C++11 thread pool - tasks with input parameters - multithreading

Question

I am trying to use a simple thread pool example from the book of Anthony Williams "C++ Concurrency in Action". I have even found the code here (the class thread_pool) in one of the posts:
Synchronizing tasks
but I have a different question. I would like to submit a task (a member function) to the queue with the following signature:
class A;
class B;
bool MyClass::Func(A*, B*);
How would I need to change the thread_pool class, or how do I pack my function in some void F(), which is assumed to be used as a task in this example?
Here is the most relevant part of the class for me (for the details please see the link above):
class thread_pool
{
thread_safe_queue<std::function<void()> work_queue; // bool MyClass::Func(a,b) ??
void worker_thread() {
while(!done) {
std::function<void()> task;
if(work_queue.try_pop(task)) {
task(); // how should my function MyClass::Func(a,b) be called here?
}
else {
std::this_thread::yield();
}
}
}
// -- Submit a task to the thread pool
template <typename FunctionType>
void submit(FunctionType f) {
work_queue.push(std::function<void()>(f)); // how should bool MyClassFunc(A*, B*) be submitted here
}
}
And finally, how can I call the submit Function in my code?
Thank you very much for your help (unfortunatelly I am not very experienced yet in using all the C++11 features, which is probably also why I need help here, but an answer to this question would be something to start with :)).

Answer 1

You have to bind the parameters to a value when you insert a task into the queue. That means that you have to create a wrapper for your function that stores the values for this and the values for the two function parameters. There are many ways to do this, e.g. lambda functions or std::bind.
work_queue.push_back( [obj, a, b]() {obj->Func(a,b)} );
work_queue.push_back( std::bind(&MyClass::Func, obj, a, b) );
Your submit function must take these parameters and create the binding, e.g.
template<typename F, typename... Args>
void submit(F f, Args&&... args) {
work_queue.push_back( std::bind(f, std::forward<Args>(args)...) );
}
It may be convenient to create a special overload for member functions and objects.

Answer 2

I've written something that does something (very) similar to this before. I'll post the code here and you can have a look. GenCmd is the function wrapper. The queue looks like this, and is used/defined in Impl (code omitted). You only need to look at implementation of GenCmd, as this contains the necessary work.
ConcurrentQueue<std::unique_ptr<Cmd>> cqueue_;
I've wrapped std::function<> to be polymorphic in queue. std_utility contains make_index_sequence, that is used to extract values from a tuple (google make_index_sequence to find an implementation somewhere if this is not already part of your std library).
#include <functional>
#include <memory>
#include <iostream>
#include <utility>
#include <boost/noncopyable.hpp>
class CmdExecutor : public boost::noncopyable
{
public:
CmdExecutor(std::ostream& errorOutputStream);
~CmdExecutor();
template <class Receiver, class ... FArgs, class ... CArgs >
void process(Receiver& receiver, void (Receiver::*f)(FArgs...), CArgs&&... args)
{
process(std::unique_ptr<Cmd>(new GenCmd<void(Receiver,FArgs...)>(f, receiver, std::forward<CArgs>(args)...)));
}
private:
class Cmd
{
public:
virtual void execute() = 0;
virtual ~Cmd(){}
};
template <class T> class GenCmd;
template <class Receiver, class ... Args>
class GenCmd<void(Receiver, Args...)> : public Cmd
{
public:
template <class FuncT, class ... CArgs>
GenCmd(FuncT&& f, Receiver& receiver, CArgs&&... args)
: call_(std::move(f)),
receiver_(receiver),
args_(args...)
{
}
//We must convert references to values...
virtual void execute()
{
executeImpl(std::make_index_sequence<sizeof...(Args)>{});
}
private:
template <std::size_t ... Is>
void executeImpl(std::index_sequence<Is...>)
{
// We cast the values in the tuple to the original type (of Args...)
call_(receiver_, static_cast<Args>(std::get<Is>(args_))...);
}
std::function<void(Receiver&, Args...)> call_;
Receiver& receiver_;
// NOTE:
// References converted to values for safety sake, as they are likely
// to not be around when this is executed in other context.
std::tuple<typename std::remove_reference<Args>::type...> args_;
};
void process(std::unique_ptr<Cmd> command);
class Impl;
Impl* pimpl_;
};
It's basically used as follows:
...
CmdExecutor context_;
...
void MyClass::myFunction()
{
ArgX x;
ArgY y;
context_.process(*this, &MyClass::someFunction, x, y);
}
You can see from this that process does the wrapping of member function type and converts it to the underlying type for storage on queue. This allows for multiple argument types. I've opted for using runtime polymorphism to store the function types, hence the GenCmd derivative.
Note: If the invoked function receives an rvalue (Arg&&), the stored type is casted to the original type, therefore causing a move, and rendering the applicable command argument (which would only be invoked once) empty (that's the intent, at least - untested...)