Tasvir: A Versioned Shared-Memory Interface

Tasvir consists of a library and daemon which provides programs a raw, versioned, publish-subscribe shared-memory interface over the network. Tasvir-allocated areas are versioned, atomically updated, and single-writer.

Building Tasvir

• Install byobu, cmake, git, uthash-dev.
• Install DPDK 19.08 and set RTE_SDK and RTE_TARGET. Ensure that you can bind the NIC you want Tasvir to use to a DPDK-compatible driver (e.g., igb_uio or vfio_pci).
• Clone this repository and use the helper script to compile Tasvir: tools/run.sh compile.
• If successful, the binaries will be under build.gcc/bin or build.clang/bin depending on your compiler choice..

Developing and building your application

To add an application named testapp with a single C++ source file testapp.cpp to use Tasvir's build process follow these steps:

• Create a directory under apps and add it to apps/CMakeLists.txt.

mkdir apps/testapp && echo 'add_subdirectory(testapp)' >> apps/CMakeLists.txt

• Add a CMakeLists.txt file to this directory for building the application. You may use our helper macro.

echo 'add_tasvir_exec(tasvir_testapp testapp.cpp)' >> apps/testapp/CMakeLists.txt

• Follow apps/sample/counter.cpp as a template for developing your application.
• The binary for this app will be placed in the build binary directory after compilation.

Running your application.

Before running a Tasvir-based program, a daemon must be started on each machine. One of these daemons must be designated as the root daemon to manage the root Tasvir area. The helper script simplifies this process:

• Adjust etc/tasvir.conf to match your cluster setup; note that the script needs passwordless ssh access to the listed hosts.
• Create etc/run_testapp.conf using etc/run_sample.conf as a template; the application-specific bash variables must start with testapp_.
• You should now be able to run your application using tools/run.sh testapp. The script prints the directory it logs the outputs to and creates a tmux session to run the experiment.