1 and turned off at time t2. That is, the data acquisition means 1 starts data acquisition at time t1 and ends at time t2.
To end its acquisition. FIG. 3B shows the data transfer operation of the data collecting means 5. That is, as shown in the figure, the data collecting means 5 starts the operation at time t1 with reference to the execution flag, and finishes the data transfer at time t3. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 3C, the data acquisition unit 1 starts the process at time t1 and ends the process at time t2.

Here, as shown in the above-mentioned figure, the data collecting means 5 ends the data transfer processing after a delay of time T from time t2. Such a delay in the end of processing is due to a delay in the timing of referring to the execution flag register 7 of the data collecting means 5. For example, when the data collecting unit 5 is performing a certain process, the execution flag register 7 cannot be referred to during the process, and the reference process may be delayed. In particular, when the data collection unit 5 is executing various processes independently of the data acquisition unit 1, such a delay may occur.

Further, referring to the execution flag register 7, the data collecting means 5 sends the confirmation message to the data acquiring means 1. For this reason, if the reference delay of the data collection means 5 as described above occurs, the confirmation message is delayed. Further, for some reason, a confirmation message is sent from the data collection means 5 to the data acquisition means 1
May not arrive at. As a result, the first-in first-out memory 6 also stores data other than the data originally required by the data acquisition means 1, and data unnecessary for the data acquisition means 1 remains. However, in the conventional data acquisition system, it is not possible to determine which data stored in the first-in first-out memory 6 is unnecessary, and therefore, the data left in the first-in first-out memory 6 is invalid. The processing could not be performed, and it was left stored in the first-in first-out memory 6. Then, when a predetermined buffer area is linked to another memory (not shown) by such data, the memory area is reserved without being used.

By the way, a general computer system starts an operation in the morning and ends the operation in the evening. At this time, the storage area of the system is reset by turning off the power of the system. Therefore, even if there is some unusable memory area as described above, no great adverse effect occurs. However, due to the diversification of information processing business,
Increasingly, computer systems operate non-stop for 24 hours. In such a case, even if the unusable memory area is generated little by little, if the memory area is accumulated for a long time, the system may lack resources. If the required memory area is not secured, some programs may stop operating or malfunction. In addition, in the worst case, there was a problem that a system deadlock occurred. The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and provides a process termination method for safely terminating a process by suppressing the occurrence of an unusable memory area in the above-described data acquisition system. It is intended.

[0008]

According to the method of terminating the process of the present invention, when the data collected by the data collecting means is transferred to the data acquiring means in accordance with the request of the data acquiring means, the data is transferred to the transfer path of the data. A first-in first-out memory for temporarily storing data is provided, and the data acquisition unit sends a data collection end message to the first-in first-out memory when stopping the collection of data by the data collection unit in order to end a predetermined process. The data is output and stored so as to follow the data already stored in the first-in first-out memory, and the data acquisition unit terminates the process when the data collection end message is read from the first-in first-out memory. It is a thing.

[0009]

According to this method, when the data acquisition means receives data from the data collection means through the first-in first-out memory, when the process is terminated, the data collection end message is output to the first-in first-out memory. The data acquisition means then sequentially reads the data from the first-in first-out memory, and when the data collection end message is read out, immediately terminates the process. As a result, the data acquisition unit does not need to rely on the receipt of the confirmation message from the data collection unit for the data processing of the first-in first-out memory, and even if unnecessary data remains, the data can be accurately identified and unnecessary. Enables quick invalidation processing of the memory area.

[0010]

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a data acquisition system implementing the method of the present invention. The system shown in the figure includes a data acquisition means 1, a console 2, a magnetic disk device 3, a magnetic disk device 4, a data collection means 5, a first-in first-out memory 6
And an execution flag register 7 are provided. The hardware configuration of this system is similar to that described above with reference to FIG. Therefore, the same reference numerals are given to the same portions, and the overlapping description will be omitted as appropriate. This system also
Data file 4-1 stored in magnetic disk device 4
The data collection means 5 calls the data from the above, and transfers the data to the data acquisition means 1 via the first-in first-out memory 6. The data acquisition unit 1 controls the operation of the data collection unit 5 by setting the execution flag in the execution flag register 7.

The data collecting means 5 is a first-in first-out memory 6
When data is transferred to the memory, the data 8 is read by the data acquisition means 1 in the order in which the data 8 is written in the first-in first-out memory 6. When the data acquisition unit 1 finishes the necessary data processing and terminates the process, the execution flag stored in the execution flag register 7 is rewritten from on to off. The data collection unit 5 refers to this execution flag and ends the data transfer. These operations are similar to those of the conventional device described with reference to FIG. Then, as described with reference to FIG. 3, unnecessary data may be transferred to the first-in first-out memory 6 due to the delay in the reference of the execution flag register 7 of the data collecting means 5, as in the conventional case. ..

Here, in the method of the present invention, the data acquisition means 1 switches the execution flag of the execution flag register 7 from ON to OFF when the first-in first-out memory 6 is used.
On the other hand, it is characterized by outputting a data collection end message. In this case, as shown in FIG. 1, the data collection end message 9 is included in the data stored in the first-in first-out memory 6 by the data collection means 5. The data 8 stored in the first-in first-out memory 6 before the data acquisition means 1 outputs the data collection end message 9.
The data collection end message 9 is sandwiched between the data 8 and the data 8 stored in the first-in first-out memory 6. With such a configuration, the method of the present invention can terminate the process as follows.

FIG. 4 shows an operational flowchart of the method of the present invention. The method of the present invention will be described more specifically using this flowchart. First, in step S1, the execution flag is turned on. As a result, the data collecting means 5 refers to the execution flag register 7 shown in FIG.
The process of transferring the data to the first-in first-out memory 6 is started. After that, the data acquisition unit 1 reads the data from the first-in first-out memory 6 in step S2. Then, in step S3, it is determined whether the data end message has been read. Data acquisition means 1
While the data processing is being executed, the normal data 8 is read from the first-in first-out memory 6, so the process moves to step S4.
The data processing is executed. Specifically, this data processing is to perform digital display on the console 2 or write necessary data to the output file 3-1 provided in the magnetic disk device 3. Next, in step S5, it is determined whether the process is completed.
When continuing the process, the process proceeds to step S2, and the processes of steps S2, S3, and S4 are executed again. Here, if the process is to be terminated, step S
From 5 to step S6, the execution flag provided in the execution register 7 is turned off. Then, as described above, in step S7, the data collection end message 9 is output to the first-in first-out memory.

Such an operation is executed at the timing shown in FIG. 3, and the data collection end message 9 is simultaneously stored in the first-in first-out memory 6 at the time t2 shown in FIG. 3 when the execution flag is turned off. become. here,
It is assumed that the data collection unit 5 does not immediately refer to the execution flag and completes the data transfer, but that the reference is delayed by a certain time T. In such a case, in the method of the present invention, the data acquisition means 1 uses the first-in first-out memory 6
To read the next data from step S2. Then, in step S3, it is determined whether the read data is the data collection end message 9. When the read data is the data end message 9, the process proceeds to step S8 and immediately ends the process. Then, in step S9, invalidation processing of the data stored in the first-in first-out memory 6 after the data collection end message 9 is executed.

As described above, if the data collection end message 9 is stored in the first-in first-out memory 6 and is read out, due to the delay or non-arrival of the end confirmation message from the data collection means 5 as in the prior art, It is possible to solve the problem that it is impossible to determine which data stored in the first-in first-out memory 6 is unnecessary. That is, the data collection end message 9 in the first-in first-out memory 6 is
Since it has a function as a so-called marker, it can be reliably determined that the data 8 thereafter is unnecessary data for the data acquisition means 1. As a result, invalidation processing of extra data written in the first-in first-out memory 6 and disconnection processing of the buffer linked to the data are surely executed, and an increase in the unusable memory area can be suppressed.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. In the above embodiment, the data acquisition system used for data transfer from the data file created at the time of failure has been described as an example. It can be widely used in a system having a data acquisition means for acquiring.

[0017]

The process termination method of the present invention described above outputs a data collection end message to the first-in first-out memory at the end of the process when the data acquisition means receives data from the data collection means through the first-in first-out memory. Since the process is terminated when the data collection termination message is read from the first-in first-out memory, the process termination control is surely performed. As a result, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of various failures due to an unnecessary area being secured in the memory and a shortage of memory resources.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a data acquisition system implementing the method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a conventional data acquisition system.

FIG. 3 is an operation time chart of a conventional method.

FIG. 4 is an operation flowchart according to the method of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 data acquisition means 3 and 4 magnetic disk device 5 data collection means 6 first-in first-out memory 7 execution flag register 8 data 9 data collection end message

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. When the data collected by the data collecting means is transferred to the data acquiring means in response to a request from the data acquiring means, a first-in first-out memory for temporarily storing the data is provided in the data transfer path. The acquisition unit outputs a data collection end message to the first-in first-out memory when stopping the data collection by the data collection unit in order to terminate a predetermined process, and the data is already stored in the first-in first-out memory. A process ending method for storing data so as to follow the data, wherein the data acquiring unit ends the process when the data collection end message is read from the first-in first-out memory.