[PATCH] D28610: [libcxx] Improve design documentation for the external-thread-library configuration

[Asiri Rathnayake via Phabricator via cfe-commits]

rmaprath created this revision.
rmaprath added reviewers: EricWF, mclow.lists.
rmaprath added a subscriber: cfe-commits.

Trying to improve the documentation for the external-thread-library configuration of `libc++`.


https://reviews.llvm.org/D28610

Files:
  docs/DesignDocs/ThreadingSupportAPI.rst


Index: docs/DesignDocs/ThreadingSupportAPI.rst
===================================================================
--- docs/DesignDocs/ThreadingSupportAPI.rst
+++ docs/DesignDocs/ThreadingSupportAPI.rst
@@ -33,13 +33,22 @@
 External Threading Library
 ==========================
 
-Normally ``<__threading_support>`` provides inline definitions to each internal
-threading API function it declares. However libc++ also supports using an
-external library to provide the definitions.
-
-When ``_LIBCPP_HAS_THREAD_LIBRARY_EXTERNAL`` libc++ does not provide inline
-definitions for the internal API, instead assuming the definitions will be
-provided by an external library.
+libc++ can be compiled with its internal threading API delegated to an external
+library. Such a configuration is useful for library vendors who wish to
+distribute a thread-agnostic libc++ library, where the users of the library are
+expected to provide the implementation of the libc++ internal threading API.
+
+On a production setting, this would be achieved through a custom
+``<__external_threading>`` header, which declares the libc++ internal threading
+API but leaves out the implementation.
+
+The ``-DLIBCXX_BUILD_EXTERNAL_THREAD_LIBRARY`` option allows building libc++ in
+such a configuration while allowing it to be tested on a platform that supports
+any of the threading implementations available in ``__threading_support``
+header. Therefore, the main purpose of this option is to allow testing of this
+paricular configuration of the library without being tied to a vendor-specific
+threading implementation. This option is only meant to be used by libc++ library
+developers.
 
 Threading Configuration Macros
 ==============================


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