What does `pthread_t chefIds[NUM_CHEFS]` do? - multithreading

pthread_t chefId declares a new thread called chefId.
pthread_t chefId1, chefId2 declares two new threads called chefId1 and chefId2.
What does pthread_t chefId[NUM_CHEFS] do? If NUM_CHEFS is equal to two, then my guess is it would do the same exact thing as pthread_t chefId1, chefId2.
Am I correct?

Related

Threads issue in c language using pthread library

I declare a global variable and initialize it with 0.
In main () function i create two threads. The first thread function increments the global variable upto the received arguments (function parameter) using a for loop, while the second function decrements the global variable same times using for loop.
When i pass 1000 as arguments the program works fine but when i pass 100000 the global variable value should be zero at the end but i found the value is not zero.
I also called the join function for both threads but doesn't works.
#include "stdio.h"
#include "stdlib.h"
#include "pthread.h"
int globVar =0;
void *incFunct(void* val){
for (int i=0; i<val; i++)
globVar++;
pthread_exit(NULL);
}
void *decFunct(void* val){
for (int i=0; i<val; i++)
globVar--;
pthread_exit(NULL);
}
int main()
{
pthread_t tid[2];
int val = 1000000;
printf("Initial value of Global variable : %d \n", globVar);
pthread_create(&tid[0], NULL, &incFunct, (void*)val);
pthread_create(&tid[1], NULL, &decFunct, (void*)val);
pthread_join(tid[0], NULL);
pthread_join(tid[1], NULL);
printf("Final Value of Global Var : %d \n", globVar);
return 0;
}
Yeah, you can't do that. Reasonably, you could end up with globVar having any value between -10000000 and +1000000; unreasonably, you might have invited the compiler to burn down your home (ask google about undefined behaviour).
You need to synchronize the operations of the two threads. One such synchronization is with a pthread_mutex_t; and you would acquire the lock (pthread_mutex_lock()) before operating on globVar, and release the lock (pthread_mutex_unlock()) after updating globVar.
For this particularly silly case, atomics might be more appropriate if your compiler happens to support them (/usr/include/stdatomic.h).
One thing that might happen is that the inc thread and the dec thread don't see consistent values for globVar. If you increment a variable you think has a value of 592, and, at the same time, I decrement what I think is the same variable but with a value of 311 — who wins? What happens when it's all over?
Without memory synchronization, you can't predict what will happen when multiple threads update the same memory location. You might have problems with cache coherency, variable tearing, and even reordered operations. Mutexes or C11 atomic variables are two ways to avoid these problems.
(As an aside, I suspect you don't see this problem with one thousand iterations because the first thread finishes well before the second even looks at globVar, and your implementation happens to update memory for that latter thread's consistency.)

What is the purpose of putting a thread on a wait queue with a condition when only one thread is allowed to enter?

On this request
ssize_t foo_read(struct file *filp, char *buf, size_t count,loff_t *ppos)
{
foo_dev_t * foo_dev = filp->private_data;
if (down_interruptible(&foo_dev->sem)
return -ERESTARTSYS;
foo_dev->intr = 0;
outb(DEV_FOO_READ, DEV_FOO_CONTROL_PORT);
wait_event_interruptible(foo_dev->wait, (foo_dev->intr= =1));
if (put_user(foo_dev->data, buf))
return -EFAULT;
up(&foo_dev->sem);
return 1;
}
With this completion
irqreturn_t foo_interrupt(int irq, void *dev_id, struct pt_regs *regs)
{
foo->data = inb(DEV_FOO_DATA_PORT);
foo->intr = 1;
wake_up_interruptible(&foo->wait);
return 1;
}
Assuming foo_dev->sem is initially 1 then only one thread is allowed to execute the section after down_interruptible(&foo_dev->sem) and threads waiting for that semaphore make sense to be put in a queue.(As i understand making foo_dev->sem greater than one will be a problem in that code).
So if only one passes always whats the use of foo_dev->wait queue, isnt it possible to suspend the current thread, save its pointer as a global *curr and wake it up when it completes its request?
Yes, it is possible to put single thread to wait (using set_current_state() and schedule()) and resume it later (using wake_up_process).
But this requires writing some code for check wakeup conditions and possible absent of a thread to wakeup.
Waitqueues provide ready-made functions and macros for wait on condition and wakeup it later, so resulted code becomes much shorter: single macro wait_event_interruptible() processes checking for event and putting thread to sleep, and single macro wake_up_interruptible() processes resuming possibly absent thread.

Setting a thread priority to high C

I am writing a program that will create two threads, one of them has to have a high pripoity and the other is default. I am using pthread_create() to create the thread and would like to initiate the thread priority from the same command. The way I am doing that is as follow:
pthread_create(&threads[lastThreadIndex], NULL, &solution, (void *)(&threadParam));
where,
threads: is an array of type pthread_t that has all my threads in.
lastThreadIndex: is a counter
solution: is my function
threadParam: is a struct that has all variables needed by the solution function.
I have read many articles and most of them suggest to replace NULL with the priority level; However, I never found the level key word or the exact way of doing it.
Please help...
Thanks
In POSIX, that second parameter is the pthread attribute, and NULL just means to use the default.
However, you can create your own attribute and set its properties, including driving up the priority with something like:
#include <pthread.h>
#include <sched.h>
int rc;
pthread_attr_t attr;
struct sched_param param;
rc = pthread_attr_init (&attr);
rc = pthread_attr_getschedparam (&attr, &param);
(param.sched_priority)++;
rc = pthread_attr_setschedparam (&attr, &param);
rc = pthread_create (&threads[lastThreadIndex], &attr,
&solution, (void *)(&threadParam));
// Should really be checking rc for errors.
Details on POSIX threading, including scheduling, can be found starting at this page.

Why does C++ thread class create two threads?

I am running Visual C++ 2013 and I notice that creating a thread with the std::thread class spawns two threads. Is this by design? If so, what is the reason for this?
When I use _beginthreadex() it only spawns one thread as I would expect.
unsigned int __stdcall Func(void*)
{
unsigned int i = 0;
while (i < 1000000000)
{
++i;
}
return i;
}
int wmain()
{
thread doStuff(Func, nullptr);
auto id = doStuff.get_id();
doStuff.join();
}
EDIT 1
When I put a breakpoint on doStuff.join() I see the following output. The id variable matches the 55760 thread. When I use _beginthreadex() I do not get that extra thread "ntdll.dll thread".
EDIT 2
Here is the call stack with symbols loaded.
ThreadTest.exe!wmain() Line 21
ThreadTest.exe!__tmainCRTStartup() Line 623
ThreadTest.exe!wmainCRTStartup() Line 466
kernel32.dll!#BaseThreadInitThunk#12()
ntdll.dll!___RtlUserThreadStart#8()
ntdll.dll!__RtlUserThreadStart#8()
Main Thread is obvious. It's your main thread. When you create a thread, only one thread will be created. The msvcr* thread is Microsoft C Runtime Library. I don't think you can control it but don't mind it. Your code works as you expect.

Can I assign a per-thread index, using pthreads?

I'm optimizing some instrumentation for my project (Linux,ICC,pthreads), and would like some feedback on this technique to assign a unique index to a thread, so I can use it to index into an array of per-thread data.
The old technique uses a std::map based on pthread id, but I'd like to avoid locks and a map lookup if possible (it is creating a significant amount of overhead).
Here is my new technique:
static PerThreadInfo info[MAX_THREADS]; // shared, each index is per thread
// Allow each thread a unique sequential index, used for indexing into per
// thread data.
1:static size_t GetThreadIndex()
2:{
3: static size_t threadCount = 0;
4: __thread static size_t myThreadIndex = threadCount++;
5: return myThreadIndex;
6:}
later in the code:
// add some info per thread, so it can be aggregated globally
info[ GetThreadIndex() ] = MyNewInfo();
So:
1) It looks like line 4 could be a race condition if two threads where created at exactly the same time. If so - how can I avoid this (preferably without locks)? I can't see how an atomic increment would help here.
2) Is there a better way to create a per-thread index somehow? Maybe by pre-generating the TLS index on thread creation somehow?
1) An atomic increment would help here actually, as the possible race is two threads reading and assigning the same ID to themselves, so making sure the increment (read number, add 1, store number) happens atomically fixes that race condition. On Intel a "lock; inc" would do the trick, or whatever your platform offers (like InterlockedIncrement() for Windows for example).
2) Well, you could actually make the whole info thread-local ("__thread static PerThreadInfo info;"), provided your only aim is to be able to access the data per-thread easily and under a common name. If you actually want it to be a globally accessible array, then saving the index as you do using TLS is a very straightforward and efficient way to do this. You could also pre-compute the indexes and pass them along as arguments at thread creation, as Kromey noted in his post.
Why so averse to using locks? Solving race conditions is exactly what they're designed for...
In any rate, you can use the 4th argument in pthread_create() to pass an argument to your threads' start routine; in this way, you could use your master process to generate an incrementing counter as it launches the threads, and pass this counter into each thread as it is created, giving you your unique index for each thread.
I know you tagged this [pthreads], but you also mentioned the "old technique" of using std::map. This leads me to believe that you're programming in C++. In C++11 you have std::thread, and you can pass out unique indexes (id's) to your threads at thread creation time through an ordinary function parameter.
Below is an example HelloWorld that creates N threads, assigning each an index of 0 through N-1. Each thread does nothing but say "hi" and give it's index:
#include <iostream>
#include <thread>
#include <mutex>
#include <vector>
inline void sub_print() {}
template <class A0, class ...Args>
void
sub_print(const A0& a0, const Args& ...args)
{
std::cout << a0;
sub_print(args...);
}
std::mutex&
cout_mut()
{
static std::mutex m;
return m;
}
template <class ...Args>
void
print(const Args& ...args)
{
std::lock_guard<std::mutex> _(cout_mut());
sub_print(args...);
}
void f(int id)
{
print("This is thread ", id, "\n");
}
int main()
{
const int N = 10;
std::vector<std::thread> threads;
for (int i = 0; i < N; ++i)
threads.push_back(std::thread(f, i));
for (auto i = threads.begin(), e = threads.end(); i != e; ++i)
i->join();
}
My output:
This is thread 0
This is thread 1
This is thread 4
This is thread 3
This is thread 5
This is thread 7
This is thread 6
This is thread 2
This is thread 9
This is thread 8

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