Multithreaded Programming Guide

Sun Microsystems, Inc. 4150 Network Circle Santa Clara, CA 95054 U.S.A.
Part No: 816513710 January 2005

Copyright 2005 Sun Microsystems, Inc.

4150 Network Circle, Santa Clara, CA 95054 U.S.A.

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Contents
Preface 11

Covering Multithreading Basics 15 Dening Multithreading Terms 15 Meeting Multithreading Standards 17 Beneting From Multithreading 17 Improving Application Responsiveness 17 Using Multiprocessors Efficiently 18 Improving Program Structure 18 Using Fewer System Resources 18 Combining Threads and RPC 18 Multithreading Concepts 19 Concurrency and Parallelism 19 Looking at Multithreading Structure 19 Thread Scheduling 20 Thread Cancellation 20 Thread Synchronization 21 Using the 64-bit Architecture 21

Basic Threads Programming 23 The Threads Library 23 Creating a Default Thread 23 Waiting for Thread Termination 25 Simple Threads Example 26 Detaching a Thread 27 Creating a Key for Thread-Specic Data

28
3

Deleting the Thread-Specic Data Key 29 Setting Thread-Specic Data 30 Getting Thread-Specic Data 30 Getting the Thread Identier 33 Comparing Thread IDs 34 Initializing Threads 34 Yielding Thread Execution 35 Setting the Thread Priority 35 Getting the Thread Priority 36 Sending a Signal to a Thread 37 Accessing the Signal Mask of the Calling Thread Forking Safely 38 Terminating a Thread 39 Finishing Up 39 Cancel a Thread 40 Cancelling a Thread 41 Enabling or Disabling Cancellation 42 Setting Cancellation Type 43 Creating a Cancellation Point 43 Pushing a Handler Onto the Stack 44 Pulling a Handler Off the Stack 44

37

Thread Attributes 47 Attribute Object 47 Initializing Attributes 48 Destroying Attributes 49 Setting Detach State 50 Getting the Detach State 51 Setting the Stack Guard Size 52 Getting the Stack Guard Size 53 Setting the Scope 53 Getting the Scope 54 Setting the Thread Concurrency Level 55 Getting the Thread Concurrency Level 55 Setting the Scheduling Policy 56 Getting the Scheduling Policy 57 Setting the Inherited Scheduling Policy 58 Getting the Inherited Scheduling Policy 58

Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

Setting the Scheduling Parameters Getting the Scheduling Parameters Setting the Stack Size 61 Getting the Stack Size 62 About Stacks 63 Setting the Stack Address and Size Getting the Stack Address and Size

59 60

64 65

Programming with Synchronization Objects 67 Mutual Exclusion Lock Attributes 68 Initializing a Mutex Attribute Object 70 Destroying a Mutex Attribute Object 70 Setting the Scope of a Mutex 71 Getting the Scope of a Mutex 72 Setting the Mutex Type Attribute 72 Getting the Mutex Type Attribute 74 Setting the Mutex Attributes Protocol 74 Getting the Mutex Attributes Protocol 76 Setting the Mutex Attributes Priority Ceiling 77 Getting the Mutex Attributes Priority Ceiling 78 Setting the Mutexs Priority Ceiling 79 Getting the Mutexs Priority Ceiling 80 Setting the Mutexs Robust Attribute 81 Getting the Mutexs Robust Attribute 83 Using Mutual Exclusion Locks 84 Initializing a Mutex 84 Making a Mutex Consistent 86 Locking a Mutex 87 Unlocking a Mutex 88 Locking With a Nonblocking Mutex 89 Destroying a Mutex 91 Code Examples of Mutex Locking 91 Condition Variable Attributes 95 Initializing a Condition Variable Attribute 96 Removing a Condition Variable Attribute 97 Setting the Scope of a Condition Variable 98 Getting the Scope of a Condition Variable 99 Using Condition Variables 100
5

Initializing a Condition Variable 100 Blocking on a Condition Variable 101 Unblocking One Thread 103 Blocking Until a Specied Time 104 Blocking For a Specied Interval 105 Unblocking All Threads 106 Destroying the Condition Variable State 108 Lost Wake-Up Problem 108 Producer and Consumer Problem 109 Synchronization With Semaphores 111 Named and Unnamed Semaphores 113 Counting Semaphores Overview 113 Initializing a Semaphore 114 Incrementing a Semaphore 115 Blocking on a Semaphore Count 116 Decrementing a Semaphore Count 117 Destroying the Semaphore State 117 Producer and Consumer Problem Using Semaphores Read-Write Lock Attributes 119 Initializing a Read-Write Lock Attribute 120 Destroying a Read-Write Lock Attribute 121 Setting a Read-Write Lock Attribute 121 Getting a Read-Write Lock Attribute 122 Using Read-Write Locks 123 Initializing a Read-Write Lock 123 Acquiring the Read Lock on Read-Write Lock 124 Reading a Lock With a Nonblocking Read-Write Lock Writing a Lock on Read-Write Lock 125 Writing a Lock With a Nonblocking Read-Write Lock Unlocking a Read-Write Lock 127 Destroying a Read-Write Lock 128 Synchronization Across Process Boundaries 129 Producer and Consumer Problem Example 129 Comparing Primitives 130

118

125 126

Programming With the Solaris Software Forking Issues in Process Creation 133 Fork-One Model 134

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Fork-All Model

136 137 137 138 138 139 140

Choosing the Right Fork Timers, Alarms, and Proling Per-LWP POSIX Timers Per-Thread Alarms 139

Process Creation: exec and exit Issues

Proling a Multithreaded Program Nonlocal Goto: setjmp and longjmp Resource Limits 140 140 141 141 142 142 142 144 144 145 147 148 LWPs and Scheduling Classes Timeshare Scheduling Realtime Scheduling Fair Share Scheduling

Fixed Priority Scheduling Extending Traditional Signals Synchronous Signals Asynchronous Signals Continuation Semantics Operations on Signals Thread-Directed Signals Completion Semantics 143

Signal Handlers and Async-Signal Safety Interrupted Waits on Condition Variables I/O Issues 152 152 152 153 I/O as a Remote Procedure Call Tamed Asynchrony Asynchronous I/O

149 151

Shared I/O and New I/O System Calls Alternatives to getc and putc 155

154

Safe and Unsafe Interfaces Thread Safety 157 MT Interface Safety Levels Async-Signal-Safe Functions MT Safety Levels for Libraries Unsafe Libraries 161

157 158 159 160 161

Re-entrant Functions for Unsafe Interfaces

Compiling and Debugging 163 Compiling a Multithreaded Application 163 Preparing for Compilation 163 Choosing Solaris or POSIX Semantics 164 Including <thread.h> or <pthread.h> 164 Dening _REENTRANT or _POSIX_C_SOURCE 165 Linking With libthread or libpthread 165 Linking With -lrt for POSIX Semaphores 167 Linking Old Modules With New Modules 167 Alternate Threads Library 168 Debugging a Multithreaded Program 168 Common Oversights in Multithreaded Programs 168 Tracing and Debugging With the TNF Utilities 169 Using truss 169 Using mdb 169 Using dbx 170

Programming With Solaris Threads 173 Comparing APIs for Solaris Threads and POSIX Threads 173 Major API Differences 174 Function Comparison Table 174 Unique Solaris Threads Functions 178 Suspending Thread Execution 178 Continuing a Suspended Thread 179 Similar Synchronization FunctionsRead-Write Locks 180 Initialize a Read-Write Lock 180 Acquiring a Read Lock 181 Trying to Acquire a Read Lock 182 Acquiring a Write Lock 183 Trying to Acquire a Write Lock 183 Unlock a Read-Write Lock 184 Destroying the Read-Write Lock State 185 Similar Solaris Threads Functions 186 Creating a Thread 186 Getting the Minimal Stack Size 189 Acquiring the Thread Identier 190 Yield Thread Execution 190 Send a Signal to a Thread 190

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Access the Signal Mask of the Calling Thread 191 Terminate a Thread 192 Wait for Thread Termination 192 Creating a Thread-Specic Data Key 194 Setting the Thread-Specic Data Value 194 Getting the Thread-Specic Data Value 195 Set the Thread Priority 195 Get the Thread Priority 196 Similar Synchronization FunctionsMutual Exclusion Locks 197 Initialize a Mutex 197 Destroy a Mutex 199 Acquiring a Mutex 200 Releasing a Mutex 200 Trying to Acquire a Mutex 201 Similar Synchronization Functions: Condition Variables 201 Initialize a Condition Variable 201 Destroying a Condition Variable 203 Waiting for a Condition 203 Wait for an Absolute Time 204 Waiting for a Time Interval 205 Unblock One Thread 205 Unblock All Threads 206 Similar Synchronization Functions: Semaphores 206 Initialize a Semaphore 207 Increment a Semaphore 208 Block on a Semaphore Count 208 Decrement a Semaphore Count 209 Destroy the Semaphore State 209 Synchronizing Across Process Boundaries 210 Example of Producer and Consumer Problem 210 Special Issues for fork() and Solaris Threads 212

Programming Guidelines 213 Rethinking Global Variables 213 Providing for Static Local Variables Synchronizing Threads 215 Single-Threaded Strategy 216 Re-entrant Function 216

214

Avoiding Deadlock

218 219 220 219 221 221 222 226

Deadlocks Related to Scheduling Locking Guidelines

Some Basic Guidelines for Threaded Code Creating and Using Threads Working With Multiprocessors Underlying Architecture Examples of Threads Programs Further Reading 226

Sample Application: Multithreaded grep Description of tgrep 227

227

Solaris Threads Example: barrier.c

253

Index

257

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Preface
The Multithreaded Programming Guide describes the multithreaded programming interfaces for POSIX threads and Solaris threads in the Solaris Operating System (Solaris OS). This guide shows application programmers how to create new multithreaded programs and how to add multithreading to existing programs. Although this guide covers both the POSIX and Solaris threads interfaces, most topics assume a POSIX threads interest. Information applying to only Solaris threads is covered in a special chapter. To understand this guide, a reader must be familiar with concurrent programming concepts.
I I

A UNIX SVR4 system - preferably the Solaris release. The C programming language - multithreading interfaces are provided by the standard C library. The principles of concurrent programming (as opposed to sequential programming).

Note This Solaris release supports systems that use the SPARC and x86 families of

processor architectures: UltraSPARC, SPARC64, AMD64, Pentium, and Xeon EM64T. The supported systems appear in the Solaris 10 Hardware Compatibility List at http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl. This document cites any implementation differences between the platform types. In this document the term x86 refers to 64-bit and 32-bit systems manufactured using processors compatible with the AMD64 or Intel Xeon/Pentium product families. For supported systems, see the Solaris 10 Hardware Compatibility List.

11

How This Guide Is Organized

Chapter 1 gives a structural overview of threads implementation in this release. Chapter 2 discusses the general POSIX threads routines, emphasizing creating a thread with default attributes. Chapter 3 covers creating a thread with nondefault attributes. Chapter 4 covers the threads synchronization routines. Chapter 5 discusses changes to the operating environment to support multithreading. Chapter 6 covers multithreading safety issues. Chapter 7 covers the basics of compiling and debugging multithreaded applications. Chapter 8 covers the Solaris threads (as opposed to POSIX threads) interfaces. Chapter 9 discusses issues that affect programmers writing multithreaded applications. Appendix A shows how code can be designed for POSIX threads. Appendix B shows an example of building a barrier in Solaris threads.

Accessing Sun Documentation Online

The docs.sun.comSM Web site enables you to access Sun technical documentation online. You can browse the docs.sun.com archive or search for a specic book title or subject. The URL is http://docs.sun.com.

Related Books
Multithreading requires a different way of thinking about function interactions. The following books are recommended reading.
I I

Concurrent Programming by Alan Burns & Geoff Davies (Addison-Wesley, 1993) Distributed Algorithms and Protocols by Michel Raynal (Wiley, 1988)

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Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

Operating System Concepts by Silberschatz, Peterson, & Galvin (Addison-Wesley, 1991) Principles of Concurrent Programming by M. Ben-Ari (Prentice-Hall, 1982) Programming with Threads by Steve Kleiman, Devang Shah, & Bart Smalders (Prentice Hall, 1996)

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What Typographic Conventions Mean

The following table describes the typographic changes used in this book.
TABLE P1 Typographic Conventions Typeface or Symbol

Meaning

Example

AaBbCc123

The names of commands, les, and directories; on-screen computer output

Edit your .login le. Use ls -a to list all les. machine_name% you have mail.

AaBbCc123 AaBbCc123 AaBbCc123

What you type, contrasted with on-screen machine_name% su computer output Password: Command-line placeholder: replace with a real name or value Book titles, new words, or terms, or words to be emphasized. To delete a le, type rm lename. Read Chapter 6 in Users Guide. These are called class options. You must be root to do this.

Shell Prompts in Command Examples

The following table shows the default system prompt and superuser prompt for the C shell, Bourne shell, and Korn shell.

13

TABLE P2 Shell Prompts Shell Prompt

C shell prompt C shell superuser prompt Bourne shell and Korn shell prompt

machine_name% machine_name# $

Bourne shell and Korn shell superuser prompt #

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CHAPTER

Covering Multithreading Basics

The word multithreading can be translated as multiple threads of control or multiple ows of control. While a traditional UNIX process contains a single thread of control, multithreading (MT) separates a process into many execution threads. Each of these threads runs independently. This chapter explains some multithreading terms, benets, and concepts. If you are ready to start using multithreading, skip to Chapter 2.
I I I I

Dening Multithreading Terms on page 15 Meeting Multithreading Standards on page 17 Beneting From Multithreading on page 17 Multithreading Concepts on page 19

Dening Multithreading Terms

Table 11 introduces some of the terms that are used in this book.
TABLE 11 Multithreading Terms Term Definition

Process

The UNIX environment, such as le descriptors, user ID, and so on, created with the fork(2) system call, which is set up to run a program. A sequence of instructions executed within the context of a process. A threads interface that is POSIX threads compliant.

Thread POSIX pthreads

15

TABLE 11 Multithreading Terms Term

(Continued)
Definition

Solaris threads Single-threaded Multithreading

A Sun Microsystems threads interface that is not POSIX threads compliant. A predecessor of pthreads. Restricted access to a single thread. Allows access to two or more threads.

User-level or Application-level Threads managed by threads routines in user as opposed to threads kernel space. Lightweight processes Kernel threads, also called LWPs, that execute kernel code and system calls. Beginning with Solaris 9, every thread has a dedicated LWP. Prior to Solaris 9, a user-level thread that is permanently bound to one LWP. Beginning with Solaris 9, every thread has a dedicated LWP. Prior to Solaris 9, a user-level thread that is not necessarily bound to one LWP. Beginning with Solaris 9, every thread has a dedicated LWP. Contains opaque data types and related manipulation functions. These data types and functions standardize some of the congurable aspects of POSIX threads, mutual exclusion locks (mutexes), and condition variables. Functions that lock and unlock access to shared data. Functions that block threads until a change of state. Functions that allow multiple read-only access to shared data, but exclusive access for modication of that data. A memory-based synchronization mechanism. A condition that arises when at least two threads are executing simultaneously. A condition that exists when at least two threads are making progress. A more generalized form of parallelism that can include time-slicing as a form of virtual parallelism.

Bound thread (obsolete term)

Unbound thread (obsolete term) Attribute object

Mutual exclusion locks Condition variables Read-write locks Counting semaphore Parallelism Concurrency

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Meeting Multithreading Standards

The concept of multithreaded programming goes back to at least the 1960s. Multithreaded programming development on UNIX systems began in the middle 1980s. While an agreement exists about what multithreading is and the features necessary to support multithreading, the interfaces used to implement multithreading have varied greatly. For several years, POSIX (Portable Operating System Interface) 1003.4a has been working on standards for multithreaded programming. The standard has now been ratied. This Multithreaded Programming Guide is based on the POSIX standard IEEE Std 1003.1 1996 Edition (also known as ISO/IEC 99451 Second edition). These features are also present in the latest revision of the POSIX standard IEEE Std 1003.1:2001 (also known as ISO/IEC 9945:2002 and as The Single UNIX Specication, Version 3). Subjects specic to Solaris threads are covered in the Chapter 8.

Beneting From Multithreading

This section briey describes the benets of multithreading. Multithreading your code can
I I I I

Improve application responsiveness Use multiprocessors more efficiently Improve program structure Use fewer system resources

Improving Application Responsiveness

Any program in which many activities are not dependent upon each other can be redesigned so that each activity is dened as a thread. For example, the user of a multithreaded GUI does not have to wait for one activity to complete before starting another activity.

Chapter 1 Covering Multithreading Basics

17

Using Multiprocessors Efficiently

Typically, applications that express concurrency requirements with threads need not take into account the number of available processors. The performance of the application improves transparently with additional processors. Numerical algorithms and numerical applications with a high degree of parallelism, such as matrix multiplications, can run much faster when implemented with threads on a multiprocessor.

Improving Program Structure

Many programs are more efficiently structured as multiple independent or semi-independent units of execution instead of as a single, monolithic thread. Multithreaded programs can be more adaptive to variations in user demands than single-threaded programs.

Using Fewer System Resources

Programs that use two or more processes that access common data through shared memory are applying more than one thread of control. However, each process has a full address space and operating environment state. Cost of creating and maintaining this large amount of state information makes each process much more expensive than a thread in both time and space. In addition, the inherent separation between processes can require a major effort by the programmer. This effort includes handling communication between the threads in different processes, or synchronizing their actions.

Combining Threads and RPC

By combining threads and a remote procedure call (RPC) package, you can exploit nonshared-memory multiprocessors, such as a collection of workstations. This combination distributes your application relatively easily and treats the collection of workstations as a multiprocessor. For example, one thread might create additional threads. Each of these children could then place a remote procedure call, invoking a procedure on another workstation. Although the original thread has merely created threads that are now running in parallel, this parallelism involves other computers.

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Multithreading Concepts
This section introduces basic concepts of multithreading.

Concurrency and Parallelism

In a multithreaded process on a single processor, the processor can switch execution resources between threads, resulting in concurrent execution. In the same multithreaded process in a shared-memory multiprocessor environment, each thread in the process can run concurrently on a separate processor, resulting in parallel execution. When the process has fewer or as many threads as the number of processors, the threads support system in conjunction with the operating environment ensure that each thread runs on a different processor. For example, in a matrix multiplication that has the same number of threads and processors, each thread and each processor computes a row of the result.

Looking at Multithreading Structure

Traditional UNIX already supports the concept of threads. Each process contains a single thread, so programming with multiple processes is programming with multiple threads. But, a process is also an address space, and creating a process involves creating a new address space. Creating a thread is less expensive than creating a new process because the newly created thread uses the current process address space. The time that is required to switch between threads is less than the time required to switch between processes. A switch between threads is faster because no switching between address spaces occurs. Communication between the threads of one process is simple because the threads share everything, address space, in particular. So, data produced by one thread is immediately available to all the other threads. In Solaris 9 and earlier Solaris releases, the interface to multithreading support was through specic subroutine libraries. The libraries are libpthread for POSIX threads, and libthread for Solaris threads. Multithreading provides exibility by decoupling kernel-level and user-level resources. In the current release, multithreading support for both sets of interfaces is provided by the standard C library.

User-Level Threads
Threads are the primary programming interface in multithreaded programming. Threads are visible only from within the process, where the threads share all process resources like address space, open les, and so on.
Chapter 1 Covering Multithreading Basics 19

User-Level Threads State

The following state is unique to each thread.
I I I I I I

Thread ID Register state, including PC and stack pointer Stack Signal mask Priority Thread-private storage

Threads share the process instructions and most of the process data. For that reason, a change in shared data by one thread can be seen by the other threads in the process. When a thread needs to interact with other threads in the same process, the thread can do so without involving the operating environment.
Note User-level threads are so named to distinguish them from kernel-level threads, which are the concern of systems programmers only. Because this book is for application programmers, kernel-level threads are not discussed.

Thread Scheduling
The POSIX standard species three scheduling policies: rst-in-rst-out (SCHED_FIFO), round-robin (SCHED_RR), and custom (SCHED_OTHER). SCHED_FIFO is a queue-based scheduler with different queues for each priority level. SCHED_RR is like FIFO except that each thread has an execution time quota. Both SCHED_FIFO and SCHED_RR are POSIX Realtime extensions. SCHED_OTHER is the default scheduling policy. See LWPs and Scheduling Classes on page 140 for information about the SCHED_OTHER policy. Two scheduling scopes are available: process scope (PTHREAD_SCOPE_PROCESS) and system scope (PTHREAD_SCOPE_SYSTEM). Threads with differing scope states can coexist on the same system and even in the same process. Process scope causes such threads to contend for resources only with other such threads in the same process. System scope causes such threads to contend with all other threads in the system. In practice, beginning with the Solaris 9 release\, the system makes no distinction between these two scopes.

Thread Cancellation
A thread can request the termination of any other thread in the process. The target thread, the one being cancelled, can keep cancellation requests pending as well as perform application-specic cleanup when the thread acts upon the cancellation request.
20 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

The pthreads cancellation feature permits either asynchronous or deferred termination of a thread. Asynchronous cancellation can occur at any time. Deferred cancellation can occur only at dened points. Deferred cancellation is the default type.

Thread Synchronization
Synchronization enables you to control program ow and access to shared data for concurrently executing threads. The four synchronization models are mutex locks, read/write locks, condition variables, and semaphores.
I

Mutex locks allow only one thread at a time to execute a specic section of code, or to access specic data. Read/write locks permit concurrent reads and exclusive writes to a protected shared resource. To modify a resource, a thread must rst acquire the exclusive write lock. An exclusive write lock is not permitted until all read locks have been released. Condition variables block threads until a particular condition is true. Counting semaphores typically coordinate access to resources. The count is the limit on how many threads can have access to a semaphore. When the count is reached, the semaphore blocks.

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Using the 64-bit Architecture

For application developers, the major difference between the Solaris 64-bit and 32bit environments is the Clanguage data type model used. The 64-bit data type uses the LP64 model where longs and pointers are 64 bits wide. All other fundamental data types remain the same as the data types of the 32bit implementation. The 32bit data type uses the ILP32 model where ints, longs, and pointers are 32 bits. The following summary briey describes the major features and considerations for using the 64-bit environment:
I

Large Virtual Address Space In the 64-bit environment, a process can have up to 64 bits of virtual address space, or 18 exabytes. The larger virtual address space is 4 billion times the current 4 Gbyte maximum of a 32-bit process. Because of hardware restrictions, however, some platforms might not support the full 64 bits of address space. A large address space increases the number of threads that can be created with the default stack size. The stack size is 1 megabyte on 32 bits, 2 megabytes on 64 bits. The number of threads with the default stack size is approximately 2000 threads on a 32bit system and 8000 billion on a 64-bit system.
Chapter 1 Covering Multithreading Basics 21

Kernel Memory Readers The kernel is an LP64 object that uses 64-bit data structures internally. This means that existing 32-bit applications that use libkvm, /dev/mem, or /dev/kmem do not work properly and must be converted to 64-bit programs.

/proc Restrictions A 32-bit program that uses /proc is able to look at 32-bit processes but is unable to understand a 64-bit process. The existing interfaces and data structures that describe the process are not large enough to contain the 64-bit quantities. Such programs must be recompiled as 64-bit programs to work for both 32-bit processes and 64-bit processes.

64-bit Libraries 32bit applications are required to link with 32bit libraries and 64-bit applications are required to link with 64-bit libraries. With the exception of those libraries that have become obsolete, all of the system libraries are provided in both 32bit versions and 64-bit versions.

64-bit Arithmetic 64-bit arithmetic has long been available in previous 32bit Solaris releases. The 64-bit implementation now provides full 64-bit machine registers for integer operations and parameter passing.

Large Files If an application requires only large le support, the application can remain 32-bit and use the Large Files interface. To take full advantage of 64-bit capabilities, the application must be converted to 64-bit.

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CHAPTER

Basic Threads Programming

This chapter introduces the basic threads programming routines for POSIX threads. This chapter describes default threads, or threads with default attribute values, which are the kind of threads that are most often used in multithreaded programming. This chapter explains how to create and use threads with nondefault attributes. The POSIX routines which are introduced here have programming interfaces that are similar to the original Solaris multithreading library.

The Threads Library

The following brief roadmap directs you to the discussion of a particular task and its associated man page.

Creating a Default Thread

When an attribute object is not specied, the object is NULL, and the default thread is created with the following attributes:
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Process scope Nondetached A default stack and stack size A priority of zero

You can also create a default attribute object with pthread_attr_init(), and then use this attribute object to create a default thread. See the section Initializing Attributes on page 48 for details.

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pthread_create Syntax
Use pthread_create(3C) to add a new thread of control to the current process.
int pthread_create(pthread_t *tid, const pthread_attr_t *tattr, void*(*start_routine)(void *), void *arg);

#include <pthread.h> pthread_attr_t() tattr; pthread_t tid; extern void *start_routine(void *arg); void *arg; int ret; /* default behavior*/ ret = pthread_create(&tid, NULL, start_routine, arg); /* ret /* ret initialized with default attributes */ = pthread_attr_init(&tattr); default behavior specified*/ = pthread_create(&tid, &tattr, start_routine, arg);

The pthread_create() function is called with attr that has the necessary state behavior. start_routine is the function with which the new thread begins execution. When start_routine returns, the thread exits with the exit status set to the value returned by start_routine. See pthread_create Syntax on page 24. When pthread_create() is successful, the ID of the created thread is stored in the location referred to as tid. When you call pthread_create() with either a NULL attribute argument or a default attribute, pthread_create() creates a default thread. When tattr is initialized, the thread acquires the default behavior.

pthread_create Return Values

pthread_create() returns zero when the call completes successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When any of the following conditions are detected, pthread_create() fails and returns the corresponding value. EAGAIN
Description: A system limit is exceeded, such as when too many threads have been

created. EINVAL
Description: The value of tattr is invalid.

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Waiting for Thread Termination

The pthread_join() function blocks the calling thread until the specied thread terminates.

pthread_join Syntax
Use pthread_join(3C) to wait for a thread to terminate.
int pthread_join(thread_t tid, void **status);

#include <pthread.h> pthread_t tid; int ret; void *status; /* waiting to join thread "tid" with status */ ret = pthread_join(tid, &status); /* waiting to join thread "tid" without status */ ret = pthread_join(tid, NULL);

The specied thread must be in the current process and must not be detached. For information on thread detachment, see Setting Detach State on page 50. When status is not NULL, status points to a location that is set to the exit status of the terminated thread when pthread_join() returns successfully. If multiple threads wait for the same thread to terminate, all the threads wait until the target thread terminates. Then one waiting thread returns successfully. The other waiting threads fail with an error of ESRCH. After pthread_join() returns, any data storage associated with the terminated thread can be reclaimed by the application.

pthread_join Return Values

pthread_join() returns zero when the call completes successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When any of the following conditions are detected, pthread_join() fails and returns the corresponding value. ESRCH
Description: No thread could be found corresponding to the given thread ID.

EDEADLK
Description: A deadlock would exist, such as a thread waits for itself or thread A waits for thread B and thread B waits for thread A.
Chapter 2 Basic Threads Programming 25

EINVAL
Description: The thread corresponding to the given thread ID is a detached thread.

pthread_join() works only for target threads that are nondetached. When no reason exists to synchronize with the termination of a particular thread, then that thread should be detached.

Simple Threads Example

In Example 21, one thread executes the procedure at the top, creating a helper thread that executes the procedure fetch(). fetch() executes a complicated database lookup and might take some time. The main thread awaits the results of the lookup but has other work to do in the meantime. So, the main thread perform those other activities and then waits for its helper to complete its job by executing pthread_join(). An argument, pbe, to the new thread is passed as a stack parameter. The thread argument can be passed as a stack parameter because the main thread waits for the spun-off thread to terminate. However, the preferred method is to use malloc to allocate storage from the heap instead of passing an address to thread stack storage. If the argument is passed as an address to thread stack storage, this address might be invalid or be reassigned if the thread terminates.
EXAMPLE 21

Simple Threads Program

void mainline (...) { struct phonebookentry *pbe; pthread_attr_t tattr; pthread_t helper; void *status; pthread_create(&helper, NULL, fetch, &pbe); /* do something else for a while */ pthread_join(helper, &status); /* its now safe to use result */ } void *fetch(struct phonebookentry *arg) { struct phonebookentry *npbe; /* fetch value from a database */ npbe = search (prog_name) if (npbe != NULL) *arg = *npbe; pthread_exit(0); 26 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

EXAMPLE 21

Simple Threads Program

(Continued)

} struct phonebookentry { char name[64]; char phonenumber[32]; char flags[16]; }

Detaching a Thread
pthread_detach(3C) is an alternative to pthread_join(3C) to reclaim storage for a thread that is created with a detachstate attribute set to PTHREAD_CREATE_JOINABLE.

pthread_detach Syntax
int pthread_detach(thread_t tid); #include <pthread.h> pthread_t tid; int ret; /* detach thread tid */ ret = pthread_detach(tid);

The pthread_detach() function is used to indicate to your application that storage for the thread tid can be reclaimed when the thread terminates. If tid has not terminated, pthread_detach() does not cause the thread to terminate.

pthread_detach Return Values

pthread_detach() returns zero when the call completes successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When any of the following conditions is detected, pthread_detach() fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: tid is a detached thread.

ESRCH
Description: tid is not a valid, undetached thread in the current process.

Chapter 2 Basic Threads Programming

27

Creating a Key for Thread-Specic Data

Single-threaded C programs have two basic classes of data: local data and global data. For multithreaded C programs a third class, thread-specic data, is added. Thread-specic data is very much like global data, except that the data is private to a thread. Thread-specic data is maintained on a per-thread basis. TSD is the only way to dene and refer to data that is private to a thread. Each thread-specic data item is associated with a key that is global to all threads in the process. By using the key, a thread can access a pointer (void *) maintained per-thread.

pthread_key_create Syntax
int pthread_key_create(pthread_key_t *key, void (*destructor) (void *));

#include <pthread.h> pthread_key_t key; int ret; /* key create without destructor */ ret = pthread_key_create(&key, NULL); /* key create with destructor */ ret = pthread_key_create(&key, destructor);

Use pthread_key_create(3C) to allocate a key that is used to identify thread-specic data in a process. The key is global to all threads in the process. When the thread-specic data is created, all threads initially have the value NULL associated with the key. Call pthread_key_create() once for each key before using the key. No implicit synchronization exists for the keys shared by all threads in a process. Once a key has been created, each thread can bind a value to the key. The values are specic to the threads and are maintained for each thread independently. The per-thread binding is deallocated when a thread terminates if the key was created with a destructor function. When pthread_key_create() returns successfully, the allocated key is stored in the location pointed to by key. The caller must ensure that the storage and access to this key are properly synchronized. An optional destructor function, destructor, can be used to free stale storage. If a key has a non-NULL destructor function and the thread has a non-NULL value associated with that key, the destructor function is called with the current associated value when the thread exits. The order in which the destructor functions are called is unspecied.
28 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

pthread_key_create Return Values

pthread_key_create() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When any of the following conditions occur, pthread_key_create() fails and returns the corresponding value. EAGAIN
Description: The key name space is exhausted.

ENOMEM
Description: Insufficient virtual memory is available in this process to create a new

key.

Deleting the Thread-Specic Data Key

Use pthread_key_delete(3C) to destroy an existing thread-specic data key. Any memory associated with the key can be freed because the key has been invalidated. Reference to an invalid key returns an error. No comparable function is present in Solaris threads.

pthread_key_delete Syntax
int pthread_key_delete(pthread_key_t key); #include <pthread.h> pthread_key_t key; int ret; /* key previously created */ ret = pthread_key_delete(key);

If a key has been deleted, any reference to the key with the pthread_setspecific () or pthread_getspecific() call yields undened results. The programmer must free any thread-specic resources before calling the delete function. This function does not invoke any of the destructors. Repeated calls to pthread_key_create() and pthread_key_delete() can cause a problem. The problem occurs when the key value is never reused after pthread_key_delete() marks a key as invalid. Call pthread_key_create() only once for each desired key.

pthread_key_delete Return Values

pthread_key_delete() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When the following condition occurs, pthread_key_delete() fails and returns the corresponding value.
Chapter 2 Basic Threads Programming 29

EINVAL
Description: The key value is invalid.

Setting Thread-Specic Data

Use pthread_setspecific(3C) to set the thread-specic binding to the specied thread-specic data key.

pthread_setspecific Syntax
int pthread_setspecific(pthread_key_t key, const void *value); #include <pthread.h> pthread_key_t key; void *value; int ret; /* key previously created */ ret = pthread_setspecific(key, value);

pthread_setspecific Return Values

pthread_setspecific() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When any of the following conditions occur, pthread_setspecific() fails and returns the corresponding value. ENOMEM
Description: Insufficient virtual memory is available.

EINVAL
Description: key is invalid.

Note pthread_setspecific() does not free its storage when a new binding is set.

The existing binding must be freed, otherwise a memory leak can occur.

Getting Thread-Specic Data

Use pthread_getspecific(3C) to get the calling threads binding for key, and store the binding in the location pointed to by value.

pthread_getspecific Syntax
void 30 *pthread_getspecific(pthread_key_t key); Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

#include <pthread.h> pthread_key_t key; void *value; /* key previously created */ value = pthread_getspecific(key);

pthread_getspecific Return Values

pthread_getspecific returns no errors.

Global and Private Thread-Specic Data Example

Example 22 shows an excerpt from a multithreaded program. This code is executed by any number of threads, but the code has references to two global variables, errno and mywindow. These global values really should be references to items private to each thread.
EXAMPLE 22

Thread-Specic DataGlobal but Private

body() { ... while (write(fd, buffer, size) == -1) { if (errno != EINTR) { fprintf(mywindow, "%s\n", strerror(errno)); exit(1); } } ... }

References to errno should get the system error code from the routine called by this thread, not by some other thread. So, references to errno by one thread refer to a different storage location than references to errno by other threads. The mywindow variable refers to a stdio stream that is connected to a window that is private to the referring thread. So, as with errno, references to mywindow by one thread should refer to a different storage location than references to mywindow by other threads. Ultimately, the reference is to a different window, The only difference here is that the system takes care of errno, but the programmer must handle references for mywindow. The next example shows how the references to mywindow work. The preprocessor converts references to mywindow into invocations of the _mywindow() procedure.
Chapter 2 Basic Threads Programming 31

This routine in turn invokes pthread_getspecific(). pthread_getspecific() receives the mywindow_key global variable and win an output parameter that receives the identity of this threads window.
EXAMPLE 23

Turning Global References Into Private References

thread_key_t mywin_key; FILE *_mywindow(void) { FILE *win; win = pthread_getspecific(mywin_key); return(win); } #define mywindow _mywindow() void routine_uses_win( FILE *win) { ... } void thread_start(...) { ... make_mywin(); ... routine_uses_win( mywindow ) ... }

The mywin_key variable identies a class of variables for which each thread has its own private copy. These variables are thread-specic data. Each thread calls make_mywin() to initialize its window and to arrange for its instance of mywindow to refer to the thread-specic data. Once this routine is called, the thread can safely refer to mywindow and, after _mywindow(), the thread gets the reference to its private window. References to mywindow behave as if direct references were made to data private to the thread. Example 24 shows how to set up the reference.
EXAMPLE 24

Initializing the Thread-Specic Data

void make_mywindow(void) { FILE **win; static pthread_once_t mykeycreated = PTHREAD_ONCE_INIT; pthread_once(&mykeycreated, mykeycreate); win = malloc(sizeof(*win)); create_window(win, ...); pthread_setspecific(mywindow_key, win); } 32 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

EXAMPLE 24

Initializing the Thread-Specic Data

(Continued)

void mykeycreate(void) { pthread_key_create(&mywindow_key, free_key); } void free_key(void *win) { free(win); }

First, get a unique value for the key, mywin_key. This key is used to identify the thread-specic class of data. The rst thread to call make_mywin() eventually calls pthread_key_create(), which assigns to its rst argument a unique key. The second argument is a destructor function that is used to deallocate a threads instance of this thread-specic data item once the thread terminates. The next step is to allocate the storage for the callers instance of this thread-specic data item. Having allocated the storage, calling create_window() sets up a window for the thread. win points to the storage allocated for the window. Finally, a call is made to pthread_setspecific(), which associates win with the key. Subsequently, whenever the thread calls pthread_getspecific() to pass the global key, the thread gets the value that is associated with this key by this thread in an earlier call to pthread_setspecific(). When a thread terminates, calls are made to the destructor functions that were set up in pthread_key_create(). Each destructor function is called only if the terminating thread established a value for the key by calling pthread_setspecific ().

Getting the Thread Identier

Use pthread_self(3C) to get the thread identifier of the calling thread.

pthread_self Syntax
pthread_t pthread_self(void); #include <pthread.h> pthread_t tid; tid = pthread_self();

pthread_self Return Values

pthread_self() returns the thread identifier of the calling thread.
Chapter 2 Basic Threads Programming 33

Comparing Thread IDs

Use pthread_equal(3C) to compare the thread identication numbers of two threads.

pthread_equal Syntax
int pthread_equal(pthread_t tid1, pthread_t tid2); #include <pthread.h> pthread_t tid1, tid2; int ret; ret = pthread_equal(tid1, tid2);

pthread_equal Return Values

pthread_equal() returns a nonzero value when tid1 and tid2 are equal, otherwise, zero is returned. When either tid1 or tid2 is an invalid thread identication number, the result is unpredictable.

Initializing Threads
Use pthread_once(3C) to call an initialization routine the rst time pthread_once is called. Subsequent calls to pthread_once() have no effect.

pthread_once Syntax
int pthread_once(pthread_once_t *once_control, void (*init_routine)(void));

#include <pthread.h> pthread_once_t once_control = PTHREAD_ONCE_INIT; int ret; ret = pthread_once(&once_control, init_routine);

The once_control parameter determines whether the associated initialization routine has been called.

pthread_once Return Values

pthread_once() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When the following condition occurs, pthread_once() fails and returns the corresponding value.
34 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

EINVAL
Description: once_control or init_routine is NULL.

Yielding Thread Execution

Use sched_yield(3RT) to cause the current thread to yield its execution in favor of another thread with the same or greater priority.

sched_yield Syntax
int sched_yield(void); #include <sched.h> int ret; ret = sched_yield();

sched_yield Return Values

sched_yield() returns zero after completing successfully. Otherwise, -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error condition. ENOSYS
Description: sched_yield is not supported in this implementation.

Setting the Thread Priority

Use pthread_setschedparam(3C) to modify the priority of an existing thread. This function has no effect on scheduling policy.

pthread_setschedparam Syntax
int pthread_setschedparam(pthread_t tid, int policy, const struct sched_param *param);

#include <pthread.h> pthread_t tid; int ret; struct sched_param param; int priority;

Chapter 2 Basic Threads Programming

35

/* sched_priority will be the priority of the thread */ sched_param.sched_priority = priority; policy = SCHED_OTHER; /* scheduling parameters of target thread */ ret = pthread_setschedparam(tid, policy, &param);

pthread_setschedparam Return Values

pthread_setschedparam() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When either of the following conditions occurs, the pthread_setschedparam() function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: The value of the attribute being set is not valid.

ENOTSUP
Description: An attempt was made to set the attribute to an unsupported value.

Getting the Thread Priority

pthread_getschedparam(3C) gets the priority of the existing thread.

pthread_getschedparam Syntax
int pthread_getschedparam(pthread_t tid, int policy, struct schedparam *param);

#include <pthread.h> pthread_t tid; sched_param param; int priority; int policy; int ret; /* scheduling parameters of target thread */ ret = pthread_getschedparam (tid, &policy, &param); /* sched_priority contains the priority of the thread */ priority = param.sched_priority;

pthread_getschedparam Return Values

pthread_getschedparam() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When the following condition occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value.
36 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

ESRCH
Description: The value specied by tid does not refer to an existing thread.

Sending a Signal to a Thread

Use pthread_kill(3C) to send a signal to a thread.

pthread_kill Syntax
int pthread_kill(thread_t tid, int sig); #include <pthread.h> #include <signal.h> int sig; pthread_t tid; int ret; ret = pthread_kill(tid, sig);

pthread_kill() sends the signal sig to the thread specied by tid. tid must be a thread within the same process as the calling thread. Thesig argument must be from the list that is given in signal(5). When sig is zero, error checking is performed but no signal is actually sent. This error checking can be used to check the validity of tid.

pthread_kill Return Values

pthread_kill() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When either of the following conditions occurs, pthread_kill() fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: sig is not a valid signal number.

ESRCH
Description: tid cannot be found in the current process.

Accessing the Signal Mask of the Calling Thread

Use pthread_sigmask(3C) to change or examine the signal mask of the calling thread.

pthread_sigmask Syntax
int pthread_sigmask(int how, const sigset_t *new, sigset_t *old); Chapter 2 Basic Threads Programming 37

#include <pthread.h> #include <signal.h> int ret; sigset_t old, new; ret = pthread_sigmask(SIG_SETMASK, &new, &old); /* set new mask */ ret = pthread_sigmask(SIG_BLOCK, &new, &old); /* blocking mask */ ret = pthread_sigmask(SIG_UNBLOCK, &new, &old); /* unblocking */

how determines how the signal set is changed. how can have one of the following values:
I

SIG_BLOCK. Add new to the current signal mask, where new indicates the set of signals to block. SIG_UNBLOCK. Delete new from the current signal mask, where new indicates the set of signals to unblock. SIG_SETMASK. Replace the current signal mask with new, where new indicates the new signal mask.

When the value of new is NULL, the value of how is not signicant. The signal mask of the thread is unchanged. To inquire about currently blocked signals, assign a NULL value to the new argument. The old variable points to the space where the previous signal mask is stored, unless old is NULL.

pthread_sigmask Return Values

pthread_sigmask() returns zero when the call completes successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When the following condition occurs, pthread_sigmask() fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: The value of how is not dened.

Forking Safely
See the discussion about pthread_atfork(3C) in Solution: pthread_atfork on page 136.

pthread_atfork Syntax
int pthread_atfork(void (*prepare) (void), void (*parent) (void), void (*child) (void) ); 38 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

pthread_atfork Return Values

pthread_atfork() returns zero when the call completes successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When the following condition occurs, pthread_atfork() fails and returns the corresponding value. ENOMEM
Description: Insufficient table space exists to record the fork handler addresses.

Terminating a Thread
Use pthread_exit(3C) to terminate a thread.

pthread_exit Syntax
void pthread_exit(void *status); #include <pthread.h> void *status; pthread_exit(status); /* exit with status */

The pthread_exit() function terminates the calling thread. All thread-specic data bindings are released. If the calling thread is not detached, then the threads ID and the exit status specied by status are retained until your application calls pthread_join() to wait for the thread. Otherwise, status is ignored. The threads ID can be reclaimed immediately. For information on thread detachment, see Setting Detach State on page 50.

pthread_exit Return Values

The calling thread terminates with its exit status set to the contents of status.

Finishing Up
A thread can terminate its execution in the following ways:
I

By returning from its rst (outermost) procedure, the threads start routine. See pthread_create. By calling pthread_exit(), supplying an exit status. By termination with POSIX cancel functions. See pthread_cancel().
Chapter 2 Basic Threads Programming 39

I I

The default behavior of a thread is to linger until some other thread has acknowledged its demise by joining with the lingering thread. This behavior is the same as the default pthread_create() attribute that is nondetached, see pthread_detach. The result of the join is that the joining thread picks up the exit status of the terminated thread and the terminated thread vanishes. An important special case arises when the initial thread, calling main(), returns from calling main() or calls exit(). This action causes the entire process to be terminated, along with all its threads. So, take care to ensure that the initial thread does not return from main() prematurely. Note that when the main thread merely calls pthread_exit, the main thread terminates itself only. The other threads in the process, as well as the process, continue to exist. The process terminates when all threads terminate.

Cancel a Thread
Cancellation allows a thread to request the termination of any other thread in the process. Cancellation is an option when all further operations of a related set of threads are undesirable or unnecessary. One example of thread cancellation is an asynchronously generated cancel condition, such as, when a user requesting to close or exit a running application. Another example is the completion of a task undertaken by a number of threads. One of the threads might ultimately complete the task while the others continue to operate. Since the running threads serve no purpose at that point, these threads should be cancelled.

Cancellation Points
Be careful to cancel a thread only when cancellation is safe. The pthreads standard species several cancellation points, including:
I

Programmatically, establish a thread cancellation point through a pthread_testcancel call. Threads waiting for the occurrence of a particular condition in pthread_cond_wait or pthread_cond_timedwait(3C). Threads waiting for the occurrence of a particular condition in pthread_cond_wait or pthread_cond_timedwait(3C). Threads blocked on sigwait(2). Some standard library calls. In general, these calls include functions in which threads can block. See the man page cancellation(5) for a list.

I I

Cancellation is enabled by default. At times, you might want an application to disable cancellation. Disabled cancellation has the result of deferring all cancellation requests until cancellation requests are enabled again.
40 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

See pthread_setcancelstate Syntax on page 42 for information about disabling cancellation.

Placing Cancellation Points

Dangers exist in performing cancellations. Most deal with properly restoring invariants and freeing shared resources. A thread that is cancelled without care might leave a mutex in a locked state, leading to a deadlock. Or a cancelled thread might leave a region of allocated memory with no way to identify the memory and therefore unable to free the memory. The standard C library species a cancellation interface that permits or forbids cancellation programmatically. The library denes cancellation points that are the set of points at which cancellation can occur. The library also allows the scope of cancellation handlers to be dened so that the handlers are sure to operate when and where intended. The cancellation handlers provide clean up services to restore resources and state to a condition that is consistent with the point of origin. Placement of cancellation points and the effects of cancellation handlers must be based on an understanding of the application. A mutex is explicitly not a cancellation point and should be held only for the minimal essential time. Limit regions of asynchronous cancellation to sequences with no external dependencies that could result in dangling resources or unresolved state conditions. Take care to restore cancellation state when returning from some alternate, nested cancellation state. The interface provides features to facilitate restoration: pthread_setcancelstate(3C) preserves the current cancel state in a referenced variable, pthread_setcanceltype(3C) preserves the current cancel type in the same way. Cancellations can occur under three different circumstances:
I I I

Asynchronously At various points in the execution sequence as dened by the standard At a call to pthread_testcancel()

By default, cancellation can occur only at well-dened points as dened by the POSIX standard. In all cases, take care that resources and state are restored to a condition consistent with the point of origin.

Cancelling a Thread
Use pthread_cancel(3C) to cancel a thread.

Chapter 2 Basic Threads Programming

41

pthread_cancel Syntax
int pthread_cancel(pthread_t thread); #include <pthread.h> pthread_t thread; int ret; ret = pthread_cancel(thread);

How the cancellation request is treated depends on the state of the target thread. Two functions, pthread_setcancelstate(3C) and pthread_setcanceltype(3C), determine that state.

pthread_cancel Return Values

pthread_cancel() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When the following condition occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. ESRCH
Description: No thread could be found corresponding to that specied by the given

thread ID.

Enabling or Disabling Cancellation

Use pthread_setcancelstate(3C) to enable or disable thread cancellation. When a thread is created, thread cancellation is enabled by default.

pthread_setcancelstate Syntax
int pthread_setcancelstate(int state, int *oldstate); #include <pthread.h> int oldstate; int ret; /* enabled */ ret = pthread_setcancelstate(PTHREAD_CANCEL_ENABLE, &oldstate); /* disabled */ ret = pthread_setcancelstate(PTHREAD_CANCEL_DISABLE, &oldstate);

pthread_setcancelstate Return Values

pthread_setcancelstate() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When the following condition occurs, the pthread_setcancelstate() function fails and returns the corresponding value.
42 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

EINVAL
Description: The state is not PTHREAD_CANCEL_ENABLE or

PTHREAD_CANCEL_DISABLE.

Setting Cancellation Type

Use pthread_setcanceltype(3C) to set the cancellation type to either deferred or asynchronous mode.

pthread_setcanceltype Syntax
int pthread_setcanceltype(int type, int *oldtype); #include <pthread.h> int oldtype; int ret; /* deferred mode */ ret = pthread_setcanceltype(PTHREAD_CANCEL_DEFERRED, &oldtype); /* async mode*/ ret = pthread_setcanceltype(PTHREAD_CANCEL_ASYNCHRONOUS, &oldtype);

When a thread is created, the cancellation type is set to deferred mode by default. In deferred mode, the thread can be cancelled only at cancellation points. In asynchronous mode, a thread can be cancelled at any point during its execution. The use of asynchronous mode is discouraged.

pthread_setcanceltype Return Values

pthread_setcanceltype() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When the following condition occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: The type is not PTHREAD_CANCEL_DEFERRED or PTHREAD_CANCEL_ASYNCHRONOUS.

Creating a Cancellation Point

Use pthread_testcancel(3C) to establish a cancellation point for a thread.

pthread_testcancel Syntax
void pthread_testcancel(void); Chapter 2 Basic Threads Programming 43

#include <pthread.h> pthread_testcancel();

The pthread_testcancel() function is effective when thread cancellation is enabled and in deferred mode. pthread_testcancel() has no effect if called while cancellation is disabled. Be careful to insert pthread_testcancel() only in sequences where thread cancellation is safe. In addition to programmatically establishing cancellation points through the pthread_testcancel() call, the pthreads standard species several cancellation points. See Cancellation Points on page 40 for more details.

pthread_testcancel Return Values

pthread_testcancel() has no return value.

Pushing a Handler Onto the Stack

Use cleanup handlers to restore conditions to a state that is consistent with that state at the point of origin. This consistent state includes cleaning up allocated resources and restoring invariants. Use the pthread_cleanup_push(3C) and pthread_cleanup_pop(3C) functions to manage the handlers. Cleanup handlers are pushed and popped in the same lexical scope of a program. The push and pop should always match. Otherwise, compiler errors are generated.

pthread_cleanup_push Syntax
Use pthread_cleanup_push(3C) to push a cleanup handler onto a cleanup stack (LIFO).
void pthread_cleanup_push(void(*routine)(void *), void *args); #include <pthread.h> /* push the handler "routine" on cleanup stack */ pthread_cleanup_push (routine, arg);

pthread_cleanup_push Return Values

pthread_cleanup_push() has no return value.

Pulling a Handler Off the Stack

Use pthread_cleanup_pop(3C) to pull the cleanup handler off the cleanup stack.
44 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

pthread_cleanup_pop Syntax
void pthread_cleanup_pop(int execute); #include <pthread.h> /* pop the "func" out of cleanup stack and execute "func" */ pthread_cleanup_pop (1); /* pop the "func" and DONT execute "func" */ pthread_cleanup_pop (0);

A nonzero argument in the pop function removes the handler from the stack and executes the handler. An argument of zero pops the handler without executing the handler. pthread_cleanup_pop() is effectively called with a nonzero argument when a thread either explicitly or implicitly calls pthread_exit(3C) or when the thread accepts a cancel request.

pthread_cleanup_pop Return Values

pthread_cleanup_pop() has no return values.

Chapter 2 Basic Threads Programming

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46

Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

CHAPTER

Thread Attributes
The previous chapter covered the basics of threads creation using default attributes. This chapter discusses setting attributes at thread creation time.
Note Only pthreads uses attributes and cancellation. The API covered in this chapter is for POSIX threads only. Otherwise, the capability for Solaris threads and pthreads is largely the same. See Chapter 8 for more information about similarities and differences.

Attribute Object
Attributes are a way to specify behavior that is different from the default. When a thread is created with pthread_create(3C) or when a synchronization variable is initialized, an attribute object can be specied. The defaults are usually sufficient. An attribute object is opaque, and cannot be directly modied by assignments. A set of functions is provided to initialize, congure, and destroy each object type. Once an attribute is initialized and congured, the attribute has process-wide scope. The suggested method for using attributes is to congure all required state specications at one time in the early stages of program execution. The appropriate attribute object can then be referred to as needed. The use of attribute objects provides two primary advantages.
I

Using attribute objects adds to code portability. Even though supported attributes might vary between implementations, you need not modify function calls that create thread entities. These function calls do not require modication because the attribute object is hidden from the interface.
47

If the target port supports attributes that are not found in the current port, provision must be made to manage the new attributes. Management of these attributes is an easy porting task because attribute objects need only be initialized once in a well-dened location.
I

State specication in an application is simplied. As an example, consider that several sets of threads might exist within a process. Each set of threads provides a separate service. Each set has its own state requirements. At some point in the early stages of the application, a thread attribute object can be initialized for each set. All future thread creations will then refer to the attribute object that is initialized for that type of thread. The initialization phase is simple and localized. Any future modications can be made quickly and reliably.

Attribute objects require attention at process exit time. When the object is initialized, memory is allocated for the object. This memory must be returned to the system. The pthreads standard provides function calls to destroy attribute objects.

Initializing Attributes
Use pthread_attr_init(3C) to initialize object attributes to their default values. The storage is allocated by the thread system during execution.

pthread_attr_init Syntax
int pthread_attr_init(pthread_attr_t *tattr); #include <pthread.h> pthread_attr_t tattr; int ret; /* initialize an attribute to the default value */ ret = pthread_attr_init(&tattr);

Table 31 shows the default values for attributes (tattr).

TABLE 31

Default Attribute Values for tattr

Value Result

Attribute

scope detachstate

PTHREAD_SCOPE_PROCESS

New thread contends with other threads in the process. Completion status and thread ID are preserved after the thread exits.

PTHREAD_CREATE_JOINABLE

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TABLE 31

Default Attribute Values for tattr

Value

(Continued)
Result

Attribute

stackaddr stacksize priority inheritsched schedpolicy

NULL 0 0 PTHREAD_EXPLICIT_SCHED

New thread has system-allocated stack address. New thread has system-dened stack size. New thread has priority 0. New thread does not inherit parent thread scheduling priority. New thread uses Solaris-dened xed priorities for synchronization object contention. Threads run until preempted or until the threads block or yield.

SCHED_OTHER

pthread_attr_init Return Values

pthread_attr_init() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. If the following condition occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. ENOMEM
Description: Returned when not enough memory is allocated to initialize the thread attributes object.

Destroying Attributes
Use pthread_attr_destroy(3C) to remove the storage that was allocated during initialization. The attribute object becomes invalid.

pthread_attr_destroy Syntax
int pthread_attr_destroy(pthread_attr_t *tattr); #include <pthread.h> pthread_attr_t tattr; int ret; /* destroy an attribute */ ret = pthread_attr_destroy(&tattr);

Chapter 3 Thread Attributes

49

pthread_attr_destroy Return Values

pthread_attr_destroy() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. If the following condition occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: Indicates that the value of tattr was not valid.

Setting Detach State

When a thread is created detached (PTHREAD_CREATE_DETACHED), its thread ID and other resources can be reused as soon as the thread exits. Use pthread_attr_setdetachstate(3C) when the calling thread does not want to wait for the thread to exit.

pthread_attr_setdetachstate(3C) Syntax
int pthread_attr_setdetachstate(pthread_attr_t *tattr,int detachstate); #include <pthread.h> pthread_attr_t tattr; int ret; /* set the thread detach state */ ret = pthread_attr_setdetachstate(&tattr,PTHREAD_CREATE_DETACHED);

When a thread is created nondetached with PTHREAD_CREATE_JOINABLE, the assumption is that your application will wait for the thread to complete. That is, the program will execute a pthread_join() on the thread. Whether a thread is created detached or nondetached, the process does not exit until all threads have exited. See Finishing Up on page 39 for a discussion of process termination caused by premature exit from main().
Note When no explicit synchronization prevents a newly created, detached thread from failing, its thread ID can be reassigned to another new thread before its creator returns from pthread_create().

Nondetached threads must have a thread join with the nondetached thread after the nondetached thread terminates. Otherwise, the resources of that thread are not released for use by new threads that commonly results in a memory leak. So, when you do not want a thread to be joined, create the thread as a detached thread.
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EXAMPLE 31

Creating a Detached Thread

#include <pthread.h> pthread_attr_t tattr; pthread_t tid; void *start_routine; void arg int ret; /* ret ret ret initialized with default attributes */ = pthread_attr_init (&tattr); = pthread_attr_setdetachstate (&tattr,PTHREAD_CREATE_DETACHED); = pthread_create (&tid, &tattr, start_routine, arg);

pthread_attr_setdetachstate Return Values

pthread_attr_setdetachstate() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. If the following condition occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: Indicates that the value of detachstate or tattr was not valid.

Getting the Detach State

Use pthread_attr_getdetachstate(3C) to retrieve the thread create state, which can be either detached or joined.

pthread_attr_getdetachstate Syntax
int pthread_attr_getdetachstate(const pthread_attr_t *tattr, int *detachstate;

#include <pthread.h> pthread_attr_t tattr; int detachstate; int ret; /* get detachstate of thread */ ret = pthread_attr_getdetachstate (&tattr, &detachstate);

pthread_attr_getdetachstate Return Values

pthread_attr_getdetachstate() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. If the following condition occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value.
Chapter 3 Thread Attributes 51

EINVAL
Description: Indicates that the value of detachstate is NULL or tattr is invalid.

Setting the Stack Guard Size

pthread_attr_setguardsize(3C) sets the guardsize of the attr object.

pthread_attr_setguardsize(3C) Syntax
#include <pthread.h> int pthread_attr_setguardsize(pthread_attr_t *attr, size_t guardsize);

The guardsize attribute is provided to the application for two reasons:

I

Overow protection can potentially result in wasted system resources. When your application creates a large number of threads, and you know that the threads will never overow their stack, you can turn off guard areas. By turning off guard areas, you can conserve system resources. When threads allocate large data structures on stack, a large guard area might be needed to detect stack overow.

The guardsize argument provides protection against overow of the stack pointer. If a threads stack is created with guard protection, the implementation allocates extra memory at the overow end of the stack. This extra memory acts as a buffer against stack overow of the stack pointer. If an application overows into this buffer an error results, possibly in a SIGSEGV signal being delivered to the thread. If guardsize is zero, a guard area is not provided for threads that are created with attr. If guardsize is greater than zero, a guard area of at least size guardsize bytes is provided for each thread created with attr. By default, a thread has an implementation-dened, nonzero guard area. A conforming implementation is permitted to round up the value contained in guardsize to a multiple of the congurable system variable PAGESIZE. See PAGESIZE in sys/mman.h. If an implementation rounds up the value of guardsize to a multiple of PAGESIZE, a call to pthread_attr_getguardsize() that species attr stores, in guardsize, the guard size specied in the previous call to pthread_attr_setguardsize().

pthread_attr_setguardsize Return Values

pthread_attr_setguardsize() fails if: EINVAL
Description: The argument attr is invalid, the argument guardsize is invalid, or the

argument guardsize contains an invalid value.

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Getting the Stack Guard Size

pthread_attr_getguardsize(3C) gets the guardsize of the attr object.

pthread_attr_getguardsize Syntax
#include <pthread.h> int pthread_attr_getguardsize(const pthread_attr_t *attr, size_t *guardsize);

A conforming implementation is permitted to round up the value contained in guardsize to a multiple of the congurable system variable PAGESIZE. See PAGESIZE in sys/mman.h. If an implementation rounds up the value of guardsize to a multiple of PAGESIZE, a call to pthread_attr_getguardsize() that species attr stores, in guardsize, the guard size specied in the previous call to pthread_attr_setguardsize().

pthread_attr_getguardsize Return Values

pthread_attr_getguardsize() fails if: EINVAL
Description: The argument attr is invalid, the argument guardsize is invalid, or the

argument guardsize contains an invalid value.

Setting the Scope

Use pthread_attr_setscope(3C) to establish the contention scope of a thread, either PTHREAD_SCOPE_SYSTEM or PTHREAD_SCOPE_PROCESS. With PTHREAD_SCOPE_SYSTEM, this thread contends with all threads in the system. With PTHREAD_SCOPE_PROCESS, this thread contends with other threads in the process.
Note Both thread types are accessible only within a given process.

pthread_attr_setscope Syntax
int pthread_attr_setscope(pthread_attr_t *tattr,int scope); #include <pthread.h> pthread_attr_t tattr; Chapter 3 Thread Attributes 53

int ret; /* bound thread */ ret = pthread_attr_setscope(&tattr, PTHREAD_SCOPE_SYSTEM); /* unbound thread */ ret = pthread_attr_setscope(&tattr, PTHREAD_SCOPE_PROCESS);

This example uses three function calls: a call to initialize the attributes, a call to set any variations from the default attributes, and a call to create the pthreads.
#include <pthread.h> pthread_attr_t attr; pthread_t tid; void start_routine; void arg; int ret; /* initialized with default attributes */ ret = pthread_attr_init (&tattr); /* BOUND behavior */ ret = pthread_attr_setscope(&tattr, PTHREAD_SCOPE_SYSTEM); ret = pthread_create (&tid, &tattr, start_routine, arg);

pthread_attr_setscope Return Values

pthread_attr_setscope() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. If the following conditions occur, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: An attempt was made to set tattr to a value that is not valid.

Getting the Scope

Use pthread_attr_getscope(3C) to retrieve the thread scope.

pthread_attr_getscope Syntax
int pthread_attr_getscope(pthread_attr_t *tattr, int *scope); #include <pthread.h> pthread_attr_t tattr; int scope; int ret; 54 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

/* get scope of thread */ ret = pthread_attr_getscope(&tattr, &scope);

pthread_attr_getscope Return Values

pthread_attr_getscope() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. If the following condition occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: The value of scope is NULL or tattr is invalid.

Setting the Thread Concurrency Level

pthread_setconcurrency(3C) is provided for standards compliance. pthread_setconcurrency() is used by an application to inform the system of the applications desired concurrency level. For the threads implementation introduced in the Solaris 9 release, this interface has no effect, all runnable threads are attached to LWPs.

pthread_setconcurrency Syntax
#include <pthread.h> int pthread_setconcurrency(int new_level);

pthread_setconcurrency Return Values

pthread_setconcurrency() fails if the following conditions occur: EINVAL
Description: The value specied by new_level is negative.

EAGAIN
Description: The value specied by new_level would cause a system resource to be

exceeded.

Getting the Thread Concurrency Level

pthread_getconcurrency(3C) returns the value set by a previous call to pthread_setconcurrency().
Chapter 3 Thread Attributes 55

pthread_getconcurrency Syntax
#include <pthread.h> int pthread_getconcurrency(void);

If the pthread_setconcurrency() function was not previously called, pthread_getconcurrency() returns zero.

pthread_getconcurrency Return Values

pthread_getconcurrency() always returns the concurrency level set by a previous call to pthread_setconcurrency(). If pthread_setconcurrency() has never been called, pthread_getconcurrency() returns zero.

Setting the Scheduling Policy

Use pthread_attr_setschedpolicy(3C) to set the scheduling policy. The POSIX standard species the scheduling policy attributes of SCHED_FIFO (rst-in-rst-out), SCHED_RR (round-robin), or SCHED_OTHER (an implementation-dened method).

pthread_attr_setschedpolicy(3C) Syntax
int pthread_attr_setschedpolicy(pthread_attr_t *tattr, int policy); #include <pthread.h> pthread_attr_t tattr; int policy; int ret; /* set the scheduling policy to SCHED_OTHER */ ret = pthread_attr_setschedpolicy(&tattr, SCHED_OTHER);
I

SCHED_FIFO First-In-First-Out threads whose contention scope is system (PTHREAD_SCOPE_SYSTEM) are in the real-time (RT) scheduling class if the calling process has an effective userid of 0. These threads, if not preempted by a higher priority thread, proceed until a thread yields or blocks. Use SCHED_FIFO for threads that have a contention scope of process (PTHREAD_SCOPE_PROCESS), or whose calling process does not have an effective userid of 0. SCHED_FIFO is based on the TS scheduling class.

SCHED_RR Round-Robin threads whose contention scope is system (PTHREAD_SCOPE_SYSTEM) are in real-time (RT) scheduling class if the calling process has an effective user id of 0. These threads, if not preempted by a higher priority thread, and if the threads do not yield or block, will execute for the

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system-determined time period. Use SCHED_RR for threads that have a contention scope of process (PTHREAD_SCOPE_PROCESS) is based on the TS scheduling class. Additionally, the calling process for these threads does not have an effective userid of 0. SCHED_FIFO and SCHED_RR are optional in the POSIX standard, and are supported for real-time threads only. For a discussion of scheduling, see the section Thread Scheduling on page 20.

pthread_attr_setschedpolicy Return Values

pthread_attr_setschedpolicy() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When either of the following conditions occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: An attempt was made to set tattr to a value that is not valid.

ENOTSUP
Description: An attempt was made to set the attribute to an unsupported value.

Getting the Scheduling Policy

Use pthread_attr_getschedpolicy(3C) to retrieve the scheduling policy.

pthread_attr_getschedpolicy Syntax
int pthread_attr_getschedpolicy(pthread_attr_t *tattr, int *policy); #include <pthread.h> pthread_attr_t tattr; int policy; int ret; /* get scheduling policy of thread */ ret = pthread_attr_getschedpolicy (&tattr, &policy);

pthread_attr_getschedpolicy Return Values

pthread_attr_getschedpolicy() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. If the following condition occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value.
Chapter 3 Thread Attributes 57

EINVAL
Description: The parameter policy is NULL or tattr is invalid.

Setting the Inherited Scheduling Policy

Use pthread_attr_setinheritsched(3C) to set the inherited scheduling policy.

pthread_attr_setinheritsched Syntax
int pthread_attr_setinheritsched(pthread_attr_t *tattr, int inherit); #include <pthread.h> pthread_attr_t tattr; int inherit; int ret; /* use the current scheduling policy */ ret = pthread_attr_setinheritsched(&tattr, PTHREAD_EXPLICIT_SCHED);

An inherit value of PTHREAD_INHERIT_SCHED means that the scheduling policies dened in the creating thread are to be used. Any scheduling attributes that are dened in the pthread_create() call are to be ignored. If the default value PTHREAD_EXPLICIT_SCHED is used, the attributes from the pthread_create() call are to be used.

pthread_attr_setinheritsched Return Values

pthread_attr_setinheritsched() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When either of the following conditions occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: An attempt was made to set tattr to a value that is not valid.

ENOTSUP
Description: An attempt was made to set the attribute to an unsupported value.

Getting the Inherited Scheduling Policy

pthread_attr_getinheritsched(3C) returns the scheduling policy set by pthread_attr_setinheritsched().

pthread_attr_getinheritsched Syntax
int 58 pthread_attr_getinheritsched(pthread_attr_t *tattr, int *inherit); Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

#include <pthread.h> pthread_attr_t tattr; int inherit; int ret; /* get scheduling policy and priority of the creating thread */ ret = pthread_attr_getinheritsched (&tattr, &inherit);

pthread_attr_getinheritsched Return Values

pthread_attr_getinheritsched() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. If the following condition occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: The parameter inherit is NULL or tattr is invalid.

Setting the Scheduling Parameters

pthread_attr_setschedparam(3C) sets the scheduling parameters.

pthread_attr_setschedparam Syntax
int pthread_attr_setschedparam(pthread_attr_t *tattr, const struct sched_param *param);

#include <pthread.h> pthread_attr_t tattr; int newprio; sched_param param; newprio = 30; /* set the priority; others are unchanged */ param.sched_priority = newprio; /* set the new scheduling param */ ret = pthread_attr_setschedparam (&tattr, &param);

Scheduling parameters are dened in the param structure. Only the priority parameter is supported. Newly created threads run with this priority.

pthread_attr_setschedparam Return Values

pthread_attr_setschedparam() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. If the following conditions occur, the function fails and returns the corresponding value.
Chapter 3 Thread Attributes 59

EINVAL
Description: The value of param is NULL or tattr is invalid.

You can manage pthreads priority in either of two two ways:

I I

You can set the priority attribute before creating a child thread You can change the priority of the parent thread and then change the priority back

Getting the Scheduling Parameters

pthread_attr_getschedparam(3C) returns the scheduling parameters dened by pthread_attr_setschedparam().

pthread_attr_getschedparam Syntax
int pthread_attr_getschedparam(pthread_attr_t *tattr, const struct sched_param *param);

#include <pthread.h> pthread_attr_t attr; struct sched_param param; int ret; /* get the existing scheduling param */ ret = pthread_attr_getschedparam (&tattr, &param);

Creating a Thread With a Specied Priority

You can set the priority attribute before creating the thread. The child thread is created with the new priority that is specied in the sched_param structure. This structure also contains other scheduling information. The recommended practice when creating a child thread is to:
I I I I

Get the existing parameters Change the priority Create the child thread Restore the original priority

Example of Creating a Prioritized Thread

Example 32 shows an example of creating a child thread with a priority that is different from its parents priority.
EXAMPLE 32

Creating a Prioritized Thread

#include <pthread.h> #include <sched.h>

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EXAMPLE 32

Creating a Prioritized Thread

(Continued)

pthread_attr_t tattr; pthread_t tid; int ret; int newprio = 20; sched_param param; /* initialized with default attributes */ ret = pthread_attr_init (&tattr); /* safe to get existing scheduling param */ ret = pthread_attr_getschedparam (&tattr, &param); /* set the priority; others are unchanged */ param.sched_priority = newprio; /* setting the new scheduling param */ ret = pthread_attr_setschedparam (&tattr, &param); /* with new priority specified */ ret = pthread_create (&tid, &tattr, func, arg);

pthread_attr_getschedparam Return Values

pthread_attr_getschedparam() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. If the following condition occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: The value of param is NULL or tattr is invalid.

Setting the Stack Size

pthread_attr_setstacksize(3C) sets the thread stack size.

pthread_attr_setstacksize Syntax
int pthread_attr_setstacksize(pthread_attr_t *tattr, size_t size);

#include <pthread.h> pthread_attr_t tattr; size_t size; int ret;

Chapter 3 Thread Attributes

61

size = (PTHREAD_STACK_MIN + 0x4000); /* setting a new size */ ret = pthread_attr_setstacksize(&tattr, size);

The stacksize attribute denes the size of the stack (in bytes) that the system allocates. The size should not be less than the system-dened minimum stack size. See About Stacks on page 63 for more information. size contains the number of bytes for the stack that the new thread uses. If size is zero, a default size is used. In most cases, a zero value works best. PTHREAD_STACK_MIN is the amount of stack space that is required to start a thread. This stack space does not take into consideration the threads routine requirements that are needed to execute application code.

pthread_attr_setstacksize Return Values

pthread_attr_setstacksize() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. If the following condition occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: The value of size is less than PTHREAD_STACK_MIN, or exceeds a system-imposed limit, or tattr is not valid.

Getting the Stack Size

pthread_attr_getstacksize(3C) returns the stack size set by pthread_attr_setstacksize().

pthread_attr_getstacksize Syntax
int pthread_attr_getstacksize(pthread_attr_t *tattr, size_t *size);

#include <pthread.h> pthread_attr_t tattr; size_t size; int ret; /* getting the stack size */ ret = pthread_attr_getstacksize(&tattr, &size);

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pthread_attr_getstacksize Return Values

pthread_attr_getstacksize() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. If the following condition occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: tattr is not valid.

About Stacks
Typically, thread stacks begin on page boundaries. Any specied size is rounded up to the next page boundary. A page with no access permission is appended to the overow end of the stack. Most stack overows result in sending a SIGSEGV signal to the offending thread. Thread stacks allocated by the caller are used without modication. When a stack is specied, the thread should also be created with PTHREAD_CREATE_JOINABLE. That stack cannot be freed until the pthread_join(3C) call for that thread has returned. The threads stack cannot be freed until the thread has terminated. The only reliable way to know if such a thread has terminated is through pthread_join(3C).

Allocating Stack Space for Threads

Generally, you do not need to allocate stack space for threads. The system allocates 1 megabyte (for 32 bit systems) or 2 megabytes (for 64 bit systems) of virtual memory for each threads stack with no swap space reserved. The system uses the MAP_NORESERVE option of mmap() to make the allocations. Each thread stack created by the system has a red zone. The system creates the red zone by appending a page to the overow end of a stack to catch stack overows. This page is invalid and causes a memory fault if accessed. Red zones are appended to all automatically allocated stacks whether the size is specied by the application or the default size is used.
Note Runtime stack requirements vary for library calls and dynamic linking. You should be absolutely certain that the specied stack satises the runtime requirements for library calls and dynamic linking.

Very few occasions exist when specifying a stack, its size, or both, is appropriate. Even an expert has a difficult time knowing whether the right size was specied. Even a program that is compliant with ABI standards cannot determine its stack size statically. The stack size is dependent on the needs of the particular runtime environment in execution.
Chapter 3 Thread Attributes 63

Building Your Own Stack

When you specify the thread stack size, you must account for the allocations needed by the invoked function and by each subsequent function called. The accounting should include calling sequence needs, local variables, and information structures. Occasionally, you want a stack that differs a bit from the default stack. An obvious situation is when the thread needs more than the default stack size. A less obvious situation is when the default stack is too large. You might be creating thousands of threads with insufficient virtual memory to handle the gigabytes of stack space required by thousands of default stacks. The limits on the maximum size of a stack are often obvious, but what about the limits on its minimum size? Sufficient stack space must exist to handle all stack frames that are pushed onto the stack, along with their local variables, and so on. To get the absolute minimum limit on stack size, call the macro PTHREAD_STACK_MIN. The PTHREAD_STACK_MIN macro returns the amount of required stack space for a thread that executes a NULL procedure. Useful threads need more than the minimum stack size, so be very careful when reducing the stack size.
#include <pthread.h> pthread_attr_t tattr; pthread_t tid; int ret; size_t size = PTHREAD_STACK_MIN + 0x4000; /* initialized with default attributes */ ret = pthread_attr_init(&tattr); /* setting the size of the stack also */ ret = pthread_attr_setstacksize(&tattr, size); /* only size specified in tattr*/ ret = pthread_create(&tid, &tattr, start_routine, arg);

Setting the Stack Address and Size

pthread_attr_setstack(3C) sets the thread stack address and size.

pthread_attr_setstack(3C) Syntax
int pthread_attr_setstack(pthread_attr_t *tattr,void *stackaddr, size_t stacksize);

#include <pthread.h> pthread_attr_t tattr; 64 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

void *base; size_t size; int ret; base = (void *) malloc(PTHREAD_STACK_MIN + 0x4000); /* setting a new address and size */ ret = pthread_attr_setstack(&tattr, base,PTHREAD_STACK_MIN + 0x4000);

The stackaddr attribute denes the base (low address) of the threads stack. The stacksize attribute species the size of the stack. If stackaddr is set to non-null, rather than the NULL default, the system initializes the stack at that address, assuming the size to be stacksize. base contains the address for the stack that the new thread uses. If base is NULL, then pthread_create(3C) allocates a stack for the new thread with at least stacksize bytes.

pthread_attr_setstack(3C) Return Values

pthread_attr_setstack() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. If the following condition occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: The value of base or tattr is incorrect. The value of stacksize is less than

PTHREAD_STACK_MIN. The following example shows how to create a thread with a custom stack address and size.
#include <pthread.h> pthread_attr_t tattr; pthread_t tid; int ret; void *stackbase; size_t size; /* initialized with default attributes */ ret = pthread_attr_init(&tattr); /* setting the base address and size of the stack */ ret = pthread_attr_setstack(&tattr, stackbase,size); /* address and size specified */ ret = pthread_create(&tid, &tattr, func, arg);

Getting the Stack Address and Size

pthread_attr_getstack(3C) returns the thread stack address and size set by pthread_attr_setstack().
Chapter 3 Thread Attributes 65

pthread_attr_getstack Syntax
int pthread_attr_getstack(pthread_attr_t *tattr,void * *stackaddr, size_t *stacksize);

#include <pthread.h> pthread_attr_t tattr; void *base; size_t size; int ret; /* getting a stack address and size */ ret = pthread_attr_getstackaddr (&tattr, &base, &size);

pthread_attr_getstack Return Values

pthread_attr_getstackaddr() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. If the following condition occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: The value of tattr is incorrect.

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CHAPTER

Programming with Synchronization Objects

This chapter describes the synchronization types that are available with threads. The chapter also discusses when and how to use synchronization.
I I I I I I I I I

Mutual Exclusion Lock Attributes on page 68 Using Mutual Exclusion Locks on page 84 Condition Variable Attributes on page 95 Using Condition Variables on page 100 Synchronization With Semaphores on page 111 Read-Write Lock Attributes on page 119 Setting the Mutex Attributes Protocol on page 74 Synchronization Across Process Boundaries on page 129 Comparing Primitives on page 130

Synchronization objects are variables in memory that you access just like data. Threads in different processes can communicate with each other through synchronization objects that are placed in threads-controlled shared memory. The threads can communicate with each other even though the threads in different processes are generally invisible to each other. Synchronization objects can also be placed in les. The synchronization objects can have lifetimes beyond the life of the creating process. The available types of synchronization objects are
I I I I

Mutex locks Condition variables Read-Write locks Semaphores

Situations that can benet from the use of synchronization include the following:
I I

Synchronization is the only way to ensure consistency of shared data. Threads in two or more processes can use a single synchronization object jointly. Because reinitializing a synchronization object sets the object to the unlocked state, the synchronization object should be initialized by only one of the cooperating
67

processes.
I I

Synchronization can ensure the safety of mutable data. A process can map a le and direct a thread in this process get a records lock. Once the lock is acquired, any thread in any process mapping the le attempting to acquire the lock is blocked until the lock is released. Acessing a single primitive variable, such as an integer, can use more than one memory cycle for a single memory load. More than one memory cycle is used where the integer is not aligned to the bus data width or is larger than the data width. While integer misalignment cannot happen on the SPARC Platform Edition architecture, portable programs cannot rely on the proper alignment.

Note On 32-bit architectures, a long long is not atomic. (An atomic operation cannot

be divided into smaller operations.) A long long is read and written as two 32-bit quantities. The types int, char, float, and pointers are atomic on SPARC Platform Edition machines and Intel Architecture machines.

Mutual Exclusion Lock Attributes

Use mutual exclusion locks (mutexes) to serialize thread execution. Mutual exclusion locks synchronize threads, usually by ensuring that only one thread at a time executes a critical section of code. Mutex locks can also preserve single-threaded code. To change the default mutex attributes, you can declare and initialize an attribute object. Often, the mutex attributes are set in one place at the beginning of the application so the attributes can be located quickly and modied easily. Table 41 lists the functions that manipulate mutex attributes.
TABLE 41

Mutex Attributes Routines

Related Function Description

Operation

Initialize a mutex attribute object Destroy a mutex attribute object Set the scope of a mutex Get the scope of a mutex

pthread_mutexattr_init Syntax on page 70 pthread_mutexattr_destroy Syntax on page 70 pthread_mutexattr_setpshared Syntax on page 71 pthread_mutexattr_getpshared Syntax on page 72

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TABLE 41

Mutex Attributes Routines

(Continued)
Related Function Description

Operation

Set the mutex type attribute Get the mutex type attribute Set mutex attributes protocol Get mutex attributes protocol Set mutex attributes priority ceiling Get mutex attributes priority ceiling Set mutexs priority ceiling Get mutexs priority ceiling Set mutexs robust attribute Get mutexs robust attribute

pthread_mutexattr_settype Syntax on page 72 pthread_mutexattr_gettype Syntax on page 74 pthread_mutexattr_setprotocol Syntax on page 74 pthread_mutexattr_getprotocol Syntax on page 77 pthread_mutexattr_setprioceiling Syntax on page 77 pthread_mutexattr_getprioceiling Syntax on page 78 pthread_mutex_setprioceiling Syntax on page 79 pthread_mutex_getprioceiling Syntax on page 81 pthread_mutexattr_setrobust_np Syntax on page 81 pthread_mutexattr_getrobust_np Syntax on page 83

The differences between Solaris threads and POSIX threads when dening the scope of a mutex are shown in Table 42.
TABLE 42 Solaris

Mutex Scope Comparison

POSIX Definition

USYNC_PROCESS

PTHREAD_PROCESS_SHARED

Use to synchronize threads in this process and other processes Use to robustly synchronize threads between processes Use to synchronize threads in this process only

USYNC_PROCESS_ROBUST

No POSIX equivalent

USYNC_THREAD

PTHREAD_PROCESS_PRIVATE

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Initializing a Mutex Attribute Object

Use pthread_mutexattr_init(3C) to initialize attributes that are associated with the mutex object to their default values. Storage for each attribute object is allocated by the threads system during execution.

pthread_mutexattr_init Syntax
int pthread_mutexattr_init(pthread_mutexattr_t *mattr); #include <pthread.h> pthread_mutexattr_t mattr; int ret; /* initialize an attribute to default value */ ret = pthread_mutexattr_init(&mattr);

The default value of the pshared attribute when this function is called is PTHREAD_PROCESS_PRIVATE. This value means that the initialized mutex can be used within a process. mattr is an opaque type that contains a system-allocated attribute object. The possible values of mattrs scope are PTHREAD_PROCESS_PRIVATE and PTHREAD_PROCESS_SHARED. PTHREAD_PROCESS_PRIVATE is the default value. Before a mutex attribute object can be reinitialized, the object must rst be destroyed by a call to pthread_mutexattr_destroy(3C). The pthread_mutexattr_init () call results in the allocation of an opaque object. If the object is not destroyed, a memory leak results.

pthread_mutexattr_init Return Values

pthread_mutexattr_init() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. If either of the following conditions occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. ENOMEM
Description: Insufficient memory exists to initialize the mutex attribute object.

Destroying a Mutex Attribute Object

pthread_mutexattr_destroy(3C) deallocates the storage space used to maintain the attribute object created by pthread_mutexattr_init().

pthread_mutexattr_destroy Syntax
int 70 pthread_mutexattr_destroy(pthread_mutexattr_t *mattr) Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

#include <pthread.h> pthread_mutexattr_t mattr; int ret; /* destroy an attribute */ ret = pthread_mutexattr_destroy(&mattr);

pthread_mutexattr_destroy Return Values

pthread_mutexattr_destroy() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. If the following condition occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: The value specied by mattr is invalid.

Setting the Scope of a Mutex

pthread_mutexattr_setpshared(3C) sets the scope of the mutex variable.

pthread_mutexattr_setpshared Syntax
int pthread_mutexattr_setpshared(pthread_mutexattr_t *mattr, int pshared);

#include <pthread.h> pthread_mutexattr_t mattr; int ret; ret = pthread_mutexattr_init(&mattr); /* * resetting to its default value: private */ ret = pthread_mutexattr_setpshared(&mattr, PTHREAD_PROCESS_PRIVATE);

The scope of a mutex variable can be either process private (intraprocess) or system wide (interprocess). To share the mutex among threads from more than one process, create the mutex in shared memory with the pshared attribute set to PTHREAD_PROCESS_SHARED. This behavior is equivalent to the USYNC_PROCESS ag in mutex_init() in the original Solaris threads implementation. If the mutex pshared attribute is set to PTHREAD_PROCESS_PRIVATE, only those threads created by the same process can operate on the mutex.

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pthread_mutexattr_setpshared Return Values

pthread_mutexattr_setpshared() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. If the following condition occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: The value specied by mattr is invalid.

Getting the Scope of a Mutex

pthread_mutexattr_getpshared(3C) returns the scope of the mutex variable dened by pthread_mutexattr_setpshared().

pthread_mutexattr_getpshared Syntax
int pthread_mutexattr_getpshared(pthread_mutexattr_t *mattr, int *pshared);

#include <pthread.h> pthread_mutexattr_t mattr; int pshared, ret; /* get pshared of mutex */ ret = pthread_mutexattr_getpshared(&mattr, &pshared);

Get the current value of pshared for the attribute object mattr. The value is either PTHREAD_PROCESS_SHARED or PTHREAD_PROCESS_PRIVATE.

pthread_mutexattr_getpshared Return Values

pthread_mutexattr_getpshared() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. If the following condition occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: The value specied by mattr is invalid.

Setting the Mutex Type Attribute

pthread_mutexattr_settype(3C) sets the mutex type attribute.

pthread_mutexattr_settype Syntax
#include <pthread.h>

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int pthread_mutexattr_settype(pthread_mutexattr_t

*attr , int type);

The default value of the type attribute is PTHREAD_MUTEX_DEFAULT. The type argument species the type of mutex. The following list describes the valid mutex types: PTHREAD_MUTEX_NORMAL Description: This type of mutex does not detect deadlock. A thread attempting to relock this mutex without rst unlocking the mutex deadlocks. Attempting to unlock a mutex locked by a different thread results in undened behavior. Attempting to unlock an unlocked mutex results in undened behavior. PTHREAD_MUTEX_ERRORCHECK Description: This type of mutex provides error checking. A thread attempting to relock this mutex without rst unlocking the mutex returns an error. A thread attempting to unlock a mutex that another thread has locked returns an error. A thread attempting to unlock an unlocked mutex returns an error. PTHREAD_MUTEX_RECURSIVE Description: A thread attempting to relock this mutex without rst unlocking the mutex succeeds in locking the mutex. The relocking deadlock that can occur with mutexes of type PTHREAD_MUTEX_NORMAL cannot occur with this type of mutex. Multiple locks of this mutex require the same number of unlocks to release the mutex before another thread can acquire the mutex. A thread attempting to unlock a mutex that another thread has locked returns an error. A thread attempting to unlock an unlocked mutex returns an error. PTHREAD_MUTEX_DEFAULT Description: Attempting to recursively lock a mutex of this type results in undened behavior. Attempting to unlock a mutex of this type that was not locked by the calling thread results in undened behavior. Attempting to unlock a mutex of this type that is not locked results in undened behavior. An implementation is allowed to map this mutex to one of the other mutex types. For Solaris threads, PTHREAD_PROCESS_DEFAULT is mapped to PTHREAD_PROCESS_NORMAL.

pthread_mutexattr_settype Return Values

If successful, the pthread_mutexattr_settype function returns zero. Otherwise, an error number is returned to indicate the error. EINVAL
Description: The value type is invalid.

EINVAL
Description: The value specied by attr is invalid.

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Getting the Mutex Type Attribute

pthread_mutexattr_gettype(3C) gets the mutex type attribute set by pthread_mutexattr_settype().

pthread_mutexattr_gettype Syntax
#include <pthread.h> int pthread_mutexattr_gettype(pthread_mutexattr_t *attr , int *type);

The default value of the type attribute is PTHREAD_MUTEX_DEFAULT. The type argument species the type of mutex. Valid mutex types include
I I I I

PTHREAD_MUTEX_NORMAL PTHREAD_MUTEX_ERRORCHECK PTHREAD_MUTEX_RECURSIVE PTHREAD_MUTEX_DEFAULT

For a description of each type, see pthread_mutexattr_settype Syntax on page 72.

pthread_mutexattr_gettype Return Values

On successful completion, pthread_mutexattr_gettype() returns 0. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred.

Setting the Mutex Attributes Protocol

pthread_mutexattr_setprotocol(3C) sets the protocol attribute of a mutex attribute object.

pthread_mutexattr_setprotocol Syntax
#include <pthread.h> int pthread_mutexattr_setprotocol(pthread_mutexattr_t *attr, int protocol);

attr points to a mutex attribute object created by an earlier call to pthread_mutexattr_init(). protocol denes the protocol that is applied to the mutex attribute object. The value of protocol that is dened in pthread.h can be one of the following values: PTHREAD_PRIO_NONE, PTHREAD_PRIO_INHERIT, or PTHREAD_PRIO_PROTECT.
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PTHREAD_PRIO_NONE A threads priority and scheduling are not affected by the mutex ownership. PTHREAD_PRIO_INHERIT This protocol value, such as thrd1, affects a threads priority and scheduling. When higher-priority threads block on one or more mutexes owned by thrd1 where those mutexes are initialized with PTHREAD_PRIO_INHERIT, thrd1 runs with the higher of its priority or the highest priority of any thread waiting on any of the mutexes owned by thrd1. If thrd1 blocks on a mutex owned by another thread, thrd3, the same priority inheritance effect recursively propagates to thrd3. Use PTHREAD_PRIO_INHERIT to avoid priority inversion. Priority inversion occurs when a low-priority thread holds a lock that a higher-priority thread requires. The higher-priority thread cannot continue until the lower-priority thread releases the lock. Set PTHREAD_PRIO_INHERIT to treat each thread as if the thread had the inverse of its intended priority. If _POSIX_THREAD_PRIO_INHERIT is dened for a mutex initialized with the protocol attribute value PTHREAD_PRIO_INHERIT, the following actions occur when the owner of that mutex fails. The behavior on owner failure depends on the value of the robustness argument of pthread_mutexattr_setrobust_np().
I I

The mutex is unlocked. The next owner of the mutex acquires the mutex with an error return of EOWNERDEAD. The next owner of the mutex should try to make the state protected by the mutex consistent. The state might have been left inconsistent when the previous owner failed. If the owner is successful in making the state consistent, call pthread_mutex_init() for the mutex and unlock the mutex.
Note If pthread_mutex_init() is called on a previously initialized but not

yet destroyed mutex, the mutex is not reinitialized.

If the owner is unable to make the state consistent, do not call pthread_mutex_init(). Unlock the mutex instead. In this event, all waiters are woken up. All subsequent calls to pthread_mutex_lock() fail to acquire the mutex and return an error code of ENOTRECOVERABLE. You can now make the mutex state consistent by calling pthread_mutex_destroy() to uninitialize the mutex. Call pthread_mutex_init() to reinitialize the mutex. If the thread that acquired the lock with EOWNERDEAD fails, the next owner acquires the lock with an error code of EOWNERDEAD.

PTHREAD_PRIO_PROTECT This protocol value affects the priority and scheduling of a thread, such as thrd2, when the thread owns one or more mutexes that are initialized with PTHREAD_PRIO_PROTECT. thrd2 runs with the higher of its priority or the
Chapter 4 Programming with Synchronization Objects 75

highest-priority ceiling of all mutexes owned by thrd2. Higher-priority threads blocked on any of the mutexes, owned by thrd2, have no effect on the scheduling of thrd2. If a thread calls sched_setparam() to change the original priority, the scheduler does not move that thread to the scheduling queue tail with the new priority.
I

When a thread owns a mutex that is initialized with PTHREAD_PRIO_INHERIT or PTHREAD_PRIO_PROTECT When a thread unlocks a mutex that is initialized with PTHREAD_PRIO_INHERIT or PTHREAD_PRIO_PROTECT

A thread can simultaneously own several mutexes initialized with a mix of PTHREAD_PRIO_INHERIT and PTHREAD_PRIO_PROTECT. In this case, the thread executes at the highest priority obtained by either of these protocols.

pthread_mutexattr_setprotocol Return Values

On successful completion, pthread_mutexattr_setprotocol() returns 0. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. If either of the following conditions occurs, pthread_mutexattr_setprotocol() fails and returns the corresponding value. ENOSYS
Description: Neither of the options _POSIX_THREAD_PRIO_INHERIT or

_POSIX_THREAD_PRIO_PROTECT is dened and the implementation does not support the function. ENOTSUP
Description: The value specied by protocol is an unsupported value.

If either of the following conditions occurs, pthread_mutexattr_setprotocol() might fail and return the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: The value specied by attr or protocol is not valid.

EPERM
Description: The caller does not have the privilege to perform the operation.

Getting the Mutex Attributes Protocol

pthread_mutexattr_getprotocol(3C) gets the protocol attribute of a mutex attribute object.
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pthread_mutexattr_getprotocol Syntax
#include <pthread.h> int pthread_mutexattr_getprotocol(const pthread_mutexattr_t *attr, int *protocol);

attr points to a mutex attribute object created by an earlier call to pthread_mutexattr_init(). protocol contains one of the following protocol attributes: PTHREAD_PRIO_NONE, PTHREAD_PRIO_INHERIT, or PTHREAD_PRIO_PROTECT.

pthread_mutexattr_getprotocol Return Values

On successful completion, pthread_mutexattr_getprotocol() returns 0. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. If the following condition occurs, pthread_mutexattr_getprotocol() fails and returns the corresponding value. ENOSYS
Description: Neither the _POSIX_THREAD_PRIO_INHERIToption or the _POSIX_THREAD_PRIO_PROTECT option is dened and the implementation does not support the function.

If either of the following conditions occurs, pthread_mutexattr_getprotocol() might fail and return the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: The value specied by attr is invalid.

EPERM
Description: The caller does not have the privilege to perform the operation.

Setting the Mutex Attributes Priority Ceiling

pthread_mutexattr_setprioceiling(3C) sets the priority ceiling attribute of a mutex attribute object.

pthread_mutexattr_setprioceiling Syntax
#include <pthread.h> int pthread_mutexattr_setprioceiling(pthread_mutexatt_t *attr, Chapter 4 Programming with Synchronization Objects 77

int prioceiling, int *oldceiling);

attr points to a mutex attribute object created by an earlier call to pthread_mutexattr_init(). prioceiling species the priority ceiling of initialized mutexes. The ceiling denes the minimum priority level at which the critical section guarded by the mutex is executed. prioceiling falls within the maximum range of priorities dened by SCHED_FIFO. To avoid priority inversion, set prioceiling to a priority higher than or equal to the highest priority of all threads that might lock the particular mutex. oldceiling contains the old priority ceiling value.

pthread_mutexattr_setprioceiling Return Values

On successful completion, pthread_mutexattr_setprioceiling() returns 0. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. If any of the following conditions occurs, pthread_mutexattr_setprioceiling () fails and returns the corresponding value. ENOSYS
Description: The option _POSIX_THREAD_PRIO_PROTECT is not dened and the implementation does not support the function.

If either of the following conditions occurs, pthread_mutexattr_setprioceiling() might fail and return the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: The value specied by attr or prioceiling is invalid.

EPERM
Description: The caller does not have the privilege to perform the operation.

Getting the Mutex Attributes Priority Ceiling

pthread_mutexattr_getprioceiling(3C) gets the priority ceiling attribute of a mutex attribute object.

pthread_mutexattr_getprioceiling Syntax
#include <pthread.h> int pthread_mutexattr_getprioceiling(const pthread_mutexatt_t *attr, 78 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

int *prioceiling);

attr designates the attribute object created by an earlier call to pthread_mutexattr_init().

Note The attr mutex attribute object includes the priority ceiling attribute only if the symbol _POSIX_THREAD_PRIO_PROTECT is dened.

pthread_mutexattr_getprioceiling() returns the priority ceiling of initialized mutexes in prioceiling. The ceiling denes the minimum priority level at which the critical section guarded by the mutex is executed. prioceiling falls within the maximum range of priorities dened by SCHED_FIFO. To avoid priority inversion, set prioceiling to a priority higher than or equal to the highest priority of all threads that might lock the particular mutex.

pthread_mutexattr_getprioceiling Return Values

On successful completion, pthread_mutexattr_getprioceiling() returns 0. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. If any of the following conditions occurs, pthread_mutexattr_getprioceiling () fails and returns the corresponding value. ENOSYS
Description: The option _POSIX_THREAD_PRIO_PROTECT is not dened and the implementation does not support the function.

If either of the following conditions occurs, pthread_mutexattr_getprioceiling() might fail and return the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: The value specied by attr is invalid.

EPERM
Description: The caller does not have the privilege to perform the operation.

Setting the Mutexs Priority Ceiling

pthread_mutexattr_setprioceiling(3C) sets the priority ceiling of a mutex.

pthread_mutex_setprioceiling Syntax
#include <pthread.h>

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int pthread_mutex_setprioceiling(pthread_mutex_t *mutex, int prioceiling, int *old_ceiling);

pthread_mutex_setprioceiling() changes the priority ceiling, prioceiling, of a mutex, mutex. pthread_mutex_setprioceiling() locks a mutex if unlocked, or blocks until pthread_mutex_setprioceiling() successfully locks the mutex, changes the priority ceiling of the mutex and releases the mutex. The process of locking the mutex need not adhere to the priority protect protocol. If pthread_mutex_setprioceiling() succeeds, the previous value of the priority ceiling is returned in old_ceiling. If pthread_mutex_setprioceiling() fails, the mutex priority ceiling remains unchanged.

pthread_mutex_setprioceiling Return Values

On successful completion, pthread_mutex_setprioceiling() returns 0. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. If the following condition occurs, pthread_mutexatt_setprioceiling() fails and returns the corresponding value. ENOSYS
Description: The option _POSIX_THREAD_PRIO_PROTECT is not dened and the implementation does not support the function.

If any of the following conditions occurs, pthread_mutex_setprioceiling() might fail and return the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: The priority requested by prioceiling is out of range.

EINVAL
Description: The value specied by mutex does not refer to a currently existing

mutex. ENOSYS
Description: The implementation does not support the priority ceiling protocol for

mutexes. EPERM
Description: The caller does not have the privilege to perform the operation.

Getting the Mutexs Priority Ceiling

pthread_mutexattr_getprioceiling(3C) gets the priority ceiling of a mutex.
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pthread_mutex_getprioceiling Syntax
#include <pthread.h> int pthread_mutex_getprioceiling(const pthread_mutex_t *mutex, int *prioceiling);

pthread_mutex_getprioceiling() returns the priority ceiling, prioceiling of a mutex.

pthread_mutex_getprioceiling Return Values

On successful completion, pthread_mutex_getprioceiling() returns 0. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. If any of the following conditions occurs, pthread_mutexatt_getprioceiling() fails and returns the corresponding value. ENOSYS
Description: The option _POSIX_THREAD_PRIO_PROTECT is not dened and the implementation does not support the function.

If any of the following conditions occurs, pthread_mutex_getprioceiling() might fail and return the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: The value specied by mutex does not refer to a currently existing

mutex. ENOSYS
Description: The implementation does not support the priority ceiling protocol for

mutexes. EPERM
Description: The caller does not have the privilege to perform the operation.

Setting the Mutexs Robust Attribute

pthread_mutexattr_setrobust_np(3C) sets the robust attribute of a mutex attribute object.

pthread_mutexattr_setrobust_np Syntax
#include <pthread.h> int pthread_mutexattr_setrobust_np(pthread_mutexattr_t *attr, Chapter 4 Programming with Synchronization Objects 81

int *robustness);

Note pthread_mutexattr_setrobust_np() applies only if the symbol _POSIX_THREAD_PRIO_INHERIT is dened.

attr points to the mutex attribute object previously created by a call to pthread_mutexattr_init(). robustness denes the behavior when the owner of the mutex fails. The value of robustness that is dened in pthread.h is PTHREAD_MUTEX_ROBUST_NP or PTHREAD_MUTEX_STALLED_NP. The default value is PTHREAD_MUTEX_STALLED_NP.
I

PTHREAD_MUTEX_ROBUST_NP When the owner of the mutex fails, all subsequent calls to pthread_mutex_lock () are blocked from progress in an unspecied manner.

PTHREAD_MUTEX_STALLED_NP When the owner of the mutex fails, the mutex is unlocked. The next owner of this mutex acquires the mutex with an error return of EOWNWERDEAD.
Note Your application must check the return code from pthread_mutex_lock () for a mutex with an error return of EOWNWERDEAD.
I

The new owner of this mutex should make the state protected by the mutex consistent. This state might have been left inconsistent when the previous owner failed. If the new owner is able to make the state consistent, call pthread_mutex_consistent_np() for the mutex. Unlock the mutex instead. If the new owner is not able to make the state consistent, do not call pthread_mutex_consistent_np() for the mutex, but unlock the mutex. All waiters are woken up and all subsequent calls to pthread_mutex_lock() fail to acquire the mutex. The return code is ENOTRECOVERABLE. The mutex can be made consistent by calling pthread_mutex_destroy() to uninitialize the mutex, and calling pthread_mutex_int() to reinitialize the mutex.

If the thread that acquires the lock with EOWNERDEAD fails, the next owner acquires the lock with an EOWNERDEAD return code.

pthread_mutexattr_setrobust_np Return Values

On successful completion, pthread_mutexattr_setrobust_np() returns 0. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred.
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If any of the following conditions occurs, pthread_mutexattr_setrobust_np() fails and returns the corresponding value. ENOSYS
Description: The option _POSIX_THREAD_PRIO__INHERIT is not dened or the implementation does not support pthread_mutexattr_setrobust_np().

ENOTSUP
Description: The value specied by robustness is not supported.

pthread_mutexattr_setrobust_np() might fail if the following condition occurs: EINVAL

Description: The value specied by attr or robustness is invalid.

Getting the Mutexs Robust Attribute

pthread_mutexattr_getrobust_np(3C) gets the robust attribute of a mutex attribute object.

pthread_mutexattr_getrobust_np Syntax
#include <pthread.h> int pthread_mutexattr_getrobust_np(const pthread_mutexattr_t *attr, int *robustness);

Note pthread_mutexattr_getrobust_np() applies only if the symbol _POSIX_THREAD_PRIO_INHERIT is dened.

attr points to the mutex attribute object previously created by a call to pthread_mutexattr_init(). robustness is the value of the robust attribute of a mutex attribute object.

pthread_mutexattr_getrobust_np Return Values

On successful completion, pthread_mutexattr_getrobust_np() returns 0. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. If any of the following conditions occurs, pthread_mutexattr_getrobust_np() fails and returns the corresponding value.
Chapter 4 Programming with Synchronization Objects 83

ENOSYS
Description: The option _POSIX_THREAD_PRIO__INHERIT is not dened or the implementation does not support pthread_mutexattr_getrobust_np().

pthread_mutexattr_getrobust_np() might fail if the following condition occurs: EINVAL

Description: The value specied by attr or robustness is invalid.

Using Mutual Exclusion Locks

Table 43 lists the functions that manipulate mutex locks.
TABLE 43

Routines for Mutual Exclusion Locks

Related Function Description

Operation

Initialize a mutex Make mutex consistent Lock a mutex Unlock a mutex Lock with a nonblocking mutex Destroy a mutex

pthread_mutex_init Syntax on page 85 pthread_mutex_consistent_np Syntax on page 86 pthread_mutex_lock Syntax on page 87 pthread_mutex_unlock Syntax on page 89 pthread_mutex_trylock Syntax on page 89 pthread_mutex_destroy Syntax on page 91

The default scheduling policy, SCHED_OTHER, does not specify the order in which threads can acquire a lock. When multiple threads are waiting for a mutex, the order of acquisition is undened. When contention occurs, the default behavior is to unblock threads in priority order.

Initializing a Mutex
Use pthread_mutex_init(3C) to initialize the mutex pointed at by mp to its default value or to specify mutex attributes that have already been set with pthread_mutexattr_init(). The default value for mattr is NULL. For Solaris threads, see mutex_init(3C) Syntax on page 197.
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pthread_mutex_init Syntax
int pthread_mutex_init(pthread_mutex_t *mp, const pthread_mutexattr_t *mattr);

#include <pthread.h> pthread_mutex_t mp = PTHREAD_MUTEX_INITIALIZER; pthread_mutexattr_t mattr; int ret; /* initialize a mutex to its default value */ ret = pthread_mutex_init(&mp, NULL); /* initialize a mutex */ ret = pthread_mutex_init(&mp, &mattr);

When the mutex is initialized, the mutex is in an unlocked state. The mutex can be in memory that is shared between processes or in memory private to a process.
Note The mutex memory must be cleared to zero before initialization.

The effect of mattr set to NULL is the same as passing the address of a default mutex attribute object, but without the memory overhead. Use the macro PTHREAD_MUTEX_INITIALIZER to initialize statically dened mutexes to their default attributes. Do not reinitialize or destroy a mutex lock while other threads are using the mutex. Program failure results if either action is not done correctly. If a mutex is reinitialized or destroyed, the application must be sure the mutex is not currently in use.

pthread_mutex_init Return Values

pthread_mutex_init() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When any of the following conditions occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EBUSY
Description: The implementation has detected an attempt to reinitialize the object referenced by mp, a previously initialized but not yet destroyed mutex.

EINVAL
Description: The mattr attribute value is invalid. The mutex has not been modied.

EFAULT
Description: The address for the mutex pointed at by mp is invalid.
Chapter 4 Programming with Synchronization Objects 85

Making a Mutex Consistent

If the owner of a mutex fails, the mutex can become inconsistent. pthread_mutex_consistent_np makes the mutex object, mutex, consistent after the death of its owner.

pthread_mutex_consistent_np Syntax
#include <pthread.h> int pthread_mutex_consistent_np(pthread_mutex_t *mutex);

Note pthread_mutex_consistent_np() applies only if the symbol

_POSIX_THREAD_PRIO_INHERIT is dened and for mutexes that are initialized with the protocol attribute value PTHREAD_PRIO_INHERIT.

Call pthread_mutex_lock() to acquire the inconsistent mutex. The EOWNWERDEAD return value indicates an inconsistent mutex. Call pthread_mutex_consistent_np() while holding the mutex acquired by a previous call to pthread_mutex_lock(). The critical section protected by the mutex might have been left in an inconsistent state by a failed owner. In this case, make the mutex consistent only if you can make the critical section protected by the mutex consistent. Calls to pthread_mutex_lock(), pthread_mutex_unlock(), and pthread_mutex_trylock() for a consistent mutex behave in the normal manner. The behavior of pthread_mutex_consistent_np() for a mutex that is not inconsistent, or is not held, is undened.

pthread_mutex_consistent_np Return Values

pthread_mutex_consistent_np() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. pthread_mutex_consistent_np() fails if the following condition occurs: ENOSYS
Description: The option _POSIX_THREAD_PRIO_INHERIT is not dened or the implementation does not support pthread_mutex_consistent_np().

pthread_mutex_consistent_np() might fail if the following condition occurs: EINVAL

Description: The mattr attribute value is invalid.
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Locking a Mutex
Use pthread_mutex_lock(3C) to lock the mutex pointed to by mutex.

pthread_mutex_lock Syntax
int pthread_mutex_lock(pthread_mutex_t *mutex); #include <pthread.h> pthread_mutex_t mutex; int ret; ret = pthread_ mutex_lock(&mp); /* acquire the mutex */

When pthread_mutex_lock() returns, the mutex is locked. The calling thread is the owner. If the mutex is already locked and owned by another thread, the calling thread blocks until the mutex becomes available. For Solaris threads, see mutex_lock Syntax on page 200. If the mutex type is PTHREAD_MUTEX_NORMAL, deadlock detection is not provided. Attempting to relock the mutex causes deadlock. If a thread attempts to unlock a mutex not locked by the thread or a mutex that is unlocked, undened behavior results. If the mutex type is PTHREAD_MUTEX_ERRORCHECK, then error checking is provided. If a thread attempts to relock a mutex that the thread has already locked, an error is returned. If a thread attempts to unlock a mutex not locked by the thread or a mutex that is unlocked, an error is returned. If the mutex type is PTHREAD_MUTEX_RECURSIVE, then the mutex maintains the concept of a lock count. When a thread successfully acquires a mutex for the rst time, the lock count is set to 1. Every time a thread relocks this mutex, the lock count is incremented by 1. Every time the thread unlocks the mutex, the lock count is decremented by 1. When the lock count reaches 0, the mutex becomes available for other threads to acquire. If a thread attempts to unlock a mutex not locked by the thread or a mutex that is unlocked, an error is returned. If the mutex type is PTHREAD_MUTEX_DEFAULT, attempting to recursively lock the mutex results in undened behavior. Attempting to unlock the mutex if the mutex was not locked by the calling thread results in undened behavior. Attempting to unlock the mutex if the mutex is not locked results in undened behavior.

pthread_mutex_lock Return Values

pthread_mutex_lock() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When any of the following conditions occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value.
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EAGAIN
Description: The mutex could not be acquired because the maximum number of recursive locks for mutex has been exceeded.

EDEADLK
Description: The current thread already owns the mutex.

If the symbol _POSIX_THREAD_PRIO_INHERIT is dened, the mutex is initialized with the protocol attribute value PTHREAD_PRIO_INHERIT. Additionally, if the robustness argument of pthread_mutexattr_setrobust_np() is PTHREAD_MUTEX_ROBUST_NP, the function fails and returns one of the following values. EOWNERDEAD
Description: The last owner of this mutex failed while holding the mutex. This mutex is now owned by the caller. The caller must attempt to make the state protected by the mutex consistent.

If the caller is able to make the state consistent, call pthread_mutex_consistent_np() for the mutex and unlock the mutex. Subsequent calls to pthread_mutex_lock() behave normally. If the caller is unable to make the state consistent, do not call pthread_mutex_init() for the mutex. Unlock the mutex instead. Subsequent calls to pthread_mutex_lock() fail to acquire the mutex and return an ENOTRECOVERABLE error code. If the owner that acquired the lock with EOWNERDEAD fails, the next owner acquires the lock with EOWNERDEAD. ENOTRECOVERABLE Description: The mutex you are trying to acquire is protecting state left irrecoverable by the mutexs previous owner that failed while holding the lock. The mutex has not been acquired. This irrecoverable condition can occur when:
I I I

The lock was previously acquired with EOWNERDEAD The owner was unable to cleanup the state The owner had unlocked the mutex without making the mutex state consistent

ENOMEM
Description: The limit on the number of simultaneously held mutexes has been

exceeded.

Unlocking a Mutex
Use pthread_mutex_unlock(3C) to unlock the mutex pointed to by mutex. For Solaris threads, see mutex_unlock Syntax on page 200.
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pthread_mutex_unlock Syntax
int pthread_mutex_unlock(pthread_mutex_t *mutex); #include <pthread.h> pthread_mutex_t mutex; int ret; ret = pthread_mutex_unlock(&mutex); /* release the mutex */

pthread_mutex_unlock() releases the mutex object referenced by mutex. The manner in which a mutex is released is dependent upon the mutexs type attribute. If threads are blocked on the mutex object when pthread_mutex_unlock() is called and the mutex becomes available, the scheduling policy determines which thread acquires the mutex. For PTHREAD_MUTEX_RECURSIVE mutexes, the mutex becomes available when the count reaches zero and the calling thread no longer has any locks on this mutex.

pthread_mutex_unlock Return Values

pthread_mutex_unlock() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When the following condition occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EPERM
Description: The current thread does not own the mutex.

Locking With a Nonblocking Mutex

Use pthread_mutex_trylock(3C) to attempt to lock the mutex pointed to by mutex. For Solaris threads, see mutex_trylock Syntax on page 201.

pthread_mutex_trylock Syntax
int pthread_mutex_trylock(pthread_mutex_t *mutex); #include <pthread.h> pthread_mutex_t mutex; int ret; ret = pthread_mutex_trylock(&mutex); /* try to lock the mutex */

pthread_mutex_trylock() is a nonblocking version of pthread_mutex_lock() . If the mutex object referenced by mutex is currently locked by any thread, including the current thread, the call returns immediately. Otherwise, the mutex is locked and the calling thread is the owner.
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pthread_mutex_trylock Return Values

pthread_mutex_trylock() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When any of the following conditions occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EBUSY
Description: The mutex could not be acquired because the mutex pointed to by mutex was already locked.

EAGAIN
Description: The mutex could not be acquired because the maximum number of recursive locks for mutex has been exceeded.

If the symbol _POSIX_THREAD_PRIO_INHERIT is dened, the mutex is initialized with the protocol attribute value PTHREAD_PRIO_INHERIT. Additionally, if the robustness argument of pthread_mutexattr_setrobust_np() is PTHREAD_MUTEX_ROBUST_NP, the function fails and returns one of the following values: EOWNERDEAD
Description: The last owner of this mutex failed while holding the mutex. This mutex is now owned by the caller. The caller must attempt to make the state protected by the mutex consistent.

If the caller is able to make the state consistent, call pthread_mutex_consistent_np() for the mutex and unlock the mutex. Subsequent calls to pthread_mutex_lock() behave normally. If the caller is unable to make the state consistent, do not call pthread_mutex_init() for the mutex, but unlock the mutex. Subsequent calls to pthread_mutex_trylock() fail to acquire the mutex and return an ENOTRECOVERABLE error code. If the owner that acquired the lock with EOWNERDEAD fails, the next owner acquires the lock with EOWNERDEAD. ENOTRECOVERABLE Description: The mutex you are trying to acquire is protecting state left irrecoverable by the mutexs previous owner that failed while holding the lock. The mutex has not been acquired. This condition can occur when:
I I I

The lock was previously acquired with EOWNERDEAD The owner was unable to cleanup the state The owner had unlocked the mutex without making the mutex state consistent

ENOMEM
Description: The limit on the number of simultaneously held mutexes has been

exceeded.
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Destroying a Mutex
Use pthread_mutex_destroy(3C) to destroy any state that is associated with the mutex pointed to by mp. For Solaris threads, see mutex_destroy Syntax on page 199.

pthread_mutex_destroy Syntax
int pthread_mutex_destroy(pthread_mutex_t *mp); #include <pthread.h> pthread_mutex_t mp; int ret; ret = pthread_mutex_destroy(&mp); /* mutex is destroyed */

Note that the space for storing the mutex is not freed.

pthread_mutex_destroy Return Values

pthread_mutex_destroy() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When any of the following conditions occur, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: The value specied by mp does not refer to an initialized mutex object.

Code Examples of Mutex Locking

Example 41 shows some code fragments with mutex locking.
EXAMPLE 41

Mutex Lock Example

#include <pthread.h> pthread_mutex_t count_mutex; long long count; void increment_count() { pthread_mutex_lock(&count_mutex); count = count + 1; pthread_mutex_unlock(&count_mutex); }

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91

EXAMPLE 41

Mutex Lock Example

(Continued)

long long get_count() { long long c; pthread_mutex_lock(&count_mutex); c = count; pthread_mutex_unlock(&count_mutex); return (c); }

The two functions in Example 41 use the mutex lock for different purposes. The increment_count() function uses the mutex lock to ensure an atomic update of the shared variable. The get_count() function uses the mutex lock to guarantee that the 64-bit quantity count is read atomically. On a 32-bit architecture, a long long is really two 32-bit quantities. When you read an integer value, the operation is atomic because an integer is the common word size on most machines.

Examples of Using Lock Hierarchies

Occasionally, you might want to access two resources at once. Perhaps you are using one of the resources, and then discover that the other resource is needed as well. A problem exists if two threads attempt to claim both resources but lock the associated mutexes in different orders. For example, if the two threads lock mutexes 1 and 2 respectively, a deadlock occurs when each attempts to lock the other mutex. Example 42 shows possible deadlock scenarios.
EXAMPLE 42 Deadlock

Thread 1

Thread 2

pthread_mutex_lock(&m1); /* use resource 1 */ pthread_mutex_lock(&m2); /* use resources 1 and 2 */ pthread_mutex_unlock(&m2); pthread_mutex_unlock(&m1);

pthread_mutex_lock(&m2); /* use resource 2 */ pthread_mutex_lock(&m1); /* use resources 1 and 2 */ pthread_mutex_unlock(&m1); pthread_mutex_unlock(&m2);

The best way to avoid this problem is to make sure that when threads lock multiple mutexes, the threads do so in the same order. When locks are always taken in a prescribed order, deadlock should not occur. This technique, known as lock hierarchies, orders the mutexes by logically assigning numbers to the mutexes.
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Also, honor the restriction that you cannot take a mutex that is assigned n when you are holding any mutex assigned a number that is greater than n. However, this technique cannot always be used. Sometimes, you must take the mutexes in an order other than prescribed. To prevent deadlock in such a situation, use pthread_mutex_trylock(). One thread must release its mutexes when the thread discovers that deadlock would otherwise be inevitable.
EXAMPLE 43 Conditional Locking

Thread 1

Thread 2

pthread_mutex_lock(&m1); pthread_mutex_lock(&m2); /* no processing */ pthread_mutex_unlock(&m2); pthread_mutex_unlock(&m1);

for (; ;) { pthread_mutex_lock(&m2); if(pthread_mutex_trylock(&m1)==0) /* got it */ break; /* didnt get it */ pthread_mutex_unlock(&m2); } /* get locks; no processing */ pthread_mutex_unlock(&m1); pthread_mutex_unlock(&m2);

In Example 43, thread1 locks mutexes in the prescribed order, but thread2 takes the mutexes out of order. To make certain that no deadlock occurs, thread2 has to take mutex1 very carefully. If thread2 blocks while waiting for the mutex to be released, thread2 is likely to have just entered into a deadlock with thread1. To ensure that thread2 does not enter into a deadlock, thread2 calls pthread_mutex_trylock(), which takes the mutex if available. If the mutex is not available, thread2 returns immediately, reporting failure. At this point, thread2 must release mutex2. Thread1 can now lock mutex2, and then release both mutex1 and mutex2.

Examples of Using Nested Locking With a Singly-Linked List

Example 44 and Example 45 show how to take three locks at once. Deadlock is prevented by taking the locks in a prescribed order.
Chapter 4 Programming with Synchronization Objects 93

EXAMPLE 44

Singly-Linked List Structure

typedef struct node1 { int value; struct node1 *link; pthread_mutex_t lock; } node1_t; node1_t ListHead;

This example uses a singly linked list structure with each node that contains a mutex. To remove a node from the list, rst search the list starting at ListHead until the desired node is found. ListHead is never removed. To protect this search from the effects of concurrent deletions, lock each node before any of its contents are accessed. Because all searches start at ListHead, a deadlock cannot occur because the locks are always taken in list order. When the desired node is found, lock both the node and its predecessor since the change involves both nodes. Because the predecessors lock is always taken rst, you are again protected from deadlock. Example 45 shows the C code to remove an item from a singly-linked list.
EXAMPLE 45

Singly-Linked List With Nested Locking

node1_t *delete(int value) { node1_t *prev, *current; prev = &ListHead; pthread_mutex_lock(&prev->lock); while ((current = prev->link) != NULL) { pthread_mutex_lock(&current->lock); if (current->value == value) { prev->link = current->link; pthread_mutex_unlock(&current->lock); pthread_mutex_unlock(&prev->lock); current->link = NULL; return(current); } pthread_mutex_unlock(&prev->lock); prev = current; } pthread_mutex_unlock(&prev->lock); return(NULL); }

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Example of Nested Locking With a Circularly-Linked List

Example 46 modies the previous list structure by converting the list structure into a circular list. Because a distinguished head node no longer exists, a thread can be associated with a particular node and can perform operations on that node and its neighbor. Lock hierarchies do not work easily here because the obvious hierarchy, following the links, is circular.
EXAMPLE 46

Circular-Linked List Structure

typedef struct node2 { int value; struct node2 *link; pthread_mutex_t lock; } node2_t;

Here is the C code that acquires the locks on two nodes and performs an operation that involves both locks.
EXAMPLE 47

Circular Linked List With Nested Locking

void Hit Neighbor(node2_t *me) { while (1) { pthread_mutex_lock(&me->lock); if (pthread_mutex_lock(&me->link->lock)!= 0) { /* failed to get lock */ pthread_mutex_unlock(&me->lock); continue; } break; } me->link->value += me->value; me->value /=2; pthread_mutex_unlock(&me->link->lock); pthread_mutex_unlock(&me->lock); }

Condition Variable Attributes

Use condition variables to atomically block threads until a particular condition is true. Always use condition variables together with a mutex lock. With a condition variable, a thread can atomically block until a condition is satised. The condition is tested under the protection of a mutual exclusion lock (mutex). When the condition is false, a thread usually blocks on a condition variable and atomically releases the mutex waiting for the condition to change. When another thread changes the condition, that thread can signal the associated condition variable to cause one or more waiting threads to perform the following actions:
Chapter 4 Programming with Synchronization Objects 95

I I I

Wake up Acquire the mutex again Re-evaluate the condition

Condition variables can be used to synchronize threads among processes in the following situations:
I I

The threads are allocated in memory that can be written to The memory is shared by the cooperating processes

The scheduling policy determines how blocking threads are awakened. For the default SCHED_OTHER, threads are awakened in priority order. The attributes for condition variables must be set and initialized before the condition variables can be used. The functions that manipulate condition variable attributes are listed in Table 44.
TABLE 44

Condition Variable Attributes

Function Description

Operation

Initialize a condition variable attribute Remove a condition variable attribute Set the scope of a condition variable Get the scope of a condition variable

pthread_condattr_init Syntax on page 97 pthread_condattr_destroy Syntax on page 97 pthread_condattr_setpshared Syntax on page 98 pthread_condattr_getpshared Syntax on page 99

The differences between Solaris and POSIX threads when dening the scope of a condition variable are shown in Table 45.
TABLE 45 Solaris

Condition Variable Scope Comparison

POSIX Definition

USYNC_PROCESS

PTHREAD_PROCESS_SHARED Use to synchronize threads in this process and other processes PTHREAD_PROCESS_PRIVATE Use to synchronize threads in this process only

USYNC_THREAD

Initializing a Condition Variable Attribute

Use pthread_condattr_init(3C) to initialize attributes that are associated with this object to their default values. Storage for each attribute object is allocated by the threads system during execution.
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pthread_condattr_init Syntax
int pthread_condattr_init(pthread_condattr_t *cattr); #include <pthread.h> pthread_condattr_t cattr; int ret; /* initialize an attribute to default value */ ret = pthread_condattr_init(&cattr);

The default value of the pshared attribute when this function is called is PTHREAD_PROCESS_PRIVATE. This value of pshared means that the initialized condition variable can be used within a process. cattr is an opaque data type that contains a system-allocated attribute object. The possible values of cattrs scope are PTHREAD_PROCESS_PRIVATE and PTHREAD_PROCESS_SHARED. PTHREAD_PROCESS_PRIVATE is the default value. Before a condition variable attribute can be reused, the attribute must rst be reinitialized by pthread_condattr_destroy(3C). The pthread_condattr_init() call returns a pointer to an opaque object. If the object is not destroyed, a memory leak results.

pthread_condattr_init Return Values

pthread_condattr_init() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When either of the following conditions occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. ENOMEM
Description: Insufficient memory allocated to initialize the thread attributes object.

EINVAL
Description: The value specied by cattr is invalid.

Removing a Condition Variable Attribute

Use pthread_condattr_destroy(3C) to remove storage and render the attribute object invalid.

pthread_condattr_destroy Syntax
int pthread_condattr_destroy(pthread_condattr_t *cattr); #include <pthread.h> pthread_condattr_t cattr; int ret; Chapter 4 Programming with Synchronization Objects 97

/* destroy an attribute */ ret = pthread_condattr_destroy(&cattr);

pthread_condattr_destroy Return Values

pthread_condattr_destroy() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. If the following condition occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: The value specied by cattr is invalid.

Setting the Scope of a Condition Variable

pthread_condattr_setpshared(3C) sets the scope of a condition variable to either process private (intraprocess) or system wide (interprocess).

pthread_condattr_setpshared Syntax
int pthread_condattr_setpshared(pthread_condattr_t *cattr, int pshared);

#include <pthread.h> pthread_condattr_t cattr; int ret; /* all processes */ ret = pthread_condattr_setpshared(&cattr, PTHREAD_PROCESS_SHARED); /* within a process */ ret = pthread_condattr_setpshared(&cattr, PTHREAD_PROCESS_PRIVATE);

A condition variable created with the pshared attribute set in shared memory to PTHREAD_PROCESS_SHARED, can be shared among threads from more than one process. This behavior is equivalent to the USYNC_PROCESS ag in mutex_init() in the original Solaris threads implementation. If the mutex pshared attribute is set to PTHREAD_PROCESS_PRIVATE, only those threads created by the same process can operate on the mutex. PTHREAD_PROCESS_PRIVATE is the default value. PTHREAD_PROCESS_PRIVATE results in the same behavior as with the USYNC_THREAD ag in the original Solaris threads cond_init() call. PTHREAD_PROCESS_PRIVATE behaves like a local condition variable. The behavior of PTHREAD_PROCESS_SHARED is equivalent to a global condition variable.
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pthread_condattr_setpshared Return Values

pthread_condattr_setpshared() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. If the following condition occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: The value of cattr is invalid, or the pshared value is invalid.

Getting the Scope of a Condition Variable

pthread_condattr_getpshared(3C) gets the current value of pshared for the attribute object cattr.

pthread_condattr_getpshared Syntax
int pthread_condattr_getpshared(const pthread_condattr_t *cattr, int *pshared);

#include <pthread.h> pthread_condattr_t cattr; int pshared; int ret; /* get pshared value of condition variable */ ret = pthread_condattr_getpshared(&cattr, &pshared);

The value of the attribute object is either PTHREAD_PROCESS_SHARED or PTHREAD_PROCESS_PRIVATE.

pthread_condattr_getpshared Return Values

pthread_condattr_getpshared() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When the following condition occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: The value of cattr is invalid.

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Using Condition Variables

This section explains how to use condition variables. Table 46 lists the functions that are available.
TABLE 46

Condition Variables Functions

Related Function Description

Operation

Initialize a condition variable Block on a condition variable Unblock a specic thread Block until a specied time Block for a specied interval Unblock all threads Destroy condition variable state

pthread_cond_init Syntax on page 100 pthread_cond_wait Syntax on page 101 pthread_cond_signal Syntax on page 103 pthread_cond_timedwait Syntax on page 104 pthread_cond_reltimedwait_np Syntax on page 105 pthread_cond_broadcast Syntax on page 106 pthread_cond_destroy Syntax on page 108

Initializing a Condition Variable

Use pthread_cond_init(3C) to initialize the condition variable pointed at by cv to its default value, or to specify condition variable attributes that are already set with pthread_condattr_init().

pthread_cond_init Syntax
int pthread_cond_init(pthread_cond_t *cv, const pthread_condattr_t *cattr);

#include <pthread.h> pthread_cond_t cv; pthread_condattr_t cattr; int ret; /* initialize a condition variable to its default value */ ret = pthread_cond_init(&cv, NULL); /* initialize a condition variable */ 100 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

ret = pthread_cond_init(&cv, &cattr);

cattr is NULL. The effect of cattr set to NULL is the same as passing the address of a default condition variable attribute object, but without the memory overhead. For Solaris threads, see cond_init Syntax on page 202. Use the macro PTHREAD_COND_INITIALIZER to initialize statically dened condition variables to their default attributes. The PTHREAD_COND_INITIALIZER macro has the same effect as dynamically allocating pthread_cond_init() with null attributes. No error checking is done. Multiple threads must not simultaneously initialize or reinitialize the same condition variable. If a condition variable is reinitialized or is destroyed, the application must be sure that the condition variable is not in use.

pthread_cond_init Return Values

pthread_cond_init() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When any of the following conditions occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: The value specied by cattr is invalid.

EBUSY
Description: The condition variable is being used.

EAGAIN
Description: The necessary resources are not available.

ENOMEM
Description: Insufficient memory exists to initialize the condition variable.

Blocking on a Condition Variable

Use pthread_cond_wait(3C) to atomically release the mutex pointed to by mp and to cause the calling thread to block on the condition variable pointed to by cv. For Solaris threads, see cond_wait Syntax on page 203.

pthread_cond_wait Syntax
int pthread_cond_wait(pthread_cond_t *cv,pthread_mutex_t *mutex); #include <pthread.h> pthread_cond_t cv; Chapter 4 Programming with Synchronization Objects 101

pthread_mutex_t mp; int ret; /* wait on condition variable */ ret = pthread_cond_wait(&cv, &mp);

The blocked thread can be awakened by a pthread_cond_signal(), a pthread_cond_broadcast(), or when interrupted by delivery of a signal. Any change in the value of a condition that is associated with the condition variable cannot be inferred by the return of pthread_cond_wait(). Such conditions must be reevaluated. The pthread_cond_wait() routine always returns with the mutex locked and owned by the calling thread, even when returning an error. This function blocks until the condition is signaled. The function atomically releases the associated mutex lock before blocking, and atomically acquires the mutex again before returning. In typical use, a condition expression is evaluated under the protection of a mutex lock. When the condition expression is false, the thread blocks on the condition variable. The condition variable is then signaled by another thread when the thread changes the condition value. The change causes all threads that are waiting on the condition to unblock and to try to acquire the mutex lock again. The condition that caused the wait must be retested before continuing execution from the point of the pthread_cond_wait(). The condition could change before an awakened thread reacquires the mutes and returns from pthread_cond_wait(). A waiting thread could be awakened spuriously. The recommended test method is to write the condition check as a while() loop that calls pthread_cond_wait().
pthread_mutex_lock(); while(condition_is_false) pthread_cond_wait(); pthread_mutex_unlock();

No specic order of acquisition is guaranteed when more than one thread blocks on the condition variable.
Note pthread_cond_wait() is a cancellation point. If a cancel is pending and the calling thread has cancellation enabled, the thread terminates and begins executing its cleanup handlers while continuing to hold the lock.

pthread_cond_wait Return Values

pthread_cond_wait() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When the following condition occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value.
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EINVAL
Description: The value specied by cv or mp is invalid.

Unblocking One Thread

Use pthread_cond_signal(3C) to unblock one thread that is blocked on the condition variable pointed to by cv. For Solaris threads, see cond_signal Syntax on page 205.

pthread_cond_signal Syntax
int pthread_cond_signal(pthread_cond_t *cv); #include <pthread.h> pthread_cond_t cv; int ret; /* one condition variable is signaled */ ret = pthread_cond_signal(&cv);

Modify the associated condition under the protection of the same mutex used with the condition variable being signaled. Otherwise, the condition variable could be modied between its test and blocking in pthread_cond_wait(), which can cause an innite wait. The scheduling policy determines the order in which blocked threads are awakened. For SCHED_OTHER, threads are awakened in priority order. When no threads are blocked on the condition variable, calling pthread_cond_signal() has no effect.
EXAMPLE 48

Using pthread_cond_wait() and pthread_cond_signal()

pthread_mutex_t count_lock; pthread_cond_t count_nonzero; unsigned count; decrement_count() { pthread_mutex_lock(&count_lock); while (count == 0) pthread_cond_wait(&count_nonzero, &count_lock); count = count - 1; pthread_mutex_unlock(&count_lock); } increment_count() { pthread_mutex_lock(&count_lock); Chapter 4 Programming with Synchronization Objects 103

EXAMPLE 48

(Continued)

Using pthread_cond_wait() and pthread_cond_signal()

if (count == 0) pthread_cond_signal(&count_nonzero); count = count + 1; pthread_mutex_unlock(&count_lock); }

pthread_cond_signal Return Values

pthread_cond_signal() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When the following condition occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: cv points to an illegal address.

Example 48 shows how to use pthread_cond_wait() and pthread_cond_signal().

Blocking Until a Specied Time

Use pthread_cond_timedwait(3C) as you would use pthread_cond_wait(), except that pthread_cond_timedwait() does not block past the time of day specied by abstime.

pthread_cond_timedwait Syntax
int pthread_cond_timedwait(pthread_cond_t *cv, pthread_mutex_t *mp, const struct timespec *abstime);

#include <pthread.h> #include <time.h> pthread_cond_t cv; pthread_mutex_t mp; timestruct_t abstime; int ret; /* wait on condition variable */ ret = pthread_cond_timedwait(&cv, &mp, &abstime);

pthread_cond_timedwait() always returns with the mutex locked and owned by the calling thread, even when pthread_cond_timedwait() is returning an error. For Solaris threads, see cond_timedwait Syntax on page 204. The pthread_cond_timedwait() function blocks until the condition is signaled or until the time of day specied by the last argument has passed.
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Note pthread_cond_timedwait() is also a cancellation point.

EXAMPLE 49

Timed Condition Wait

pthread_timestruc_t to; pthread_mutex_t m; pthread_cond_t c; ... pthread_mutex_lock(&m); to.tv_sec = time(NULL) + TIMEOUT; to.tv_nsec = 0; while (cond == FALSE) { err = pthread_cond_timedwait(&c, &m, &to); if (err == ETIMEDOUT) { /* timeout, do something */ break; } } pthread_mutex_unlock(&m);

pthread_cond_timedwait Return Values

pthread_cond_timedwait() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When either of the following conditions occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: cv or abstime points to an illegal address.

ETIMEDOUT
Description: The time specied by abstime has passed.

The timeout is specied as a time of day so that the condition can be retested efficiently without recomputing the value, as shown in Example 49.

Blocking For a Specied Interval

Use pthread_cond_reltimedwait_np(3C) as you would use pthread_cond_timedwait() with one exception. pthread_cond_reltimedwait_np() takes a relative time interval rather than an absolute future time of day as the value of its last argument.

pthread_cond_reltimedwait_np Syntax
int pthread_cond_reltimedwait_np(pthread_cond_t *cv, pthread_mutex_t *mp, const struct timespec *reltime); Chapter 4 Programming with Synchronization Objects 105

#include <pthread.h> #include <time.h> pthread_cond_t cv; pthread_mutex_t mp; timestruct_t reltime; int ret; /* wait on condition variable */ ret = pthread_cond_reltimedwait_np(&cv, &mp, &reltime);

pthread_cond_reltimedwait_np() always returns with the mutex locked and owned by the calling thread, even when pthread_cond_reltimedwait_np() is returning an error. For Solaris threads, see cond_reltimedwait(3C). The pthread_cond_reltimedwait_np() function blocks until the condition is signaled or until the time interval specied by the last argument has elapsed.
Note pthread_cond_reltimedwait_np() is also a cancellation point.

pthread_cond_reltimedwait_np Return Values

pthread_cond_reltimedwait_np() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When either of the following conditions occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: cv or reltime points to an illegal address.

ETIMEDOUT
Description: The time interval specied by reltime has passed.

Unblocking All Threads

Use pthread_cond_broadcast(3C) to unblock all threads that are blocked on the condition variable pointed to by cv, specied by pthread_cond_wait().

pthread_cond_broadcast Syntax
int pthread_cond_broadcast(pthread_cond_t *cv); #include <pthread.h> pthread_cond_t cv; int ret; 106 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

/* all condition variables are signaled */ ret = pthread_cond_broadcast(&cv);

When no threads are blocked on the condition variable, pthread_cond_broadcast () has no effect. For Solaris threads, see cond_broadcast Syntax on page 206. Since pthread_cond_broadcast() causes all threads blocked on the condition to contend again for the mutex lock, use pthread_cond_broadcast() with care. For example, use pthread_cond_broadcast() to allow threads to contend for varying resource amounts when resources are freed, as shown in Example 410.
EXAMPLE 410

Condition Variable Broadcast

pthread_mutex_t rsrc_lock; pthread_cond_t rsrc_add; unsigned int resources; get_resources(int amount) { pthread_mutex_lock(&rsrc_lock); while (resources < amount) { pthread_cond_wait(&rsrc_add, &rsrc_lock); } resources -= amount; pthread_mutex_unlock(&rsrc_lock); } add_resources(int amount) { pthread_mutex_lock(&rsrc_lock); resources += amount; pthread_cond_broadcast(&rsrc_add); pthread_mutex_unlock(&rsrc_lock); }

Note that in add_resources() whether resources are updated rst, or if pthread_cond_broadcast() is called rst inside the mutex lock does not matter. Modify the associated condition under the protection of the same mutex that is used with the condition variable being signaled. Otherwise, the condition variable could be modied between its test and blocking in pthread_cond_wait(), which can cause an innite wait.

pthread_cond_broadcast Return Values

pthread_cond_broadcast() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When the following condition occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: cv points to an illegal address.
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Destroying the Condition Variable State

Use pthread_cond_destroy(3C) to destroy any state that is associated with the condition variable pointed to by cv. For Solaris threads, see cond_destroy Syntax on page 203.

pthread_cond_destroy Syntax
int pthread_cond_destroy(pthread_cond_t *cv); #include <pthread.h> pthread_cond_t cv; int ret; /* Condition variable is destroyed */ ret = pthread_cond_destroy(&cv);

Note that the space for storing the condition variable is not freed.

pthread_cond_destroy Return Values

pthread_cond_destroy() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When the following condition occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: The value specied by cv is invalid.

Lost Wake-Up Problem

A call to pthread_cond_signal() or pthread_cond_broadcast() when the thread does not hold the mutex lock associated with the condition can lead to lost wake-up bugs. A lost wake-up occurs when all of the following conditions are in effect:
I I

A thread calls pthread_cond_signal() or pthread_cond_broadcast() Another thread is between the test of the condition and the call to pthread_cond_wait() No threads are waiting The signal has no effect, and therefore is lost

This can occur only if the condition being tested is modied without holding the mutex lock associated with the condition. As long as the condition being tested is modied only while holding the associated mutex, pthread_cond_signal() and pthread_cond_broadcast() can be called regardless of whether they are holding the associated mutex.
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Producer and Consumer Problem

The producer and consumer problem is one of the small collection of standard, well-known problems in concurrent programming. A nite-size buffer and two classes of threads, producers and consumers, put items into the buffer (producers) and take items out of the buffer (consumers). A producer cannot put something in the buffer until the buffer has space available. A consumer cannot take something out of the buffer until the producer has written to the buffer. A condition variable represents a queue of threads that wait for some condition to be signaled. Example 411 has two such queues. One (less) queue for producers waits for a slot in the buffer. The other (more) queue for consumers waits for a buffer slot containing information. The example also has a mutex, as the data structure describing the buffer must be accessed by only one thread at a time.
EXAMPLE 411

Producer and Consumer Problem With Condition Variables

typedef struct { char buf[BSIZE]; int occupied; int nextin; int nextout; pthread_mutex_t mutex; pthread_cond_t more; pthread_cond_t less; } buffer_t; buffer_t buffer;

As Example 412 shows, the producer thread acquires the mutex protecting the buffer data structure. The producer thread then makes certain that space is available for the item produced. If space is not available, the producer thread calls pthread_cond_wait(). pthread_cond_wait() causes the producer thread to join the queue of threads that are waiting for the condition less to be signaled. less represents available room in the buffer. At the same time, as part of the call to pthread_cond_wait(), the thread releases its lock on the mutex. The waiting producer threads depend on consumer threads to signal when the condition is true, as shown in Example 412. When the condition is signaled, the rst thread waiting on less is awakened. However, before the thread can return from pthread_cond_wait(), the thread must acquire the lock on the mutex again. Acquire the mutex to ensure that the thread again has mutually exclusive access to the buffer data structure. The thread then must check that available room in the buffer actually exists. If room is available, the thread writes into the next available slot.
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At the same time, consumer threads might be waiting for items to appear in the buffer. These threads are waiting on the condition variable more. A producer thread, having just deposited something in the buffer, calls pthread_cond_signal() to wake up the next waiting consumer. If no consumers are waiting, this call has no effect. Finally, the producer thread unlocks the mutex, allowing other threads to operate on the buffer data structure.
EXAMPLE 412

The Producer and Consumer Problem: the Producer

void producer(buffer_t *b, char item) { pthread_mutex_lock(&b->mutex); while (b->occupied >= BSIZE) pthread_cond_wait(&b->less, &b->mutex); assert(b->occupied < BSIZE); b->buf[b->nextin++] = item; b->nextin %= BSIZE; b->occupied++; /* now: either b->occupied < BSIZE and b->nextin is the index of the next empty slot in the buffer, or b->occupied == BSIZE and b->nextin is the index of the next (occupied) slot that will be emptied by a consumer (such as b->nextin == b->nextout) */ pthread_cond_signal(&b->more); pthread_mutex_unlock(&b->mutex); }

Note the use of the assert() statement. Unless the code is compiled with NDEBUG dened, assert() does nothing when its argument evaluates to true (nonzero). The program aborts if the argument evaluates to false (zero). Such assertions are especially useful in multithreaded programs. assert() immediately points out runtime problems if the assertion fails. assert() has the additional effect of providing useful comments. The comment that begins /* now: either b->occupied ... could better be expressed as an assertion, but the statement is too complicated as a Boolean-valued expression and so is given in English. Both assertions and comments are examples of invariants. These invariants are logical statements that should not be falsied by the execution of the program with the following exception. The exception occurs during brief moments when a thread is modifying some of the program variables mentioned in the invariant. An assertion, of course, should be true whenever any thread executes the statement. The use of invariants is an extremely useful technique. Even if the invariants are not stated in the program text, think in terms of invariants when you analyze a program.
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The invariant in the producer code that is expressed as a comment is always true whenever a thread executes the code where the comment appears. If you move this comment to just after the mutex_unlock(), the comment does not necessarily remain true. If you move this comment to just after the assert(), the comment is still true. This invariant therefore expresses a property that is true at all times with the following exception. The exception occurs when either a producer or a consumer is changing the state of the buffer. While a thread is operating on the buffer under the protection of a mutex, the thread might temporarily falsify the invariant. However, once the thread is nished, the invariant should be true again. Example 413 shows the code for the consumer. The logic ow is symmetric with the logic ow of the producer.
EXAMPLE 413

The Producer and Consumer Problem: the Consumer

char consumer(buffer_t *b) { char item; pthread_mutex_lock(&b->mutex); while(b->occupied <= 0) pthread_cond_wait(&b->more, &b->mutex); assert(b->occupied > 0); item = b->buf[b->nextout++]; b->nextout %= BSIZE; b->occupied--; /* now: either b->occupied > 0 and b->nextout is the index of the next occupied slot in the buffer, or b->occupied == 0 and b->nextout is the index of the next (empty) slot that will be filled by a producer (such as b->nextout == b->nextin) */ pthread_cond_signal(&b->less); pthread_mutex_unlock(&b->mutex); return(item); }

Synchronization With Semaphores

A semaphore is a programming construct designed by E. W. Dijkstra in the late 1960s. Dijkstras model was the operation of railroads. Consider a stretch of railroad where a single track is present over which only one train at a time is allowed.
Chapter 4 Programming with Synchronization Objects 111

A semaphore synchronizes travel on this track. A train must wait before entering the single track until the semaphore is in a state that permits travel. When the train enters the track, the semaphore changes state to prevent other trains from entering the track. A train that is leaving this section of track must again change the state of the semaphore to allow another train to enter. In the computer version, a semaphore appears to be a simple integer. A thread waits for permission to proceed and then signals that the thread has proceeded by performing a P operation on the semaphore. The thread must wait until the semaphores value is positive, then change the semaphores value by subtracting 1 from the value. When this operation is nished, the thread performs a V operation, which changes the semaphores value by adding 1 to the value. These operations must take place atomically. These operations cannot be subdivided into pieces between which other actions on the semaphore can take place. In the P operation, the semaphores value must be positive just before the value is decremented, resulting in a value that is guaranteed to be nonnegative and 1 less than what it was before it was decremented. In both P and V operations, the arithmetic must take place without interference. The net effect of two V operations performed simultaneously on the same semaphore, should be that the semaphores new value is 2 greater than it was. The mnemonic signicance of P and V is unclear to most of the world, as Dijkstra is Dutch. However, in the interest of true scholarship: P stands for prolagen, a made-up word derived from proberen te verlagen, which means try to decrease. V stands for verhogen, which means increase. The mnemonic signicance is discussed in one of Dijkstras technical notes, EWD 74. sem_wait(3RT) and sem_post(3RT) correspond to Dijkstras P and V operations. sem_trywait(3RT) is a conditional form of the P operation. If the calling thread cannot decrement the value of the semaphore without waiting, the call to returns immediately with a nonzero value. The two basic sorts of semaphores are binary semaphores and counting semaphores. Binary semaphores never take on values other than zero or one, and counting semaphores take on arbitrary nonnegative values. A binary semaphore is logically just like a mutex. However, although not enforced, mutexes should be unlocked only by the thread that holds the lock. Because no notion exists of the thread that holds the semaphore, any thread can perform a V or sem_post(3RT) operation. Counting semaphores are nearly as powerful as conditional variables when used in conjunction with mutexes. In many cases, the code might be simpler when implemented with counting semaphores rather than with condition variables, as shown in Example 414, Example 415, and Example 416.

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However, when a mutex is used with condition variables, an implied bracketing is present. The bracketing clearly delineates which part of the program is being protected. This behavior is not necessarily the case for a semaphore, which might be called the go to of concurrent programming. A semaphore is powerful but too easy to use in an unstructured, indeterminate way.

Named and Unnamed Semaphores

POSIX semaphores can be unnamed or named. Unnamed semaphores are allocated in process memory and initialized. Unnamed semaphores might be usable by more than one process, depending on how the semaphore is allocated and initialized. Unnamed semaphores are either private, inherited through fork(), or are protected by access protections of the regular le in which they are allocated and mapped. Named semaphores are like process-shared semaphores, except that named semaphores are referenced with a pathname rather than a pshared value. Named semaphores are sharable by several processes. Named semaphores have an owner user-id, group-id, and a protection mode. The functions sem_open, sem_getvalue, sem_close, and sem_unlink are available to open, retrieve, close, and remove named semaphores. By using sem_open, you can create a named semaphore that has a name dened in the le system name space. For more information about named semaphores, see the sem_open, sem_getvalue, sem_close, and sem_unlink man pages.

Counting Semaphores Overview

Conceptually, a semaphore is a nonnegative integer count. Semaphores are typically used to coordinate access to resources, with the semaphore count initialized to the number of free resources. Threads then atomically increment the count when resources are added and atomically decrement the count when resources are removed. When the semaphore count becomes zero, no more resources are present. Threads that try to decrement the semaphore when the count is zero block until the count becomes greater than zero.
TABLE 47

Routines for Semaphores

Related Function Description

Operation

Initialize a semaphore Increment a semaphore

sem_init Syntax on page 114 sem_post Syntax on page 116

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TABLE 47

Routines for Semaphores

(Continued)
Related Function Description

Operation

Block on a semaphore count Decrement a semaphore count Destroy the semaphore state

sem_wait Syntax on page 116 sem_trywait Syntax on page 117 sem_destroy Syntax on page 117

Because semaphores need not be acquired and be released by the same thread, semaphores can be used for asynchronous event notication, such as in signal handlers. And, because semaphores contain state, semaphores can be used asynchronously without acquiring a mutex lock as is required by condition variables. However, semaphores are not as efficient as mutex locks. By default, no dened order is enforced for unblocking if multiple threads are waiting for a semaphore. Semaphores must be initialized before use, however semaphores do not have attributes.

Initializing a Semaphore
Use sem_init(3RT) to initialize the unnamed semaphore variable pointed to by sem to value amount.

sem_init Syntax
int sem_init(sem_t *sem, int pshared, unsigned int value); #include <semaphore.h> sem_t sem; int pshared; int ret; int value; /* initialize a private semaphore */ pshared = 0; value = 1; ret = sem_init(&sem, pshared, value);

If the value of pshared is zero, then the semaphore cannot be shared between processes. If the value of pshared is nonzero, then the semaphore can be shared between processes. For Solaris threads, see sema_init Syntax on page 207. Multiple threads must not initialize the same semaphore. A semaphore must not be reinitialized while other threads might be using the semaphore.
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Initializing Semaphores With Intraprocess Scope

When pshared is 0, the semaphore can be used by all the threads in this process only.
#include <semaphore.h> sem_t sem; int ret; int count = 4; /* to be used within this process only */ ret = sem_init(&sem, 0, count);

Initializing Semaphores With Interprocess Scope

When pshared is nonzero, the semaphore can be shared by other processes.
#include <semaphore.h> sem_t sem; int ret; int count = 4; /* to be shared among processes */ ret = sem_init(&sem, 1, count);

sem_init Return Values

sem_init() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When any of the following conditions occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: The value argument exceeds SEM_VALUE_MAX.

ENOSPC
Description: A resource that is required to initialize the semaphore has been exhausted. The limit on semaphores SEM_NSEMS_MAX has been reached.

ENOSYS
Description: The sem_init() function is not supported by the system.

EPERM
Description: The process lacks the appropriate privileges to initialize the

semaphore.

Incrementing a Semaphore
Use sem_post(3RT) to atomically increment the semaphore pointed to by sem.
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sem_post Syntax
int sem_post(sem_t *sem); #include <semaphore.h> sem_t sem; int ret; ret = sem_post(&sem); /* semaphore is posted */

When any threads are blocked on the semaphore, one of the threads is unblocked. For Solaris threads, see sema_post Syntax on page 208.

sem_post Return Values

sem_post() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When the following condition occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: sem points to an illegal address.

Blocking on a Semaphore Count

Use sem_wait(3RT) to block the calling thread until the semaphore count pointed to by sem becomes greater than zero, then atomically decrement the count.

sem_wait Syntax
int sem_wait(sem_t *sem); #include <semaphore.h> sem_t sem; int ret; ret = sem_wait(&sem); /* wait for semaphore */

sem_wait Return Values

sem_wait() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When any of the following conditions occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: sem points to an illegal address.
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EINTR
Description: A signal interrupted this function.

Decrementing a Semaphore Count

Use sem_trywait(3RT) to try to atomically decrement the count in the semaphore pointed to by sem when the count is greater than zero.

sem_trywait Syntax
int sem_trywait(sem_t *sem); #include <semaphore.h> sem_t sem; int ret; ret = sem_trywait(&sem); /* try to wait for semaphore*/

This function is a nonblocking version of sem_wait(). sem_trywait() returns immediately if unsuccessful.

sem_trywait Return Values

sem_trywait() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When any of the following conditions occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: sem points to an illegal address.

EINTR
Description: A signal interrupted this function.

EAGAIN
Description: The semaphore was already locked, so the semaphore cannot be immediately locked by the sem_trywait() operation.

Destroying the Semaphore State

Use sem_destroy(3RT) to destroy any state that is associated with the unnamed semaphore pointed to by sem.

sem_destroy Syntax
int sem_destroy(sem_t *sem); Chapter 4 Programming with Synchronization Objects 117

#include <semaphore.h> sem_t sem; int ret; ret = sem_destroy(&sem); /* the semaphore is destroyed */

The space for storing the semaphore is not freed. For Solaris threads, see sema_destroy(3C) Syntax on page 210.

sem_destroy Return Values

sem_destroy() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When the following condition occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: sem points to an illegal address.

Producer and Consumer Problem Using Semaphores

The data structure in Example 414 is similar to the structure used for the condition variables example, shown in Example 411. Two semaphores represent the number of full and empty buffers. The semaphores ensure that producers wait until buffers are empty and that consumers wait until buffers are full.
EXAMPLE 414

Producer and Consumer Problem With Semaphores

typedef struct { char buf[BSIZE]; sem_t occupied; sem_t empty; int nextin; int nextout; sem_t pmut; sem_t cmut; } buffer_t; buffer_t buffer; sem_init(&buffer.occupied, 0, 0); sem_init(&buffer.empty,0, BSIZE); sem_init(&buffer.pmut, 0, 1); sem_init(&buffer.cmut, 0, 1); buffer.nextin = buffer.nextout = 0;

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Another pair of binary semaphores plays the same role as mutexes. The semaphores control access to the buffer when multiple producers use multiple empty buffer slots, and when multiple consumers use multiple full buffer slots. Mutexes would work better here, but would not provide as good an example of semaphore use.
EXAMPLE 415

Producer and Consumer Problem: the Producer

void producer(buffer_t *b, char item) { sem_wait(&b->empty); sem_wait(&b->pmut); b->buf[b->nextin] = item; b->nextin++; b->nextin %= BSIZE; sem_post(&b->pmut); sem_post(&b->occupied); }

EXAMPLE 416

Producer and Consumer Problem: the Consumer

char consumer(buffer_t *b) { char item; sem_wait(&b->occupied); sem_wait(&b->cmut); item = b->buf[b->nextout]; b->nextout++; b->nextout %= BSIZE; sem_post(&b->cmut); sem_post(&b->empty); return(item); }

Read-Write Lock Attributes

Read-write locks permit concurrent reads and exclusive writes to a protected shared resource. The read-write lock is a single entity that can be locked in read or write mode. To modify a resource, a thread must rst acquire the exclusive write lock. An exclusive write lock is not permitted until all read locks have been released. See Similar Synchronization FunctionsRead-Write Locks on page 180 for the Solaris threads implementation of read-write locks.
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Database access can be synchronized with a read-write lock. Read-write locks support concurrent reads of database records because the read operation does not change the records information. When the database is to be updated, the write operation must acquire an exclusive write lock. To change the default read-write lock attributes, you can declare and initialize an attribute object. Often, the read-write lock attributes are set up in one place at the beginning of the application. Set up at the beginning of the application makes the attributes easier to locate and modify. The following table lists the functions discussed in this section that manipulate read-write lock attributes.
TABLE 48

Routines for Read-Write Lock Attributes

Related Function Description

Operation

Initialize a read-write lock attribute pthread_rwlockattr_init Syntax on page 120 Destroy a read-write lock attribute Set a read-write lock attribute Get a read-write lock attribute pthread_rwlockattr_destroy Syntax on page 121 pthread_rwlockattr_setpshared Syntax on page 121 pthread_rwlockattr_getpshared Syntax on page 122

Initializing a Read-Write Lock Attribute

pthread_rwlockattr_init(3C) initializes a read-write lock attributes object attr with the default value for all of the attributes dened by the implementation.

pthread_rwlockattr_init Syntax
#include <pthread.h> int pthread_rwlockattr_init(pthread_rwlockattr_t *attr);

Results are undened if pthread_rwlockattr_init is called specifying an already initialized read-write lock attributes object. After a read-write lock attributes object initializes one or more read-write locks, any function that affects the object, including destruction, does not affect previously initialized read-write locks.

pthread_rwlockattr_init Return Values

If successful, pthread_rwlockattr_init() returns zero. Otherwise, an error number is returned to indicate the error. ENOMEM
Description: Insufficient memory exists to initialize the read-write attributes object.
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Destroying a Read-Write Lock Attribute

pthread_rwlockattr_destroy(3C) destroys a read-write lock attributes object.

pthread_rwlockattr_destroy Syntax
#include <pthread.h> int pthread_rwlockattr_destroy(pthread_rwlockattr_t *attr);

The effect of subsequent use of the object is undened until the object is re-initialized by another call to pthread_rwlockattr_init(). An implementation can cause pthread_rwlockattr_destroy() to set the object referenced by attr to an invalid value.

pthread_rwlockattr_destroy Return Values

If successful, pthread_rwlockattr_destroy() returns zero. Otherwise, an error number is returned to indicate the error. EINVAL
Description: The value specied by attr is invalid.

Setting a Read-Write Lock Attribute

pthread_rwlockattr_setpshared(3C) sets the process-shared read-write lock attribute.

pthread_rwlockattr_setpshared Syntax
#include <pthread.h> int pthread_rwlockattr_setpshared(pthread_rwlockattr_t *attr, int pshared);

The read-write lock attribute has one of the following values: PTHREAD_PROCESS_SHARED Description: Permits a read-write lock to be operated on by any thread that has access to the memory where the read-write lock is allocated. Operation on the read-write lock is permitted even if the lock is allocated in memory that is shared by multiple processes.

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PTHREAD_PROCESS_PRIVATE Description: The read-write lock is only operated upon by threads created within the same process as the thread that initialized the read-write lock. If threads of differing processes attempt to operate on such a read-write lock, the behavior is undened. The default value of the process-shared attribute is PTHREAD_PROCESS_PRIVATE.

pthread_rwlockattr_setpshared Return Values

If successful, pthread_rwlockattr_setpshared() returns zero. Otherwise, an error number is returned to indicate the error. EINVAL
Description: The value specied by attr or pshared is invalid.

Getting a Read-Write Lock Attribute

pthread_rwlockattr_getpshared(3C) gets the process-shared read-write lock attribute.

pthread_rwlockattr_getpshared Syntax
#include <pthread.h> int pthread_rwlockattr_getpshared(const pthread_rwlockattr_t int *pshared); *attr,

pthread_rwlockattr_getpshared() obtains the value of the process-shared attribute from the initialized attributes object referenced by attr.

pthread_rwlockattr_getpshared Return Values

If successful, pthread_rwlockattr_getpshared() returns zero. Otherwise, an error number is returned to indicate the error. EINVAL
Description: The value specied by attr or pshared is invalid.

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Using Read-Write Locks

After the attributes for a read-write lock are congured, you initialize the read-write lock. The following functions are used to initialize or destroy, lock or unlock, or try to lock a read-write lock. The following table lists the functions discussed in this section that manipulate read-write locks.
TABLE 49

Routines that Manipulate Read-Write Locks

Related Function Description

Operation

Initialize a read-write lock Read lock on read-write lock Read lock with a nonblocking read-write lock Write lock on read-write lock Write lock with a nonblocking read-write lock Unlock a read-write lock Destroy a read-write lock

pthread_rwlock_init Syntax on page 123 pthread_rwlock_rdlock Syntax on page 124 pthread_rwlock_tryrdlock Syntax on page 125 pthread_rwlock_wrlock Syntax on page 126 pthread_rwlock_trywrlock Syntax on page 126 pthread_rwlock_unlock Syntax on page 127 pthread_rwlock_destroy Syntax on page 128

Initializing a Read-Write Lock

Use pthread_rwlock_init(3C) to initialize the read-write lock referenced by rwlock with the attributes referenced by attr.

pthread_rwlock_init Syntax
#include <pthread.h> int pthread_rwlock_init(pthread_rwlock_t *rwlock, const pthread_rwlockattr_t *attr); pthread_rwlock_t rwlock = PTHREAD_RWLOCK_INITIALIZER;

If attr is NULL, the default read-write lock attributes are used. The effect is the same as passing the address of a default read-write lock attributes object. After the lock is initialized, the lock can be used any number of times without being re-initialized. On successful initialization, the state of the read-write lock becomes initialized and unlocked. Results are undened if pthread_rwlock_init() is called specifying an already initialized read-write lock. Results are undened if a read-write lock is used without rst being initialized. For Solaris threads, see rwlock_init Syntax on page 180.
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In cases where default read-write lock attributes are appropriate, the macro PTHREAD_RWLOCK_INITIALIZER can initialize read-write locks that are statically allocated. The effect is equivalent to dynamic initialization by a call to pthread_rwlock_init() with the parameter attr specied as NULL, except that no error checks are performed.

pthread_rwlock_init Return Values

If successful, pthread_rwlock_init() returns zero. Otherwise, an error number is returned to indicate the error. If pthread_rwlock_init() fails, rwlock is not initialized and the contents of rwlock are undened. EINVAL
Description: The value specied by attr or rwlock is invalid.

Acquiring the Read Lock on Read-Write Lock

pthread_rwlock_rdlock(3C) applies a read lock to the read-write lock referenced by rwlock.

pthread_rwlock_rdlock Syntax
#include <pthread.h> int pthread_rwlock_rdlock(pthread_rwlock_t *rwlock );

The calling thread acquires the read lock if a writer does not hold the lock and no writers are blocked on the lock. Whether the calling thread acquires the lock when a writer does not hold the lock and writers are waiting for the lock is unspecied. If a writer holds the lock, the calling thread does not acquire the read lock. If the read lock is not acquired, the calling thread blocks. The thread does not return from the pthread_rwlock_rdlock() until the thread can acquire the lock. Results are undened if the calling thread holds a write lock on rwlock at the time the call is made. Implementations are allowed to favor writers over readers to avoid writer starvation. For instance, the Solaris threads implementation favors writers over readers. See rw_rdlock Syntax on page 182. A thread can hold multiple concurrent read locks on rwlock The thread can successfully call pthread_rwlock_rdlock() n times. The thread must call pthread_rwlock_unlock() n times to perform matching unlocks. Results are undened if pthread_rwlock_rdlock() is called with an uninitialized read-write lock.
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A thread signal handler processes a signal delivered to a thread waiting for a read-write lock. On return from the signal handler, the thread resumes waiting for the read-write lock for reading as if the thread was not interrupted.

pthread_rwlock_rdlock Return Values

If successful, pthread_rwlock_rdlock() returns zero. Otherwise, an error number is returned to indicate the error. EINVAL
Description: The value specied by attr or rwlock is invalid.

Reading a Lock With a Nonblocking Read-Write Lock

pthread_rwlock_tryrdlock(3C) applies a read lock as in pthread_rwlock_rdlock() with the exception that the function fails if any thread holds a write lock on rwlock or writers are blocked on rwlock. For Solaris threads, see rw_tryrdlock Syntax on page 182.

pthread_rwlock_tryrdlock Syntax
#include <pthread.h> int pthread_rwlock_tryrdlock(pthread_rwlock_t *rwlock);

pthread_rwlock_tryrdlock Return Values

pthread_rwlock_tryrdlock() returns zero if the lock for reading on the read-write lock object referenced by rwlock is acquired. If the lock is not acquired, an error number is returned to indicate the error. EBUSY
Description: The read-write lock could not be acquired for reading because a writer holds the lock or was blocked on it.

Writing a Lock on Read-Write Lock

pthread_rwlock_wrlock(3C) applies a write lock to the read-write lock referenced by rwlock.
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pthread_rwlock_wrlock Syntax
#include <pthread.h> int pthread_rwlock_wrlock(pthread_rwlock_t *rwlock );

The calling thread acquires the write lock if no other reader thread or writer thread holds the read-write lock rwlock. Otherwise, the thread blocks. The thread does not return from the pthread_rwlock_wrlock() call until the thread can acquire the lock. Results are undened if the calling thread holds the read-write lock, either a read lock or write lock, at the time the call is made. Implementations are allowed to favor writers over readers to avoid writer starvation. (For instance, the Solaris threads implementation favors writers over readers. See rw_wrlock Syntax on page 183.) Results are undened if pthread_rwlock_wrlock() is called with an uninitialized read-write lock. The thread signal handler processes a signal delivered to a thread waiting for a read-write lock for writing. Upon return from the signal handler, the thread resumes waiting for the read-write lock for writing as if the thread was not interrupted.

pthread_rwlock_wrlock Return Values

pthread_rwlock_rwlock() returns zero if the lock for writing on the read-write lock object referenced by rwlock is acquired. If the lock is not acquired, an error number is returned to indicate the error.

Writing a Lock With a Nonblocking Read-Write Lock

pthread_rwlock_trywrlock(3C) applies a write lock like pthread_rwlock_wrlock(), with the exception that the function fails if any thread currently holds rwlock, for reading or writing. For Solaris threads, see rw_trywrlock Syntax on page 183.

pthread_rwlock_trywrlock Syntax
#include <pthread.h> int pthread_rwlock_trywrlock(pthread_rwlock_t *rwlock);

Results are undened if pthread_rwlock_trywrlock() is called with an uninitialized read-write lock.

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The thread signal handler processes a signal delivered to a thread waiting for a read-write lock for writing. On return from the signal handler, the thread resumes waiting for the read-write lock for writing as if the thread was not interrupted.

pthread_rwlock_trywrlock Return Values

If successful, pthread_rwlock_trywrlock() returns zero if the lock for writing on the read-write lock object referenced by rwlock is acquired. Otherwise, an error number is returned to indicate the error. EBUSY
Description: The read-write lock could not be acquired for writing because the read-write lock is already locked for reading or writing.

Unlocking a Read-Write Lock

pthread_rwlock_unlock(3C) releases a lock held on the read-write lock object referenced by rwlock.

pthread_rwlock_unlock Syntax
#include <pthread.h> int pthread_rwlock_unlock (pthread_rwlock_t *rwlock);

Results are undened if the read-write lock rwlock is not held by the calling thread. For Solaris threads, see rw_unlock Syntax on page 184. If pthread_rwlock_unlock() is called to release a read lock from the read-write lock object, and other read locks are currently held on this lock object, the object remains in the read locked state. If pthread_rwlock_unlock() releases the calling threads last read lock on this read-write lock object, the calling thread is no longer an owner of the object. If pthread_rwlock_unlock() releases the last read lock for this read-write lock object, the read-write lock object is put in the unlocked state with no owners. If pthread_rwlock_unlock() is called to release a write lock for this read-write lock object, the lock object is put in the unlocked state with no owners. If pthread_rwlock_unlock() unlocks the read-write lock object and multiple threads are waiting to acquire the lock object for writing, the scheduling policy determines which thread acquires the object for writing. If multiple threads are waiting to acquire the read-write lock object for reading, the scheduling policy determines the order the waiting threads acquire the object for reading. If multiple threads are blocked on rwlock for both read locks and write locks, whether the readers or the writer acquire the lock rst is unspecied.
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Results are undened if pthread_rwlock_unlock() is called with an uninitialized read-write lock.

pthread_rwlock_unlock Return Values

If successful, pthread_rwlock_unlock() returns zero. Otherwise, an error number is returned to indicate the error.

Destroying a Read-Write Lock

pthread_rwlock_destroy(3C) destroys the read-write lock object referenced by rwlock and releases any resources used by the lock.

pthread_rwlock_destroy Syntax
#include <pthread.h> int pthread_rwlock_destroy(pthread_rwlock_t *rwlock); pthread_rwlock_t rwlock = PTHREAD_RWLOCK_INITIALIZER;

The effect of subsequent use of the lock is undened until the lock is re-initialized by another call to pthread_rwlock_init(). An implementation can cause pthread_rwlock_destroy() to set the object referenced by rwlock to an invalid value. Results are undened if pthread_rwlock_destroy() is called when any thread holds rwlock. Attempting to destroy an uninitialized read-write lock results in undened behavior. A destroyed read-write lock object can be re-initialized using pthread_rwlock_init(). The results of otherwise referencing the read-write lock object after the lock object has been destroyed are undened. For Solaris threads, see rwlock_destroy Syntax on page 185.

pthread_rwlock_destroy Return Values

If successful, pthread_rwlock_destroy() returns zero. Otherwise, an error number is returned to indicate the error. EINVAL
Description: The value specied by attr or rwlock is invalid.

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Synchronization Across Process Boundaries

Each of the synchronization primitives can be used across process boundaries. The primitives are set up by ensuring that the synchronization variable is located in a shared memory segment and by calling the appropriate init() routine. The primitive must have been initialized with its shared attribute set to interprocess.

Producer and Consumer Problem Example

Example 417 shows the producer and consumer problem with the producer and consumer in separate processes. The main routine maps zero-lled memory shared with its child process into its address space. A child process is created to run the consumer. The parent runs the producer. This example also shows the drivers for the producer and consumer. The producer_driver() reads characters from stdin and calls producer(). The consumer_driver() gets characters by calling consumer() and writes them to stdout. The data structure for Example 417 is the same as the structure used for the condition variables example, shown in Example 44. Two semaphores represent the number of full and empty buffers. The semaphores ensure that producers wait for empty buffers and that consumers wait until the buffers are full.
EXAMPLE 417

Synchronization Across Process Boundaries

main() { int zfd; buffer_t *buffer; pthread_mutexattr_t mattr; pthread_condattr_t cvattr_less, cvattr_more; zfd = open("/dev/zero", O_RDWR); buffer = (buffer_t *)mmap(NULL, sizeof(buffer_t), PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, zfd, 0); buffer->occupied = buffer->nextin = buffer->nextout = 0; pthread_mutex_attr_init(&mattr); pthread_mutexattr_setpshared(&mattr, PTHREAD_PROCESS_SHARED); pthread_mutex_init(&buffer->lock, &mattr); pthread_condattr_init(&cvattr_less); pthread_condattr_setpshared(&cvattr_less, PTHREAD_PROCESS_SHARED); Chapter 4 Programming with Synchronization Objects 129

EXAMPLE 417

Synchronization Across Process Boundaries

(Continued)

pthread_cond_init(&buffer->less, &cvattr_less); pthread_condattr_init(&cvattr_more); pthread_condattr_setpshared(&cvattr_more, PTHREAD_PROCESS_SHARED); pthread_cond_init(&buffer->more, &cvattr_more); if (fork() == 0) consumer_driver(buffer); else producer_driver(buffer); } void producer_driver(buffer_t *b) { int item; while (1) { item = getchar(); if (item == EOF) { producer(b, \0); break; } else producer(b, (char)item); } } void consumer_driver(buffer_t *b) { char item; while (1) { if ((item = consumer(b)) == \0) break; putchar(item); } }

Comparing Primitives
The most basic synchronization primitive in threads is the mutual exclusion lock. So, mutual exclusion lock is the most efficient mechanism in both memory use and execution time. The basic use of a mutual exclusion lock is to serialize access to a resource. The next most efficient primitive in threads is the condition variable. The basic use of a condition variable is to block on a change of state. The condition variable provides a thread wait facility. Remember that a mutex lock must be acquired before blocking on a condition variable and must be unlocked after returning from pthread_cond_wait(). The mutex lock must also be held across the change of state that occurs before the corresponding call to pthread_cond_signal().
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The semaphore uses more memory than the condition variable. The semaphore is easier to use in some circumstances because a semaphore variable operates on state rather than on control. Unlike a lock, a semaphore does not have an owner. Any thread can increment a semaphore that has blocked. The read-write lock permits concurrent reads and exclusive writes to a protected resource. The read-write lock is a single entity that can be locked in read or write mode. To modify a resource, a thread must rst acquire the exclusive write lock. An exclusive write lock is not permitted until all read locks have been released.

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CHAPTER

Programming With the Solaris Software

This chapter describes how multithreading interacts with the Solaris software and how the software has changed to support multithreading.
I I I I I I I

Process Creation: exec and exit Issues on page 137 Timers, Alarms, and Proling on page 138 Nonlocal Goto: setjmp and longjmp on page 140 Resource Limits on page 140 LWPs and Scheduling Classes on page 140 Extending Traditional Signals on page 142 I/O Issues on page 152

Forking Issues in Process Creation

The default handling of fork() in the Solaris 9 product and earlier Solaris releases is somewhat different from the way fork() is handled in POSIX threads. For Solaris releases after Solaris 9, fork() behaves as specied for POSIX threads in all cases. Table 51 compares the differences and similarities of fork() handling in Solaris threads and pthreads. When the comparable interface is not available either in POSIX threads or in Solaris threads, the character appears in the table column.
TABLE 51

Comparing POSIX and Solaris fork() Handling

Solaris Interface POSIX Threads Interface

Fork-one model Fork-all model Fork safety

fork1(2) forkall(2)

fork(2) forkall(2) pthread_atfork(3C)

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Fork-One Model
As shown in Table 51, the behavior of the pthreads fork(2) function is the same as the behavior of the Solaris fork1(2) function. Both the pthreads fork(2) function and the Solaris fork1(2) function create a new process, duplicating the complete address space in the child. However, both functions duplicate only the calling thread in the child process. Duplication of the calling thread in the child process is useful when the child process immediately calls exec(), which is what happens after most calls to fork(). In this case, the child process does not need a duplicate of any thread other than the thread that called fork(). In the child, do not call any library functions after calling fork() and before calling exec(). One of the library functions might use a lock that was held in the parent at the time of the fork(). The child process may execute only Async-Signal-Safe operations until one of the exec() handlers is called.

Fork-One Safety Problem and Solution

Besides the usual concerns such as locking shared data, a library should be well behaved with respect to forking a child process when only the thread that called fork() is running. The problem is that the sole thread in the child process might try to grab a lock held by a thread not duplicated in the child. Most programs are not likely to encounter this problem. Most programs call exec() in the child right after the return from fork(). However, if the program has to carry out actions in the child before calling exec(), or never calls exec(), then the child could encounter deadlocks. Each library writer should provide a safe solution, although not providing a fork-safe library is not a large concern because this condition is rare. For example, assume that T1 is in the middle of printing something and holds a lock for printf(), when T2 forks a new process. In the child process, if the sole thread (T2) calls printf(), T2 promptly deadlocks. The POSIX fork() or Solaris fork1() function duplicates only the thread that calls fork() or fork1(). If you call Solaris forkall() to duplicate all threads, this issue is not a concern. However, forkall() can cause other problems and should be used with care. For instance, if a thread calls forkall(), the parent thread performing I/O to a le is replicated in the child process. Both copies of the thread will continue performing I/O to the same le, one in the parent and one in the child, leading to malfunctions or le corruption.

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To prevent deadlock when calling fork1(), ensure that no locks are being held at the time of forking. The most obvious way to prevent deadlock is to have the forking thread acquire all the locks that could possibly be used by the child. Because you cannot acquire all locks for printf() because printf() is owned by libc, you must ensure that printf() is not being used at fork() time. To manage the locks in your library, you should perform the following actions:
I I

Identify all the locks used by the library. Identify the locking order for the locks used by the library. If a strict locking order is not used, then lock acquisition must be managed carefully. Arrange to acquire all locks at fork time.

In the following example, the list of locks used by the library is {L1,...Ln}. The locking order for these locks is also L1...Ln.
mutex_lock(L1); mutex_lock(L2); fork1(...); mutex_unlock(L1); mutex_unlock(L2);

When using either Solaris threads or POSIX threads, you can add a call to pthread_atfork(f1, f2, f3) in your librarys .init() section. The f1(), f2(), f3() are dened as follows:
f1() /* This is executed just before the process forks. */ { mutex_lock(L1); | mutex_lock(...); | -- ordered in lock order mutex_lock(Ln); | } V f2() /* This is executed in the child after the process forks. */ { mutex_unlock(L1); mutex_unlock(...); mutex_unlock(Ln); } f3() /* This is executed in the parent after the process forks. */ { mutex_unlock(L1); mutex_unlock(...); mutex_unlock(Ln); }

Virtual Forksvfork
The standard vfork(2) function is unsafe in multithreaded programs. vfork(2), like fork1(2), copies only the calling thread in the child process. As in nonthreaded implementations, vfork() does not copy the address space for the child process.
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Be careful that the thread in the child process does not change memory before the thread calls exec(2). vfork() gives the parent address space to the child. The parent gets its address space back after the child calls exec() or exits. The child must not change the state of the parent. For example, disastrous problems occur if you create new threads between the call to vfork() and the call to exec().

Solution: pthread_atfork
Use pthread_atfork() to prevent deadlocks whenever you use the fork-one model.
#include <pthread.h> int pthread_atfork(void (*prepare) (void), void (*parent) (void), void (*child) (void) );

The pthread_atfork() function declares fork() handlers that are called before and after fork() in the context of the thread that called fork().
I I I

The prepare handler is called before fork() starts. The parent handler is called after fork() returns in the parent. The child handler is called after fork() returns in the child.

Any handler argument can be set to NULL. The order in which successive calls to pthread_atfork() are made is signicant. For example, a prepare handler could acquire all the mutexes needed. Then the parent and child handlers could release the mutexes. The prepare handler acquiring all required mutexes ensures that all relevant locks are held by the thread calling the fork function before the process is forked. This technique prevents a deadlock in the child.

pthread_atfork Return Value

pthread_atfork() returns zero when the call completes successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. If the following condition is detected, pthread_atfork() fails and returns the corresponding value. ENOMEM
Description: Insufficient table space exists to record the fork handler addresses.

Fork-All Model
The Solaris forkall(2) function duplicates the address space and all the threads in the child. Address space duplication is useful, for example, when the child process never calls exec(2) but does use its copy of the parent address space.
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When one thread in a process calls Solaris forkall(2), threads that are blocked in an interruptible system call will return EINTR. Be careful not to create locks that are held by both the parent and child processes. Locks held in both parent and child processes occur when locks are allocated in shared memory by calling mmap() with the MAP_SHARED ag. This problem does not occur if the fork-one model is used.

Choosing the Right Fork

Starting with the Solaris 10 release, a call to fork() is identical to a call to fork1(). Specically, only the calling thread is replicated in the child process. The behavior is the same as the POSIX fork(). In previous releases of the Solaris software, the behavior of fork() was dependent on whether the application was linked with the POSIX threads library. When linked with -lthread (Solaris threads) but not linked with -lpthread (POSIX threads), fork() was the same as forkall(). When linked with -lpthread, regardless of whether fork() was also linked with -lthread, fork() was the same as fork1(). Starting with the Solaris 10 release, neither -lthread nor -lpthread is required for multithreaded applications. The standard C library provides all threading support for both sets of application program interfaces. Applications that require replicate all fork semantics must call forkall(). Be careful when using global state after a call to any fork() function. For example, when one thread reads a le serially and another thread in the process successfully forks, each process contains a thread that reads the le. Because the seek pointer for a le descriptor is shared after a fork() call, the parent thread gets data while the child thread gets different data. The parent thread and child thread get different data, which introduces gaps in the sequential read accesses.

Process Creation: exec and exit Issues

Both the exec(2) and exit(2) system calls work as these functions do in single-threaded processes with the following exception. In a multithreaded application, the functions destroy all the threads in the address space. Both calls block until all the execution resources, and so all active threads, are destroyed. When exec() rebuilds the process, exec() creates a single lightweight process (LWP). The process startup code builds the initial thread. As usual, if the initial thread returns, the thread calls exit() and the process is destroyed.
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When all the threads in a process exit, the process exits. A call to any exec() function from a process with more than one thread terminates all threads, and loads and executes the new executable image. No destructor functions are called.

Timers, Alarms, and Proling

The End of Life announcements for per-LWP timers and per-thread alarms were made in the Solaris 2.5 release. See the timer_create(3RT), alarm(2), or setitimer(2) man pages. Both per-LWP timers and per-thread alarms are now replaced with the per-process variants that are described in this section. Originally, each LWP had a unique realtime interval timer and alarm that a thread bound to the LWP could use. The timer or alarm delivered one signal to the thread when the timer or alarm expired. Each LWP also had a virtual time or prole interval timer that a thread bound to the LWP could use. When the interval timer expired, either SIGVTALRM or SIGPROF, as appropriate, was sent to the LWP that owned the interval timer.

Per-LWP POSIX Timers

In the Solaris 2.3 and 2.4 releases, the timer_create(3RT) function returned a timer object with a timer ID that was meaningful only within the calling LWP. Expiration signals are delivered to that LWP. Because of the behavior of the returned timer object, the only threads that could use the POSIX timer facility were bound threads. Even with the restricted use, POSIX timers in the Solaris 2.3 and 2.4 releases for multithreaded applications were unreliable. These timers do not reliably mask the resulting signals, and do not reliably deliver the associated value from the sigvent structure. Introduced in the Solaris 2.5 release, an application can create per-process timers. Compile the application with the macro _POSIX_PER_PROCESS_TIMERS defined, or by dening the macro _POSIX_C_SOURCE with a value that is greater than or equal to 199506L. Effective with the Solaris 9 release, all timers are per-process except for the virtual time and prole interval timers, which remain per_LWP. See setitimer(2) for ITIMER_VIRTUAL and ITIMER_PROF. The timer IDs of per-process timers are usable from any LWP. The expiration signals are generated for the process rather than directed to a specic LWP. The per-process timers are deleted only by timer_delete(3RT), or when the process terminates.
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Per-Thread Alarms
In the Solaris 2.3 and 2.4 releases, a call to alarm(2) or setitimer(2) was meaningful only within the calling LWP. Such timers were deleted automatically when the creating LWP terminated. Because of this behavior, the only threads that could use alarm() or setitimer() were bound threads. Even with use that is restricted to bound threads, alarm() and setitimer() timers in Solaris 2.3 and 2.4 multithreaded applications were unreliable. In particular, alarm() and settimer() timers are unreliable about masking the signals from the bound thread that issued these calls. When such masking was not required, then these two system calls worked reliably from bound threads. With the Solaris 2.5 release, an application linking with -lpthread (POSIX) threads got per-process delivery of SIGALRM when calling alarm(). The SIGALRM generated by alarm() is generated for the process rather than directed to a specic LWP. Also, the alarm is reset when the process terminates. Applications compiled with a release before the Solaris 2.5 release, or not linked with -lpthread, continue to see a per-LWP delivery of signals generated by alarm() and setitimer() Effective with the Solaris 9 release, calls to alarm() or to setitimer(ITIMER_REAL) cause the resulting SIGALRM signal to be sent to the process.

Proling a Multithreaded Program

In Solaris releases prior to Solaris 2.6, calling profil() in a multithreaded program would affect only the calling LWP. The prole state was not inherited at LWP creation time. To prole a multithreaded program with a global prole buffer, each thread needed to call profil() at threads start-up time. Furthermore, each thread had to be a bound thread. These restrictions are cumbersome. These restrictions do not easily support dynamically turning proling on and off. In Solaris 2.6 and later releases, the profil() system call for multithreaded processes has global impact. A call to profil() impacts all LWPs and threads in a process. profil() can cause applications that depend on the previous per-LWP semantic to break. However, calling profil() is expected to improve multithreaded programs that want proling turned on and turned off dynamically at runtime.

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Nonlocal Goto: setjmp and longjmp

The scope of setjmp() and longjmp() is limited to one thread, which is acceptable most of the time. However, the limited scope does mean that a thread that handles a signal can execute a longjmp() only when a setjmp() is performed in the same thread.

Resource Limits
Resource limits are set on the entire process and are determined by adding the resource use of all threads in the process. When a soft resource limit is exceeded, the offending thread is sent the appropriate signal. The sum of the resources that are used in the process is available through getrusage(3C).

LWPs and Scheduling Classes

The Solaris kernel has three classes of scheduling. The highest-priority scheduling class is Realtime (RT). The middle-priority scheduling class is system. The system class cannot be applied to a user process. The lowest-priority scheduling class is timeshare (TS), which is also the default class. A scheduling class is maintained for each LWP. When a process is created, the initial LWP inherits the scheduling class and priority of the creating LWP in the parent process. As more threads are created, their associated LWPs also inherit this scheduling class and priority. Threads have the scheduling class and priority of their underlying LWPs. Each LWP in a process can have a unique scheduling class and priority that are visible to the kernel. Thread priorities regulate contention for synchronization objects. By default, LWPs are in the timesharing class. For compute-bound multithreading, thread priorities are not very useful. For multithreaded applications that use the MT libraries to do synchronization frequently, thread priorities are more meaningful. The scheduling class is set by priocntl(2). How you specify the rst two arguments determines whether only the calling LWP or all the LWPs of one or more processes are affected. The third argument of priocntl() is the command, which can be one of the following commands.
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I I I

PC_GETCID - Get the class ID and class attributes for a specic class. PC_GETCLINFO - Get the class name and class attributes for a specic class. PC_GETPARMS - Get the class identier and the class-specic scheduling parameters of a process, an LWP with a process, or a group of processes. PC_SETPARMS - Set the class identier and the class-specic scheduling parameters of a process, an LWP with a process, or a group of processes.

Note that priocntl() affects the scheduling of the LWP associated with the calling thread. For unbound threads, the calling thread is not guaranteed to be associated with the affected LWP after the call to priocntl() returns.

Timeshare Scheduling
Timeshare scheduling distributes the processing resource fairly among the LWPs in the timeshare scheduling class. Other parts of the kernel can monopolize the processor for short intervals without degrading the response time seen by the user. The priocntl(2) call sets the nice(2) level of one or more processes. The priocntl() call also affects the nice() level of all the timesharing class LWPs in the process. The nice() level ranges from 0 to +20 normally and from -20 to +20 for processes with superuser privilege. The lower the value, the higher the priority. The dispatch priority of time-shared LWPs is calculated from the instantaneous CPU use rate of the LWP and from its nice() level. The nice() level indicates the relative priority of the LWPs to the timeshare scheduler. LWPs with a greater nice() value get a smaller, but nonzero, share of the total processing. An LWP that has received a larger amount of processing is given lower priority than an LWP that has received little or no processing.

Realtime Scheduling
The Realtime class (RT) can be applied to a whole process or to one or more LWPs in a process. You must have superuser privilege to use the Realtime class. Unlike the nice(2) level of the timeshare class, LWPs that are classied Realtime can be assigned priorities either individually or jointly. A priocntl(2) call affects the attributes of all the Realtime LWPs in the process. The scheduler always dispatches the highest-priority Realtime LWP. The high-priority Realtime LWP pre-empts a lower-priority LWP when a higher-priority LWP becomes runnable. A pre-empted LWP is placed at the head of its level queue. A Realtime LWP retains control of a processor until the LWP is pre-empted, the LWP suspends, or its Realtime priority is changed. LWPs in the RT class have absolute priority over processes in the TS class.
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A new LWP inherits the scheduling class of the parent process or LWP. An RT class LWP inherits the parents time slice, whether nite or innite. A nite time slice LWP runs until the LWP terminates, blocks on an I/O event, gets pre-empted by a higher-priority runnable Realtime process, or the time slice expires. An LWP with an innite time slice ceases execution only when the LWP terminates, blocks, or is pre-empted.

Fair Share Scheduling

The fair share scheduler (FSS) scheduling class allows allocation of CPU time based on shares. By default, the FSS scheduling class uses the same range of priorities (0 to 59) as the TS and interactive (IA) scheduling classes. All LWPs in a process must run in the same scheduling class. The FSS class schedules individual LWPs, not whole processes. Thus, a mix of processes in the FSS and TS/IA classes could result in unexpected scheduling behavior in both cases. The TS/IA or the FSS scheduling class processes do not compete for the same CPUs. Processor sets enable mixing TS/IA with FSS in a system. However, all processes in each processor set must be in either the TS/IA or the FSS scheduling class.

Fixed Priority Scheduling

The FX, xed priority, scheduling class assigns xed priorities and time quantum not adjusted to accommodate resource consumption. Process priority can be changed only by the process that assigned the priority or an appropriately privileged process. For more information about FX, see the priocntl(1) and dispadmin(1M) man pages. Threads in this class share the same range of priorities (0 to 59) as the TS and interactive (IA) scheduling classes. TS is usually the default. FX is usually used in conjunction with TS.

Extending Traditional Signals

The traditional UNIX signal model is extended to threads in a fairly natural way. The key characteristics are that the signal disposition is process-wide, but the signal mask is per-thread. The process-wide disposition of signals is established using the traditional mechanisms (signal(3C), sigaction(2), and so on).
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When a signal handler is marked SIG_DFL or SIG_IGN, the action on receipt of a signal is performed on the entire receiving process. These signals include exit, core dump, stop, continue, and ignore. The action on receipt of these signals is carried out on all threads in the process. Therefore, the issue of which thread picks the signal is nonexistent. The exit, core dump, stop, continue, and ignore signals have no handlers. See signal(5) for basic information about signals. Each thread has its own signal mask. The signal mask lets a thread block some signals while the thread uses memory or another state that is also used by a signal handler. All threads in a process share the set of signal handlers that are set up by sigaction(2) and its variants. A thread in one process cannot send a signal to a specic thread in another process. A signal sent by kill(2), sigsend(2), or sigqueue(3RT) to a process is handled by any receptive threads in the process. Signals are divided into the following categories: traps, exceptions, and interrupts. Exceptions are synchronously generated signals. Traps and interrupts are asynchronously generated signals. As in traditional UNIX, if a signal is pending, additional occurrences of that signal normally have no additional effect. A pending signal is represented by a bit, not by a counter. However, signals that are posted through the sigqueue(3RT) interface allow multiple instances of the same signal to be queued to the process. As is the case with single-threaded processes, when a thread receives a signal while blocked in a system call, the thread might return early. When a thread returns early, the thread either returns an EINTR error code, or, in the case of I/O calls, with fewer bytes transferred than requested. Of particular importance to multithreaded programs is the effect of signals on pthread_cond_wait(3C). This call usually returns without error, a return value of zero, only in response to a pthread_cond_signal(3C) or a pthread_cond_broadcast(3C). However, if the waiting thread receives a traditional UNIX signal, pthread_cond_wait() returns with a return value of zero even though the wakeup was spurious. The Solaris threads cond_wait(3C) function returns EINTR in this circumstance. See Interrupted Waits on Condition Variables on page 151 for more information.

Synchronous Signals
Traps, such as SIGILL, SIGFPE, and SIGSEGV, result from an operation on the thread, such as dividing by zero or making reference to nonexistent memory. A trap is handled only by the thread that caused the trap. Several threads in a process can generate and handle the same type of trap simultaneously. The idea of signals to individual threads is easily extended for synchronously generated signals. The handler is invoked on the thread that generated the synchronous signal.
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However, if the process chooses not to establish an appropriate signal handler, the default action is taken when a trap occurs. The default action occurs even if the offending thread is blocked on the generated signal. The default action for such signals is to terminate the process, perhaps with a core dump. Such a synchronous signal usually means that something is seriously wrong with the whole process, not just with a thread. In this case, terminating the process is often a good choice.

Asynchronous Signals
Interrupts, such as SIGINT and SIGIO, are asynchronous with any thread and result from some action outside the process. These interrupts might be signals sent explicitly by another process, or might represent external actions such as a user typing a Control-C. An interrupt can be handled by any thread whose signal mask allows the interrupt. When more than one thread is able to receive the interrupt, only one thread is chosen. When multiple occurrences of the same signal are sent to a process, then each occurrence can be handled by a separate thread. However, the available threads must not have the signal masked. When all threads have the signal masked, then the signal is marked pending and the rst thread to unmask the signal handles the signal.

Continuation Semantics
Continuation semantics are the traditional way to deal with signals. When a signal handler returns, control resumes where the process was at the time of the interruption. This control resumption is well suited for asynchronous signals in single-threaded processes, as shown in Example 51. This control resumption is also used as the exception-handling mechanism in other programming languages, such as PL/1.
EXAMPLE 51 Continuation Semantics

unsigned int nestcount; unsigned int A(int i, int j) { nestcount++; if (i==0) return(j+1) else if (j==0) return(A(i-1, 1)); else return(A(i-1, A(i, j-1))); 144 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

EXAMPLE 51 Continuation Semantics

(Continued)

} void sig(int i) { printf("nestcount = %d\n", nestcount); } main() { sigset(SIGINT, sig); A(4,4); }

Operations on Signals
This section describes the operations on signals. Setting the Threads Signal Mask on page 145 Sending a Signal to a Specic Thread on page 145 Waiting for a Specied Signal on page 146 Waiting for Specied Signal Within a Given Time on page 147

Setting the Threads Signal Mask

pthread_sigmask(3C) does for a thread what sigprocmask(2) does for a process. pthread_sigmask() sets the threads signal mask. When a new thread is created, its initial mask is inherited from its creator. The call to sigprocmask() in a multithreaded process is equivalent to a call to pthread_sigmask(). See the sigprocmask(2) man page for more information.

Sending a Signal to a Specic Thread

pthread_kill(3C) is the thread analog of kill(2). pthread_kill() sends a signal to a specic thread. A signal that is sent to a specied thread is different from a signal that is sent to a process. When a signal is sent to a process, the signal can be handled by any thread in the process. A signal sent by pthread_kill() can be handled only by the specied thread. You can use pthread_kill() to send signals only to threads in the current process. Because the thread identier, type thread_t, is local in scope, you cannot name a thread outside the scope of the current process. On receipt of a signal by the target thread, the action invoked (handler, SIG_DFL, or SIG_IGN) is global, as usual. If you send SIGXXX to a thread, and SIGXXX to kill a process, the whole process is killed when the target thread receives the signal.
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Waiting for a Specied Signal

For multithreaded programs, sigwait(2) is the preferred interface to use because sigwait() deals well with asynchronously generated signals. sigwait() causes the calling thread to wait until any signal identied by its set argument is delivered to the thread. While the thread is waiting, signals identied by the set argument are unmasked, but the original mask is restored when the call returns. All signals identied by the set argument must be blocked on all threads, including the calling thread. Otherwise, sigwait() might not work correctly. Use sigwait() to separate threads from asynchronous signals. You can create one thread that listens for asynchronous signals while you create other threads to block any asynchronous signals set to this process. Two versions of sigwait() are available beginning with the Solaris 2.5 release: the Solaris 2.5 version, and the POSIX standard version. New applications and new libraries should use the POSIX standard interface, as the Solaris version might not be available in future releases. The following example shows the syntax for the two versions of sigwait().
#include <signal.h> /* the Solaris 2.5 version*/ int sigwait(sigset_t *set); /* the POSIX standard version */ int sigwait(const sigset_t *set, int *sig);

When the signal is delivered, the POSIX sigwait() clears the pending signal and places the signal number in sig. Many threads can call sigwait() at the same time, but only one thread returns for each signal that is received. With sigwait(), you can treat asynchronous signals synchronously. A thread that deals with such signals calls sigwait() and returns as soon as a signal arrives. By ensuring that all threads, including the caller of sigwait(), mask asynchronous signals, ensures signals are handled only by the intended handler and are handled safely. By always masking all signals in all threads and calling sigwait() as necessary, your application is much safer for threads that depend on signals. Usually, you create one or more threads that call sigwait() to wait for signals. Because sigwait() retrieves even masked signals, be sure to block the signals of interest in all other threads so the signals are not accidentally delivered.

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When a signal arrives, a thread returns from sigwait(), handles the signal, and calls sigwait() again to wait for more signals. The signal-handling thread is not restricted to using Async-Signal-Safe functions. The signal-handling thread can synchronize with other threads in the usual way. The Async-Signal-Safe category is dened in MT Interface Safety Levels on page 158.
Note sigwait() cannot receive synchronously generated signals.

Waiting for Specied Signal Within a Given Time

sigtimedwait(3RT) is similar to sigwait(2) except that sigtimedwait() fails and returns an error when a signal is not received in the indicated amount of time.

Thread-Directed Signals
The UNIX signal mechanism is extended with the idea of thread-directed signals. Thread-directed signals are just like ordinary asynchronous signals, except that thread-directed signals are sent to a particular thread instead of to a process. A separate thread that waits for asynchronous signals can be safer and easier than installing a signal handler that processes the signals. A better way to deal with asynchronous signals is to treat these signals synchronously. By calling sigwait(2), a thread can wait until a signal occurs. See Waiting for a Specied Signal on page 146.
EXAMPLE 52

Asynchronous Signals and sigwait(2)

main() { sigset_t set; void runA(void); int sig; sigemptyset(&set); sigaddset(&set, SIGINT); pthread_sigmask(SIG_BLOCK, &set, NULL); pthread_create(NULL, 0, runA, NULL, PTHREAD_DETACHED, NULL); while (1) { sigwait(&set, &sig); printf("nestcount = %d\n", nestcount); printf("received signal %d\n", sig); } } void runA() { A(4,4); Chapter 5 Programming With the Solaris Software 147

EXAMPLE 52

Asynchronous Signals and sigwait(2)

(Continued)

exit(0); }

This example modies the code of Example 51. The main routine masks the SIGINT signal, creates a child thread that calls function A of the previous example, and issues sigwait() to handle the SIGINT signal. Note that the signal is masked in the compute thread because the compute thread inherits its signal mask from the main thread. The main thread is protected from SIGINT while, and only while, the thread is not blocked inside of sigwait(). Also, note that no danger exists of having system calls interrupted when you use sigwait().

Completion Semantics
Another way to deal with signals is with completion semantics. Use completion semantics when a signal indicates that something so catastrophic has happened that no reason exists to continue executing the current code block. The signal handler runs instead of the remainder of the block that had the problem. In other words, the signal handler completes the block. In Example 53, the block in question is the body of the then part of the if statement. The call to setjmp(3C) saves the current register state of the program in jbuf and returns 0, thereby executing the block.
EXAMPLE 53 Completion Semantics

sigjmp_buf jbuf; void mult_divide(void) { int a, b, c, d; void problem(); sigset(SIGFPE, problem); while (1) { if (sigsetjmp(&jbuf) == 0) { printf("Three numbers, please:\n"); scanf("%d %d %d", &a, &b, &c); d = a*b/c; printf("%d*%d/%d = %d\n", a, b, c, d); } } } void problem(int sig) { printf("Couldnt deal with them, try again\n"); 148 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

EXAMPLE 53 Completion Semantics

(Continued)

siglongjmp(&jbuf, 1); }

If a SIGFPE oating-point exception occurs, the signal handler is invoked. The signal handler calls siglongjmp(3C), which restores the register state saved in jbuf, causing the program to return from sigsetjmp() again. The registers that are saved include the program counter and the stack pointer. This time, however, sigsetjmp(3C) returns the second argument of siglongjmp(), which is 1. Notice that the block is skipped over, only to be executed during the next iteration of the while loop. You can use sigsetjmp(3C) and siglongjmp(3C) in multithreaded programs. Be careful that a thread never does a siglongjmp() that uses the results of another threads sigsetjmp(). Also, sigsetjmp() and siglongjmp() restore as well as save the signal mask, but setjmp(3C) and longjmp(3C) do not. Use sigsetjmp() and siglongjmp() when you work with signal handlers. Completion semantics are often used to deal with exceptions. In particular, the Sun Ada programming language uses this model.
Note Remember, sigwait(2) should never be used with synchronous signals.

Signal Handlers and Async-Signal Safety

A concept that is similar to thread safety is Async-Signal safety. Async-Signal-Safe operations are guaranteed not to interfere with operations that are being interrupted. The problem of Async-Signal safety arises when the actions of a signal handler can interfere with the operation that is being interrupted. For example, suppose a program is in the middle of a call to printf(3S), and a signal occurs whose handler calls printf(). In this case, the output of the two printf() statements would be intertwined. To avoid the intertwined output, the handler should not directly call printf() when printf() might be interrupted by a signal. This problem cannot be solved by using synchronization primitives. Any attempt to synchronize between the signal handler and the operation being synchronized would produce an immediate deadlock.
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Suppose that printf() is to protect itself by using a mutex. Now, suppose that a thread that is in a call to printf() and so holds the lock on the mutex is interrupted by a signal. If the handler calls printf(), the thread that holds the lock on the mutex attempts to take the mutex again. Attempting to take the mutex results in an instant deadlock. To avoid interference between the handler and the operation, ensure that the situation never arises. Perhaps you can mask off signals at critical moments, or invoke only Async-Signal-Safe operations from inside signal handlers. The only routines that POSIX guarantees to be Async-Signal-Safe are listed in Table 52. Any signal handler can safely call in to one of these functions.
TABLE 52 Async-Signal-Safe Functions

_exit() access() alarm() cfgetispeed() cfgetospeed() cfsetispeed() cfsetospeed() chdir() chmod() chown() close() creat() dup2() dup() execle() execve() fcntl() fork()

fstat() getegid() geteuid() getgid() getgroups() getpgrp() getpid() getppid() getuid() kill() link() lseek() mkdir() mkfifo() open() pathconf() pause() pipe()

read() rename() rmdir() setgid() setpgid() setsid() setuid() sigaction() sigaddset() sigdelset() sigemptyset() sigfillset() sigismember() sigpending() sigprocmask() sigsuspend() sleep() stat()

sysconf() tcdrain() tcflow() tcflush() tcgetattr() tcgetpgrp() tcsendbreak() tcsetattr() tcsetpgrp() time() times() umask() uname() unlink() utime() wait() waitpid() write()

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Interrupted Waits on Condition Variables

When an unmasked, caught signal is delivered to a thread waiting on a condition variable, the thread returns from the signal handler with a spurious wakeup. A spurious wakeup is a wakeup not caused by a condition signal call from another thread. In this case, the Solaris threads interfaces, cond_wait() and cond_timedwait(), return EINTR while the POSIX threads interfaces, pthread_cond_wait() and pthread_cond_timedwait(), return 0. In all cases, the associated mutex lock is reacquired before returning from the condition wait. Reacquition of the associated mutex lock does not imply that the mutex is locked while the thread is executing the signal handler. The state of the mutex in the signal handler is undened. The implementation of libthread in releases of the Solaris software prior to the Solaris 9 release guaranteed that the mutex was held while in the signal handler. Applications that rely on this old behavior require revision for the Solaris 9 release and subsequent releases. Handler cleanup is illustrated by Example 54.
EXAMPLE 54

Condition Variables and Interrupted Waits

int sig_catcher() { sigset_t set; void hdlr(); mutex_lock(&mut); sigemptyset(&set); sigaddset(&set, SIGINT); sigsetmask(SIG_UNBLOCK, &set, 0); if (cond_wait(&cond, &mut) == EINTR) { /* signal occurred and lock is held */ cleanup(); mutex_unlock(&mut); return(0); } normal_processing(); mutex_unlock(&mut); return(1); } void hdlr() { /* state of the lock is undefined */ ... }

Assume that the SIGINT signal is blocked in all threads on entry to sig_catcher(). Further assume that hdlr() has been established, with a call to sigaction(2), as the handler for the SIGINT signal. When an unmasked and caught instance of the
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SIGINT signal is delivered to the thread while the thread is in cond_wait(), the thread calls hdlr(). The thread then returns to the cond_wait() function where the lock on the mutex is reacquired, if necessary, and returns EINTR from cond_wait(). Whether SA_RESTART has been specied as a ag to sigaction() has no effect here. cond_wait(3C) is not a system call and is not automatically restarted. When a caught signal occurs while a thread is blocked in cond_wait(), the call always returns EINTR.

I/O Issues
One of the attractions of multithreaded programming is I/O performance. The traditional UNIX API gave you little assistance in this area. You either used the facilities of the le system or bypassed the le system entirely. This section shows how to use threads to get more exibility through I/O concurrency and multibuffering. This section also discusses the differences and similarities between the approaches of synchronous I/O with threads, and asynchronous I/O with and without threads.

I/O as a Remote Procedure Call

In the traditional UNIX model, I/O appears to be synchronous, as if you were placing a remote procedure call to the I/O device. Once the call returns, then the I/O has completed, or at least appears to have completed. A write request, for example, might merely result in the transfer of the data to a buffer in the operating environment. The advantage of this model is familiar concept of procedure calls. An alternative approach not found in traditional UNIX systems is the asynchronous model, in which an I/O request merely starts an operation. The program must somehow discover when the operation completes. The asynchronous model is not as simple as the synchronous model. But, the asynchronous model has the advantage of allowing concurrent I/O and processing in traditional, single-threaded UNIX processes.

Tamed Asynchrony
You can get most of the benets of asynchronous I/O by using synchronous I/O in a multithreaded program. With asynchronous I/O, you would issue a request and check later to determine when the I/O completes. You can instead have a separate thread perform the I/O synchronously. The main thread can then check for the completion of the operation at some later time perhaps by calling pthread_join(3C).
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Asynchronous I/O
In most situations, asynchronous I/O is not required because its effects can be achieved with the use of threads, with each thread execution of synchronous I/O. However, in a few situations, threads cannot achieve what asynchronous I/O can. The most straightforward example is writing to a tape drive to make the tape drive stream. Streaming prevents the tape drive from stopping while the drive is being written to. The tape moves forward at high speed while supplying a constant stream of data that is written to tape. To support streaming, the tape driver in the kernel should use threads. The tape driver in the kernel must issue a queued write request when the tape driver responds to an interrupt. The interrupt indicates that the previous tape-write operation has completed. Threads cannot guarantee that asynchronous writes are ordered because the order in which threads execute is indeterminate. You cannot, for example, specify the order of a write to a tape.

Asynchronous I/O Operations

#include <sys/asynch.h> int aioread(int ldes, char *bufp, int bufs, off_t offset, int whence, aio_result_t *resultp); int aiowrite(int ledes, const char *bufp, int bufs, off_t offset, int whence, aio_result_t *resultp); aio_result_t *aiowait(const struct timeval *timeout); int aiocancel(aio_result_t *resultp);

aioread(3AIO) and aiowrite(3AIO) are similar in form to pread(2) and pwrite(2), except for the addition of the last argument. Calls to aioread() and aiowrite() result in the initiation or queueing of an I/O operation. The call returns without blocking, and the status of the call is returned in the structure pointed to by resultp. resultp is an item of type aio_result_t that contains the following values:
int aio_return; int aio_errno;

When a call fails immediately, the failure code can be found in aio_errno. Otherwise, this eld contains AIO_INPROGRESS, meaning that the operation has been successfully queued.

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Waiting for I/O Operation to Complete

You can wait for an outstanding asynchronous I/O operation to complete by calling aiowait(3AIO). aiowait() returns a pointer to the aio_result_t structure supplied with the original aioread(3AIO) or original aiowrite(3) call. This time, aio_result_t contains whatever read(2) or write(2) would have returned if either function had been called instead of the asynchronous version. If the read() or write() is successful, aio_return contains the number of bytes that have been read or written. If the read() or write() is not successful, aio_return is -1, and aio_errno contains the error code. aiowait() takes a timeout argument, which indicates how long the caller is willing to wait. A NULL pointer here means that the caller is willing to wait indenitely. A pointer to a structure containing a zero value means that the caller is unwilling to wait at all. You might start an asynchronous I/O operation, do some work, then call aiowait() to wait for the request to complete. Or you can use SIGIO to be notied, asynchronously, when the operation completes. Finally, a pending asynchronous I/O operation can be cancelled by calling aiocancel(). This routine is called with the address of the result area as an argument. This result area identies which operation is being cancelled.

Shared I/O and New I/O System Calls

When multiple threads perform concurrent I/O operations with the same le descriptor, you might discover that the traditional UNIX I/O interface is not thread safe. The problem occurs with nonsequential I/O where the lseek(2) system call sets the le offset. The le offset is then used in the next read(2) or write(2) call to indicate where in the le the operation should start. When two or more threads are issuing lseeks() to the same le descriptor, a conict results. To avoid this conict, use the pread(2) and pwrite(2) system calls.
#include <sys/types.h> #include <unistd.h> ssize_t pread(int fildes, void *buf, size_t nbyte, off_t offset); ssize_t pwrite(int filedes, void *buf, size_t nbyte, off_t offset);

pread(2) and pwrite(2) behave just like read(2) and write(2) except that pread(2) and pwrite(2) take an additional argument, the le offset. With this argument, you specify the offset without using lseek(2), so multiple threads can use these routines safely for I/O on the same le descriptor.
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Alternatives to getc and putc

An additional problem occurs with standard I/O. Programmers are accustomed to routines, such as getc(3C) and putc(3C), that are implemented as macros, being very quick. Because of the speed of getc(3C) and putc(3C), these macros can be used within the inner loop of a program with no concerns about efficiency. However, when getc(3C) and putc(3C) are made thread safe the macros suddenly become more expensive. The macros now require at least two internal subroutine calls, to lock and unlock a mutex. To get around this problem, alternative versions of these routines are supplied, getc_unlocked(3C) and putc_unlocked(3C). getc_unlocked(3C) and putc_unlocked(3C) do not acquire locks on a mutex. These macros are as quick as the original, nonthread-safe versions of getc(3C) and putc(3C).. However, to use these macros in a thread-safe way, you must explicitly lock and release the mutexes that protect the standard I/O streams, using flockfile(3C) and funlockfile(3C). The calls to these latter routines are placed outside the loop. Calls to getc_unlocked() or putc_unlocked() are placed inside the loop.

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CHAPTER

Safe and Unsafe Interfaces

This chapter denes MT-safety levels for functions and libraries. This chapter discusses the following topics:
I I I I

Thread Safety on page 157 MT Interface Safety Levels on page 158 Async-Signal-Safe Functions on page 160 MT Safety Levels for Libraries on page 161

Thread Safety
Thread safety is the avoidance of data races. Data races occur when data are set to either correct or incorrect values, depending upon the order in which multiple threads access and modify the data. When no sharing is intended, give each thread a private copy of the data. When sharing is important, provide explicit synchronization to make certain that the program behaves in a deterministic manner. A procedure is thread safe when the procedure is logically correct when executed simultaneously by several threads. At a practical level, safety falls into the following recognized levels.
I I I

Unsafe Thread safe, Serializable Thread safe, MT-Safe

An unsafe procedure can be made thread safe and able to be serialized by surrounding the procedure with statements to lock and unlock a mutex. Example 61 shows three simplied implementations of fputs(), initially thread unsafe.
157

Next is a serializable version of this routine with a single mutex protecting the procedure from concurrent execution problems. Actually, the single mutex is stronger synchronization than is usually necessary. When two threads are sending output to different les by using fputs(), one thread need not wait for the other thread. The threads need synchronization only when sharing an output le. The last version is MT-safe. This version uses one lock for each le, allowing two threads to print to different les at the same time. So, a routine is MT-safe when the routine is thread safe, and the routines execution does not negatively affect performance.
EXAMPLE 61

Degrees of Thread Safety

/* not thread-safe */ fputs(const char *s, FILE *stream) { char *p; for (p=s; *p; p++) putc((int)*p, stream); } /* serializable */ fputs(const char *s, FILE *stream) { static mutex_t mut; char *p; mutex_lock(&m); for (p=s; *p; p++) putc((int)*p, stream); mutex_unlock(&m); } /* MT-Safe */ mutex_t m[NFILE]; fputs(const char *s, FILE *stream) { static mutex_t mut; char *p; mutex_lock(&m[fileno(stream)]); for (p=s; *p; p++) putc((int)*p, stream); mutex_unlock(&m[fileno(stream)]0; }

MT Interface Safety Levels

The threads man pages, man(3C), use the safety level categories listed in Table 61 to describe how well an interface supports threads. These categories are explained more fully in the Intro(3) man page.
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TABLE 61 Category

Interface Safety Levels

Description

Safe Safe with exceptions Unsafe

This code can be called from a multithreaded application See the NOTES sections of these pages for a description of the exceptions. This interface is not safe to use with multithreaded applications unless the application arranges for only one thread at a time to execute within the library. This interface is fully prepared for multithreaded access. The interface is both safe and supports some concurrency. See the NOTES sections of these pages in the man pages section 3: Basic Library Functions for a list of the exceptions. This routine can safely be called from a signal handler. A thread that is executing an Async-Signal-Safe routine does not deadlock with itself when interrupted by a signal. This interface releases locks it has held whenever Solaris fork1(2) or POSIX fork(2) is called.

MT-Safe MT-Safe with exceptions Async-Signal-Safe

Fork1Safe

See the section 3 reference manual pages for the safety levels of library routines. Some functions have purposely not been made safe for the following reasons.
I

The interface made MT-Safe would have negatively affected the performance of single-threaded applications. The library has an unsafe interface. For example, a function might return a pointer to a buffer in the stack. You can use re-entrant counterparts for some of these functions. The re-entrant function name is the original function name with _r appended.

Caution The only way to be certain that a function with a name not ending in _r is MT-Safe is to check the functions manual page. Use of a function identied as not MT-Safe must be protected by a synchronizing device or by restriction to the initial thread.

Re-entrant Functions for Unsafe Interfaces

For most functions with unsafe interfaces, an MT-Safe version of the routine exists. The name of the new MT-Safe routine is always the name of the old Unsafe routine with _r appended. The Table 62 _r routines are supplied in the Solaris environment.
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TABLE 62 Re-entrant Functions

asctime_r(3c) ctermid_r(3s) ctime_r(3c) fgetgrent_r(3c) fgetpwent_r(3c) fgetspent_r(3c) gamma_r(3m) getauclassent_r(3) getauclassnam_r(3) getauevent_r(3) getauevnam_r(3) getauevnum_r(3) getgrent_r(3c) getgrgid_r(3c) getgrnam_r(3c) gethostbyaddr_r(3n)

gethostbyname_r(3n) gethostent_r(3n) getlogin_r(3c) getnetbyaddr_r(3n) getnetbyname_r(3n) getnetent_r(3n) getnetgrent_r(3n) getprotobyname_r(3n) getprotobynumber_r(3n) getprotoent_r(3n) getpwent_r(3c) getpwnam_r(3c) getpwuid_r(3c) getrpcbyname_r(3n) getrpcbynumber_r(3n) getrpcent_r(3n)

getservbyname_r(3n) getservbyport_r(3n) getservent_r(3n) getspent_r(3c) getspnam_r(3c) gmtime_r(3c) lgamma_r(3m) localtime_r(3c) nis_sperror_r(3n) rand_r(3c) readdir_r(3c) strtok_r(3c) tmpnam_r(3s) ttyname_r(3c)

Async-Signal-Safe Functions
Functions that can safely be called from signal handlers are Async-Signal-Safe. The POSIX standard denes and lists Async-Signal-Safe functions (IEEE Std 1003.1-1990, 3.3.1.3 (3)(f), page 55). In addition to the POSIX Async-Signal-Safe functions, the following functions from the Solaris threads interface are also Async-Signal-Safe:
I I I

sema_post(3C) thr_sigsetmask(3C), similar to pthread_sigmask(3C) thr_kill(3C), similar to pthread_kill(3C)

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MT Safety Levels for Libraries

All routines that can potentially be called by a thread from a multithreaded program should be MT-Safe. Therefore, two or more activations of a routine must be able to correctly execute concurrently. So, every library interface that a multithreaded program uses must be MT-Safe. Not all libraries are now MT-Safe. The commonly used libraries that are MT-Safe are listed in Table 63. Additional libraries will eventually be modied to be MT-Safe.
TABLE 63 Library

Some MT-Safe Libraries

Comments

lib/libc

Interfaces that are not safe have thread-safe interfaces of the form *_r, often with different semantics. To support static switch compiling Internationalization library Math library that is compliant with System V Interface Denition, Edition 3, X/Open and ANSI C Space-efficient memory allocation library, see malloc(3X) Alternative mmap-based memory allocation library, see mapmalloc(3X) The TLI interface, XDR, RPC clients and servers, netdir, netselect and getXXbyYY interfaces are not safe, but have thread-safe interfaces of the form getXXbyYY_r Thread-specic errno support Socket library for making network connections Wide character and wide string functions for supporting multibyte locales Network name-to-address translation library X11 Windows library routines C++ runtime shared objects

lib/libdl_stubs lib/libintl lib/libm

lib/libmalloc lib/libmapmalloc

lib/libnsl

lib/libresolv lib/libsocket lib/libw

lib/straddr lib/libX11 lib/libC

Unsafe Libraries
Routines in libraries that are not guaranteed to be MT-Safe can safely be called by multithreaded programs only when such calls are single threaded.
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CHAPTER

Compiling and Debugging

This chapter describes how to compile and debug multithreaded programs. This chapter discusses the following topics:
I I

Compiling a Multithreaded Application on page 163 Debugging a Multithreaded Program on page 168

Compiling a Multithreaded Application

Many options are available for header les, dene ags, and linking.

Preparing for Compilation

The following items are required to compile and link a multithreaded program. Except for the C compiler, all items should be included with your Solaris software.
I I

A standard C compiler Include les:

I I

<thread.h> and <pthread.h> <errno.h>, <limits.h>, <signal.h>, <unistd.h>

I I

The regular Solaris linker, ln(1) For Solaris 9 and previous releases only, the Solaris threads library (libthread), the POSIX threads library (libpthread), and possibly the POSIX realtime library (librt) for semaphores MT-safe libraries such as libc, libm, libw, libintl, libnsl, libsocket, libmalloc, libmapmalloc, and so on
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Choosing Solaris or POSIX Semantics

Certain functions have different semantics in the POSIX standard than in the Solaris 2.4 release, which was based on an early POSIX draft. Function denitions are chosen at compile time. See the man pages section 3: Library Interfaces and Headers for a description of the differences in expected parameters and return values. The functions with different semantics are:
I I I I I I I I I I I

asctime_r(3C) ctime_r(3C) ftrylockfile(3C) (new) getgrgid_r(3C) getgrnam_r(3C) getlogin_r(3C) getpwnam_r(3C) getpwuid_r(3C) readdir_r(3C) sigwait(2) ttyname_r(3C)

In Solaris 9 and previous releases, the Solaris fork(2) function duplicates all threads fork-all behavior. The POSIX fork(2) function duplicates only the calling thread fork-one behavior, as does the Solaris fork1() function. Starting with the Solaris 10 release, the behavior of fork() when not linked to -lpthreaad might change in order to be consistent with the POSIX version. In particular, fork() is redened to be fork1(). Therefore, fork() replicates the calling thread in the child process. The behavior of fork1() is present in all Solaris releases. A new function, forkall(), is provided to replicate all of the parent processs threads in the child for applications that require this behavior.

Including <thread.h> or <pthread.h>

The include le <thread.h> compiles code that is upwardly compatible with earlier releases of the Solaris software. This le contains declarations for the Solaris threads interfaces. To call thr_setconcurrency(3C) with POSIX threads, your program needs to include <thread.h>. The include le <pthread.h>, used with the -lpthread library, compiles code that conforms with the multithreading interfaces dened by the POSIX standard. For complete POSIX compliance, the feature test macro _POSIX_C_SOURCE should be set to a (long) value 199506. See thestandards(5) man page. For the 1996 edition POSIX standard:
cc89 -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE=199506L [ags] le

For the 2001 edition POSIX standard:

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cc99 -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE=200112L [ags] le ... [-l rt]

You can mix Solaris threads and POSIX threads in the same application. Include both <thread.h> and <pthread.h> in the application. In mixed use, Solaris semantics prevail when compiling with -D_REENTRANT, whereas POSIX semantics prevail when compiling with -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE.

Dening _REENTRANT or _POSIX_C_SOURCE

For POSIX behavior, compile applications with the -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE ag set 199506L. For Solaris behavior, compile multithreaded programs with the -D_REENTRANT ag. These compiler ags apply to every module of an application. For mixed applications, Solaris threads with POSIX semantics compile with the -D_REENTRANT and -D_POSIX_PTHREAD_SEMANTICS ags. To compile a single-threaded application, dene neither the -D_REENTRANT nor the -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE ag. When these ags are not present, all the old denitions for errno, stdio, and so on remain in effect.
Note Compile single-threaded applications without the -D_REENTRANT ag. Compile single-threaded applications in this manner to eliminate performance degradation incurred when macros, such as putc(3s), are converted into reentrant function calls.

To summarize, POSIX applications that dene -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE get the POSIX semantics for the routines. Applications that dene only -D_REENTRANT get the Solaris semantics for these routines. Solaris applications that dene -D_POSIX_PTHREAD_SEMANTICS get the POSIX semantics for these routines, but can still use the Solaris threads interface. Applications that dene both -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE and -D_REENTRANT get the POSIX semantics.

Linking With libthread or libpthread

For POSIX threads behavior, in Solaris 9 and prior releases, load the libpthread library. For Solaris threads behavior, load the libthread library. Some POSIX programmers might want to link with -lthread to preserve the Solaris distinction between fork() and fork1(). The -lpthread library makes fork() behave the same way as the Solaris fork1() call.
Chapter 7 Compiling and Debugging 165

In Solaris 10 and subsequent releases, neither threads library is required, but the library can still be specied for compatibility. All threading functionality has been moved into the standard C library. To use libthread, specify -lthread before lc on the ld command line, or la st on the cc command line. To use libthread, specify -lthread before -lc on the ld command line, or last on the cc command line. To use libpthread, specify -lpthread before -lc on the ld command line, or last on the cc command line. Prior to the Solaris 9 release, you should not link a nonthreaded program with -lthread or -lpthread. Doing so establishes multithreading mechanisms at link time that are initiated at runtime. These mechanisms slow down a single-threaded application, waste system resources, and produce misleading results when you debug your code. In Solaris 9 and subsequent releases, linking a nonthreaded program with -lthread or -lpthread makes no semantic difference to the program. No extra threads or extra LWPs are created. The main, and only, thread executes as a traditional single-threaded process. The only effect on the program is to make system library locks become real locks, as opposed to dummy function calls. You must pay the price of acquiring uncontended locks. Prior to the Solaris 10 release, all calls to libthread and libpthread are no-ops if the application does not link -lthread or -lpthread. The runtime library libc has many predened libthread and libpthread stubs that are null procedures. True procedures are interposed by libthread or libpthread when the application links both libc and the thread library.
Note For C++ programs that use threads, use the -mt option rather than -lthread to compile and link your application. The -mt option links with libthread and ensures proper library linking order. -lthread might cause your program to core dump.

Linking in the POSIX Environment

For the 1996 edition POSIX standard, use the following options to compile and link your application:
cc89 -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE=199506L [ags] le ... [-l rt]

For the 2001 edition POSIX standard, use the following options to compile and link your application:
cc99 -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE=200112L [ags] le ... [-l rt]

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Linking in the Solaris Environment

In a Solaris threads environment, use the following options to compile and link your application:
cc -D_REENTRANT -D POSIX_THREAD_SEMANTICS [ags] le ... [-l rt]

Linking in a Mixed Environment

In a mixed environment, use the following options to compile and link your application:
cc -D_REENTRANT [ags] le ... [-l rt]

In mixed usage, you need to include both thread.h and pthread.h.

Linking With -lrt for POSIX Semaphores

The Solaris semaphore routines, sema_*(3C), are contained in the standard C library. By contrast, you link with the -lrt library to get the standard sem_*(3R) POSIX semaphore routines described in Synchronization With Semaphores on page 111.

Linking Old Modules With New Modules

Table 71 shows that multithreaded object modules should be linked with old object modules only with great caution.
TABLE 71 File Type

Compiling With and Without the _REENTRANT Flag

Compiled Reference Return Value

Old object les (nonthreaded) and new object les New object les

Without the _REENTRANT or _POSIX_C_SOURCE ag With the _REENTRANT or _POSIX_C_SOURCE ag With the _REENTRANT or _POSIX_C_SOURCE ag (required)

Static storage

The traditional errno

__errno, the new binary entry point __t_errno, a new entry point

The address of the threads denition of errno The address of the threads denition of t_errno.

Programs that use TLI in libnsl. Include tiuser.h to get the TLI global error variable.

Chapter 7 Compiling and Debugging

167

Alternate Threads Library

The Solaris 8 release introduced an alternate threads library implementation that is located in the directories /usr/lib/lwp (32-bit) and /usr/lib/lwp/64 (64-bit). In the Solaris 9 release, this implementation became the standard threads implementation found in /usr/lib and /usr/lib/64. Effective with the Solaris 10 release, all threads functionality has been moved into libc and no separate threads library is required.

Debugging a Multithreaded Program

The following discussion describes characteristics that can cause bugs in multithreaded programs.

Common Oversights in Multithreaded Programs

The following list points out some of the more frequent oversights that can cause bugs in multithreaded programs.
I I

A pointer passed to the callers stack as an argument to a new thread. The shared changeable state of global memory accessed without the protection of a synchronization mechanism. Deadlocks caused by two threads trying to acquire rights to the same pair of global resources in alternate order. One thread controls the rst resource and the other controls the second resource. Neither thread can proceed until the other gives up. Trying to reacquire a lock already held (recursive deadlock). Creating a hidden gap in synchronization protection. This gap in protection occurs when a protected code segment contains a function that frees and reacquires the synchronization mechanism before returning to the caller. The result is misleading. To the caller, the appearance is that the global data has been protected when the data actually has not been protected. When mixing UNIX signals with threads, using the sigwait(2) model for handling asynchronous signals. Calling setjmp(3C) and longjmp(3C), and then long-jumping away without releasing the mutex locks. Failing to re-evaluate the conditions after returning from a call to *_cond_wait() or *_cond_timedwait().

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Forgetting that default threads are created PTHREAD_CREATE_JOINABLE and must be reclaimed with pthread_join(3C). Note that pthread_exit(3C) does not free up its storage space. Making deeply nested, recursive calls and using large automatic arrays can cause problems because multithreaded programs have a more limited stack size than single-threaded programs. Specifying an inadequate stack size, or using nondefault stacks.

Multithreaded programs, especially those containing bugs, often behave differently in two successive runs, even with identical inputs. This behavior is caused by differences in the order that threads are scheduled. In general, multithreading bugs are statistical instead of deterministic. Tracing is usually a more effective method of nding the order of execution problems than is breakpoint-based debugging.

Tracing and Debugging With the TNF Utilities

Use the TNF utilities to trace, debug, and gather performance analysis information from your applications and libraries. The TNF utilities integrate trace information from the kernel as well as from multiple user processes and threads. The TNF utilities are especially useful for multithreaded code. The TNF utilities are included as part of the Solaris software. With the TNF utilities, you can easily trace and debug multithreaded programs. See the TNF manual pages for detailed information on using prex(1) and tnfdump(1).

Using truss
See the truss(1) man page for information on tracing system calls, signals and user-level function calls.

Using mdb
For information about mdb, see the Solaris Modular Debugger Guide. The following mdb commands can be used to access the LWPs of a multithreaded program. $l $L Prints the LWP ID of the representative thread if the target is a user process. Prints the LWP IDs of each LWP in the target if the target is a user process.
Chapter 7 Compiling and Debugging 169

pid::attach ::release

Attaches to process # pid. Releases the previously attached process or core le. The process can subsequently be continued by prun(1) or it can be resumed by applying MDB or another debugger. Context switch to the specied process.

address ::context

These commands to set conditional breakpoints are often useful. [ addr ] ::bp [+/-dDestT] [-c cmd] [-n count] sym ... Set a breakpoint at the specied locations. addr ::delete [id | all] Delete the event speciers with the given ID number.

Using dbx
With the dbx utility, you can debug and execute source programs that are written in C++, ANSI C, and FORTRAN. dbx accepts the same commands as the Debugger, but uses a standard terminal (TTY) interface. Both dbx and the Debugger support the debugging of multithreaded programs. For a description of how to start dbx, see the dbx(1) man page, See Debugging a Program With dbx for an overview of dbx. The Debugger features are described in the online help in the Debugger GUI for dbx. All the dbx options that are listed in Table 72 can support multithreaded applications.
TABLE 72 Option

dbx Options for MT Programs

Action

cont at line [-sig signo id]

Continues execution at line with signal signo. The id, if present, species which thread or LWP to continue. The default value is all. Displays current LWP. Switches to given LWP [lwpid]. Lists all LWPs in the current process. Steps the given thread. When a function call is skipped, all LWPs are implicitly resumed for the duration of that function call. Nonactive threads cannot be stepped. Steps the given LWP. Does not implicitly resume all LWPs when skipping a function. The LWP on which the given thread is active. Does not implicitly resume all LWP when skipping a function.

lwp lwps next ... tid

next ... lid

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TABLE 72 Option

dbx Options for MT Programs

(Continued)
Action

step... tid

Steps the given thread. When a function call is skipped, all LWPs are implicitly resumed for the duration of that function call. Nonactive threads cannot be stepped. Steps the given LWP. Does not implicitly resume all LWPs when skipping a function. The given LWP. The LWP on which the given thread is active. Displays current thread. Switches to thread tid. In all the following variations, an optional tid implies the current thread. Prints everything known about the given thread. Prints all locks held by the given thread blocking other threads. Puts the given thread into suspended state. Unsuspends the given thread. Hides the given or current thread. The thread does not appear in the generic threads listing. Unhides the given or current thread. Unhides all threads. Prints the list of all known threads. Prints threads that are not usually printed (zombies). Controls whether threads prints all threads or lters threads by default. Enables automatic updating of the thread listing. Echoes the current modes. Any of the previous forms can be followed by a thread or LWP ID to get the traceback for the specied entity.

step... lid

stepi... lid stepi... tid thread

thread -info [ tid ] thread -blocks [ tid ]

thread -suspend [ tid ] thread -resume [ tid ] thread -hide [ tid ]

thread -unhide [ tid ] thread -unhide all threads threads -all threads -mode all|filter

threads -mode auto|manual threads -mode

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CHAPTER

Programming With Solaris Threads

This chapter compares the application programming interface (API) for Solaris and POSIX threads, and explains the Solaris features that are not found in POSIX threads. The chapter discusses the following topics:
I I I I I I I I

Comparing APIs for Solaris Threads and POSIX Threads on page 173 Unique Solaris Threads Functions on page 178 Similar Synchronization FunctionsRead-Write Locks on page 180 Similar Solaris Threads Functions on page 186 Similar Synchronization FunctionsMutual Exclusion Locks on page 197 Similar Synchronization Functions: Condition Variables on page 201 Similar Synchronization Functions: Semaphores on page 206 Special Issues for fork() and Solaris Threads on page 212

Comparing APIs for Solaris Threads and POSIX Threads

The Solaris threads API and the pthreads API are two solutions to the same problem: build parallelism into application software. Although each API is complete, you can safely mix Solaris threads functions and pthread functions in the same program. The two APIs do not match exactly, however. Solaris threads support functions that are not found in pthreads, and pthreads include functions that are not supported in the Solaris interface. For those functions that do match, the associated arguments might not, although the information content is effectively the same. By combining the two APIs, you can use features not found in one API to enhance the other API. Similarly, you can run applications that use Solaris threads exclusively with applications that use pthreads exclusively on the same system.
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Major API Differences

Solaris threads and pthreads are very similar in both API action and syntax. The major differences are listed in Table 81.
TABLE 81

Unique Solaris Threads and pthreads Features

POSIX Threads

Solaris Threads

thr_ prex for threads function names, sema_ prex for semaphore function names Ability to create daemon threads Suspending and continuing a thread

pthread_ prex for pthreads function names, sem_ prex for semaphore function names Cancellation semantics Scheduling policies

Function Comparison Table

The following table compares Solaris threads functions with pthreads functions. Note that even when Solaris threads and pthreads functions appear to be essentially the same, the arguments to the functions can differ. When a comparable interface is not available either in pthreads or Solaris threads, a hyphen - appears in the column. Entries in the pthreads column, that are followed by POSIX.1b, are part of the POSIX Realtime standard specication and are not part of pthreads.
TABLE 82

Solaris Threads and POSIX pthreads Comparison

pthreads

Solaris Threads

thr_create() thr_exit() thr_join() thr_yield() thr_self() thr_kill() thr_sigsetmask() thr_setprio() thr_getprio() thr_setconcurrency()

pthread_create() pthread_exit() pthread_join() sched_yield() POSIX.1b pthread_self() pthread_kill() pthread_sigmask() pthread_setschedparam() pthread_getschedparam() pthread_setconcurrency()

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TABLE 82

Solaris Threads and POSIX pthreads Comparison

pthreads

(Continued)

Solaris Threads

thr_getconcurrency() thr_suspend() thr_continue() thr_keycreate() thr_setspecific() thr_getspecific() mutex_lock() mutex_unlock() mutex_trylock() mutex_init() mutex_destroy() cond_wait() cond_timedwait() cond_reltimedwait() cond_signal() cond_broadcast() cond_init() cond_destroy() rwlock_init() rwlock_destroy()

pthread_getconcurrency() pthread_key_create() pthread_key_delete() pthread_setspecific() pthread_getspecific() pthread_once() pthread_equal() pthread_cancel() pthread_testcancel() pthread_cleanup_push() pthread_cleanup_pop() pthread_setcanceltype() pthread_setcancelstate() pthread_mutex_lock() pthread_mutex_unlock() pthread_mutex_trylock() pthread_mutex_init() pthread_mutex_destroy() pthread_cond_wait() pthread_cond_timedwait() pthread_cond_reltimedwait_np() pthread_cond_signal() pthread_cond_broadcast() pthread_cond_init() pthread_cond_destroy() pthread_rwlock_init() pthread_rwlock_destroy()

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TABLE 82

Solaris Threads and POSIX pthreads Comparison

pthreads

(Continued)

Solaris Threads

rw_rdlock() rw_wrlock() rw_unlock() rw_tryrdlock() rw_trywrlock() sema_init() sema_destroy() sema_wait() sema_post() sema_trywait() fork1() forkall(), multiple thread copy type argument in mutex_init() type argument in cond_init() -

pthread_rwlock_rdlock() pthread_rwlock_wrlock() pthread_rwlock_unlock() pthread_rwlock_tryrdlock() pthread_rwlock_trywrlock() pthread_rwlockattr_init() pthread_rwlockattr_destroy() pthread_rwlockattr_getpshared() pthread_rwlockattr_setpshared() sem_init() POSIX.1b sem_destroy() POSIX.1b sem_wait() POSIX.1b sem_post() POSIX.1b sem_trywait() POSIX.1b fork() pthread_atfork() pthread_mutexattr_init() pthread_mutexattr_destroy() pthread_mutexattr_setpshared() pthread_mutexattr_getpshared() pthread_mutex_attr_settype() pthread_mutex_attr_gettype() pthread_condattr_init() pthread_condattr_destroy() pthread_condattr_setpshared() pthread_condattr_getpshared() pthread_attr_init() pthread_attr_destroy()

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TABLE 82

Solaris Threads and POSIX pthreads Comparison

pthreads

(Continued)

Solaris Threads

THR_BOUND ag in thr_create() stack_size argument in thr_create() stack_addr argument in thr_create() THR_DETACH ag in thr_create() -

pthread_attr_setscope() pthread_attr_getscope() pthread_attr_setguardsize() pthread_attr_getguardsize() pthread_attr_setstacksize()

pthread_attr_getstacksize() pthread_attr_setstack()

pthread_attr_getstack() pthread_attr_setdetachstate() pthread_attr_getdetachstate() pthread_attr_setschedparam() pthread_attr_getschedparam() pthread_attr_setinheritsched() pthread_attr_getinheritsched() pthread_attr_setsschedpolicy() pthread_attr_getschedpolicy()

To use the Solaris threads functions described in this chapter for Solaris 9 and previous releases, you must link with the Solaris threads library -lthread. Operation is virtually the same for both Solaris threads and for pthreads, even though the function names or arguments might differ. Only a brief example consisting of the correct include le and the function prototype is presented. Where return values are not given for the Solaris threads functions, see the appropriate pages in man pages section 3: Basic Library Functions for the function return values. For more information on Solaris related functions, see the related pthreads documentation for the similarly named function. Where Solaris threads functions offer capabilities that are not available in pthreads, a full description of the functions is provided.

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Unique Solaris Threads Functions

This section describes unique Solaris threads functions: suspending thread execution and continuing a suspended thread.

Suspending Thread Execution

thr_suspend(3C) immediately suspends the execution of the thread specied by target_thread. On successful return from thr_suspend(), the suspended thread is no longer executing. Because thr_suspend()suspends the target thread with no regard to the locks that the thread might be holding, you must use thr_suspend() with extreme care. If the suspending thread calls a function that requires a lock held by the suspended target thread, deadlock will result.

thr_suspend Syntax
#include <thread.h> int thr_suspend(thread_t tid);

After a thread is suspended, subsequent calls to thr_suspend() have no effect. Signals cannot awaken the suspended thread. The signals remain pending until the thread resumes execution. In the following synopsis, pthread_t tid as dened in pthreads is the same as thread_t tid in Solaris threads. tid values can be used interchangeably either by assignment or through the use of casts.
thread_t tid; /* tid from thr_create() */ /* pthreads equivalent of Solaris tid from thread created */ /* with pthread_create() */ pthread_t ptid; int ret; ret = thr_suspend(tid); /* using pthreads ID variable with a cast */ ret = thr_suspend((thread_t) ptid);

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thr_suspend Return Values

thr_suspend() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When the following condition occurs, thr_suspend() fails and returns the corresponding value. ESRCH
Description: tid cannot be found in the current process.

Continuing a Suspended Thread

thr_continue(3C) resumes the execution of a suspended thread. Once a suspended thread is continued, subsequent calls to thr_continue() have no effect.

thr_continue Syntax
#include <thread.h> int thr_continue(thread_t tid);

A suspended thread is not awakened by a signal. The signal remains pending until the execution of the thread is resumed by thr_continue(). pthread_t tid as dened in pthreads is the same as thread_t tid in Solaris threads. tid values can be used interchangeably either by assignment or through the use of casts.
thread_t tid; /* tid from thr_create()*/ /* pthreads equivalent of Solaris tid from thread created */ /* with pthread_create()*/ pthread_t ptid; int ret; ret = thr_continue(tid); /* using pthreads ID variable with a cast */ ret = thr_continue((thread_t) ptid)

thr_continue Return Values

thr_continue() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When the following condition occurs, thr_continue() fails and returns the corresponding value. ESRCH
Description: tid cannot be found in the current process.
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Similar Synchronization FunctionsRead-Write Locks

Read-write locks allow simultaneous read access by many threads while restricting write access to only one thread at a time. This section discusses the following topics:
I I I I I I I

Initializing a readers/writer lock Acquiring a read lock Trying to acquire a read lock Acquiring a write lock Trying to acquire a write Unlocking a readers/writer lock Destroying readers/writer lock state

When any thread holds the lock for reading, other threads can also acquire the lock for reading but must wait to acquire the lock for writing. If one thread holds the lock for writing, or is waiting to acquire the lock for writing, other threads must wait to acquire the lock for either reading or writing. Read-write locks are slower than mutexes. But read-write locks can improve performance when the locks protect data not frequently written but are read by many concurrent threads. Use read-write locks to synchronize threads in this process and other processes. Allocate read-write locks in memory that is writable and shared among the cooperating processes. See themmap(2) man page for information about mapping read-write locks for this behavior. By default, the acquisition order is not dened when multiple threads are waiting for a read-write lock. However, to avoid writer starvation, the Solaris threads package tends to favor writers over readers of equal priority. Read-write locks must be initialized before use.

Initialize a Read-Write Lock

Use rwlock_init(3C) to initialize the read-write lock pointed to by rwlp and to set the lock state to unlocked.

rwlock_init Syntax
#include <synch.h> (or #include <thread.h>) int rwlock_init(rwlock_t *rwlp, int type, void * arg); 180 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

type can be one of the following values:

I

USYNC_PROCESS The read-write lock can be used to synchronize threads in this process and other processes. arg is ignored. USYNC_THREAD The read-write lock can be used to synchronize threads in this process only. arg is ignored.

Multiple threads must not initialize the same read-write lock simultaneously. Read-write locks can also be initialized by allocation in zeroed memory, in which case a type of USYNC_THREAD is assumed. A read-write lock must not be reinitialized while other threads might be using the lock. For POSIX threads, see pthread_rwlock_init Syntax on page 123.

Initializing Read-Write Locks With Intraprocess Scope

#include <thread.h> rwlock_t rwlp; int ret; /* to be used within this process only */ ret = rwlock_init(&rwlp, USYNC_THREAD, 0);

Initializing Read-Write Locks With Interprocess Scope

#include <thread.h> rwlock_t rwlp; int ret; /* to be used among all processes */ ret = rwlock_init(&rwlp, USYNC_PROCESS, 0);

rwlock_init Return Values

rwlock_init() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When any of the following conditions occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: Invalid argument.

EFAULT
Description: rwlp or arg points to an illegal address.

Acquiring a Read Lock

Use rw_rdlock(3C) to acquire a read lock on the read-write lock pointed to by rwlp.
Chapter 8 Programming With Solaris Threads 181

rw_rdlock Syntax
#include <synch.h> (or #include <thread.h>) int rw_rdlock(rwlock_t *rwlp);

When the read-write lock is already locked for writing, the calling thread blocks until the write lock is released. Otherwise, the read lock is acquired. For POSIX threads, see pthread_rwlock_rdlock Syntax on page 124.

rw_rdlock Return Values

rw_rdlock() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When any of the following conditions occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: Invalid argument.

EFAULT
Description: rwlp points to an illegal address.

Trying to Acquire a Read Lock

Use rw_tryrdlock(3C) to attempt to acquire a read lock on the read-write lock pointed to by rwlp.

rw_tryrdlock Syntax
#include <synch.h> (or #include <thread.h>) int rw_tryrdlock(rwlock_t *rwlp);

When the read-write lock is already locked for writing, rw_tryrdlock() returns an error. Otherwise, the read lock is acquired. For POSIX threads, see pthread_rwlock_tryrdlock Syntax on page 125.

rw_tryrdlock Return Values

rw_tryrdlock() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When any of the following conditions occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: Invalid argument.
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EFAULT
Description: rwlp points to an illegal address.

EBUSY
Description: The read-write lock pointed to by rwlp was already locked.

Acquiring a Write Lock

Use rw_wrlock(3C) to acquire a write lock on the read-write lock pointed to by rwlp.

rw_wrlock Syntax
#include <synch.h> (or #include <thread.h>) int rw_wrlock(rwlock_t *rwlp);

When the read-write lock is already locked for reading or writing, the calling thread blocks until all read locks and write locks are released. Only one thread at a time can hold a write lock on a read-write lock. For POSIX threads, see pthread_rwlock_wrlock Syntax on page 126.

rw_wrlock Return Values

rw_wrlock() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When any of the following conditions occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: Invalid argument.

EFAULT
Description: rwlp points to an illegal address.

Trying to Acquire a Write Lock

Use rw_trywrlock(3C) to attempt to acquire a write lock on the read-write lock pointed to by rwlp.

rw_trywrlock Syntax
#include <synch.h> (or #include <thread.h>) int rw_trywrlock(rwlock_t *rwlp); Chapter 8 Programming With Solaris Threads 183

When the read-write lock is already locked for reading or writing, rw_trywrlock() returns an error. For POSIX threads, see pthread_rwlock_trywrlock Syntax on page 126.

rw_trywrlock Return Values

rw_trywrlock() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When any of the following conditions occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: Invalid argument.

EFAULT
Description: rwlp points to an illegal address.

EBUSY
Description: The read-write lock pointed to by rwlp was already locked.

Unlock a Read-Write Lock

Use rw_unlock(3C) to unlock a read-write lock pointed to by rwlp.

rw_unlock Syntax
#include <synch.h> (or #include <thread.h>) int rw_unlock(rwlock_t *rwlp);

The read-write lock must be locked, and the calling thread must hold the lock either for reading or writing. When any other threads are waiting for the read-write lock to become available, one of the threads is unblocked. For POSIX threads, see pthread_rwlock_unlock Syntax on page 127.

rw_unlock Return Values

rw_unlock() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When any of the following conditions occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: Invalid argument.

EFAULT
Description: rwlp points to an illegal address.
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Destroying the Read-Write Lock State

Use rwlock_destroy(3C) to destroy any state that is associated with the read-write lock pointed to by rlwp.

rwlock_destroy Syntax
#include <synch.h> (or #include <thread.h>) int rwlock_destroy(rwlock_t *rwlp);

The space for storing the read-write lock is not freed. For POSIX threads, see pthread_rwlock_destroy Syntax on page 128. Example 81 uses a bank account to demonstrate read-write locks. While the program could allow multiple threads to have concurrent read-only access to the account balance, only a single writer is allowed. Note that the get_balance() function needs the lock to ensure that the addition of the checking and saving balances occurs atomically.
EXAMPLE 81

Read-Write Bank Account

rwlock_t account_lock; float checking_balance = 100.0; float saving_balance = 100.0; ... rwlock_init(&account_lock, 0, NULL); ... float get_balance() { float bal; rw_rdlock(&account_lock); bal = checking_balance + saving_balance; rw_unlock(&account_lock); return(bal); } void transfer_checking_to_savings(float amount) { rw_wrlock(&account_lock); checking_balance = checking_balance - amount; saving_balance = saving_balance + amount; rw_unlock(&account_lock); }

rwlock_destroy Return Values

rwlock_destroy() returns zero after completing successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When any of the following conditions occurs, the function fails and returns the corresponding value.
Chapter 8 Programming With Solaris Threads 185

EINVAL
Description: Invalid argument.

EFAULT
Description: rwlp points to an illegal address.

Similar Solaris Threads Functions

TABLE 83 Operation

Similar Solaris Threads Functions

Related Function Description

Create a thread Get the minimal stack size Get the thread identier Yield thread execution Send a signal to a thread Access the signal mask of the calling thread Terminate a thread Wait for thread termination Create a thread-specic data key Set thread-specic data Get thread-specic data Set the thread priority Get the thread priority

thr_create Syntax on page 187 thr_min_stack Syntax on page 189 thr_self Syntax on page 190 thr_yield Syntax on page 190 thr_kill Syntax on page 190 thr_sigsetmask Syntax on page 191 thr_exit Syntax on page 192 thr_join Syntax on page 192 thr_keycreate Syntax on page 194 thr_setspecific Syntax on page 195 thr_getspecific Syntax on page 195 thr_setprio Syntax on page 196 thr_getprio Syntax on page 197

Creating a Thread
The thr_create(3C) routine is one of the most elaborate of all routines in the Solaris threads interface. Use thr_create(3C) to add a new thread of control to the current process. For POSIX threads, see pthread_create Syntax on page 24.

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thr_create Syntax
#include <thread.h> int thr_create(void *stack_base, size_t stack_size, void *(*start_routine) (void *), void *arg, long ags, thread_t *new_thread); size_t thr_min_stack(void);

Note that the new thread does not inherit pending signals, but the thread does inherit priority and signal masks. stack_base. Contains the address for the stack that the new thread uses. If stack_base is NULL, then thr_create() allocates a stack for the new thread with at least stack_size bytes. stack_size. Contains the size, in number of bytes, for the stack that the new thread uses. If stack_size is zero, a default size is used. In most cases, a zero value works best. If stack_size is not zero, stack_size must be greater than the value returned by thr_min_stack(). In general, you do not need to allocate stack space for threads. The system allocates 1 megabyte of virtual memory for each threads stack with no reserved swap space. The system uses the -MAP_NORESERVE option of mmap(2) to make the allocations. start_routine. Contains the function with which the new thread begins execution. When start_routine() returns, the thread exits with the exit status set to the value returned by start_routine. See thr_exit Syntax on page 192. arg. Can be any variable described by void, which is typically any 4-byte value. Any larger value must be passed indirectly by having the argument point to the variable. Note that you can supply only one argument. To get your procedure to take multiple arguments, encode the multiple arguments as a single argument, such as by putting the arguments in a structure. ags. Species attributes for the created thread. In most cases a zero value works best. The value in ags is constructed from the bitwise inclusive OR of the following arguments:
I

THR_SUSPENDED. Suspends the new thread, and does not execute start_routine until the thread is started by thr_continue(). Use THR_SUSPENDED to operate on the thread, such as changing its priority, before you run the thread. THR_DETACHED. Detaches the new thread so that its thread ID and other resources can be reused as soon as the thread terminates. Set THR_DETACHED when you do not want to wait for the thread to terminate.

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Note When no explicit synchronization is allocated, an unsuspended, detached thread can fail. On failure, the thread ID is reassigned to another new thread before its creator returns from thr_create().
I

THR_BOUND. Permanently binds the new thread to an LWP. The new thread is a bound thread. Starting with the Solaris 9 release, no distinction is made by the system between bound and unbound threads. All threads are treated as bound threads. THR_DAEMON. Marks the new thread as a daemon. A daemon thread is always detached. THR_DAEMON implies THR_DETACHED. The process exits when all nondaemon threads exit. Daemon threads do not affect the process exit status and are ignored when counting the number of thread exits. A process can exit either by calling exit() or by having every thread in the process that was not created with the THR_DAEMON ag call thr_exit(3C). An application or a library that the process calls can create one or more threads that should be ignored (not counted) in the decision of whether to exit. The THR_DAEMON ag identies threads that are not counted in the process exit criterion.

new_thread. When new_thread is not NULL, it points to where the ID of the new thread is stored when thr_create() is successful. The caller is responsible for supplying the storage pointed to by this argument. The ID is valid only within the calling process. If you are not interested in this identier, supply a NULL value to new_thread.

thr_create Return Values

thr_create() returns zero when the function completes successfully. Any other return value indicates that an error occurred. When any of the following conditions is detected, thr_create() fails and returns the corresponding value. EAGAIN
Description: A system limit is exceeded, such as when too many LWPs have been

created. ENOMEM
Description: Insufficient memory was available to create the new thread.

EINVAL
Description: stack_base is not NULL and stack_size is less than the value returned by thr_min_stack.()

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Getting the Minimal Stack Size

Use thr_min_stack(3C) to get the minimum stack size for a thread. Stack behavior in Solaris threads is generally the same as stack behavior in pthreads. For more information about stack setup and operation, see About Stacks on page 63.

thr_min_stack Syntax
#include <thread.h> size_t thr_min_stack(void);

thr_min_stack() returns the amount of space that is needed to execute a null thread. A null thread is a thread that is created to execute a null procedure. Useful threads need more than the absolute minimum stack size, so be very careful when reducing the stack size. A thread that executes more than a null procedure should allocate a stack size that is larger than the size of thr_min_stack(). When a thread is created with a user-supplied stack, the user must reserve enough space to run the thread. A dynamically linked execution environment increases the difficulty of determining the thread minimal stack requirements. You can specify a custom stack in two ways. The rst is to supply a NULL for the stack location, thereby asking the runtime library to allocate the space for the stack, but to supply the desired size in the stacksize parameter to thr_create(). The other approach is to take overall aspects of stack management and supply a pointer to the stack to thr_create(). This means that you are responsible not only for stack allocation but also for stack deallocation. When the thread terminates, you must arrange for the disposal of the threads stack. When you allocate your own stack, be sure to append a red zone to its end by calling mprotect(2). Most users should not create threads with user-supplied stacks. User-supplied stacks exist only to support applications that require complete control over their execution environments. Instead, users should let the system manage stack allocation. The system provides default stacks that should meet the requirements of any created thread.

thr_min_stack Return Values

No errors are dened.
Chapter 8 Programming With Solaris Threads 189

Acquiring the Thread Identier

Use thr_self(3C) to get the ID of the calling thread. For POSIX threads, see pthread_self Syntax on page 33.

thr_self Syntax
#include <thread.h> thread_t thr_self(void);

thr_self Return Values

No errors are dened.

Yield Thread Execution

thr_yield(3C) causes the current thread to yield its execution in favor of another thread with the same or greater priority. Otherwise, thr_yield() has no effect. However, calling thr_yield() does not guarantee that the thread yields its execution.

thr_yield Syntax
#include <thread.h> void thr_yield(void);

thr_yield Return Values

thr_yield() returns nothing and does not set errno.

Send a Signal to a Thread

thr_kill(3C) sends a signal to a thread. For POSIX threads, see pthread_kill Syntax on page 37.

thr_kill Syntax
#include <thread.h> #include <signal.h> int thr_kill(thread_t target_thread, int sig); 190 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

thr_kill Return Values

Upon successful completion, thr_kill() returns 0. When any of the following conditions is detected, thr_kill() fails and returns the corresponding value. When a failure occurs, no signal is sent. ESRCH
Description: No thread was found associated with the thread designated by thread

ID. EINVAL
Description: The sig argument value is not zero. sig is an invalid or unsupported

signal number.

Access the Signal Mask of the Calling Thread

Use thr_sigsetmask(3C) to change or examine the signal mask of the calling thread.

thr_sigsetmask Syntax
#include <thread.h> #include <signal.h> int thr_sigsetmask(int how, const sigset_t *set, sigset_t *oset);

thr_sigsetmask() changes or examines a calling threads signal mask. Each thread has its own signal mask. A new thread inherits the calling threads signal mask and priority. However, pending signals are not inherited. Pending signals for a new thread will be empty. If the value of the argument set is not NULL, set points to a set of signals that can modify the currently blocked set. If the value of set is NULL, the value of how is insignicant and the threads signal mask is unmodied. Use this behavior to inquire about the currently blocked signals. The value of how species the method in which the set is changed. how takes one of the following values.
I

SIG_BLOCK. set corresponds to a set of signals to block. The signals are added to the current signal mask. SIG_UNBLOCK. set corresponds to a set of signals to unblock. These signals are deleted from the current signal mask. SIG_SETMASK. set corresponds to the new signal mask. The current signal mask is replaced by set.

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thr_sigsetmask Return Values

Upon successful completion, thr_sigsetmask() returns 0. When any of the following conditions is detected, thr_sigsetmask() fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: set is not NULL and the value of how is not dened.

Terminate a Thread
Use thr_exit(3C) to terminate a thread. For POSIX threads, see pthread_exit Syntax on page 39.

thr_exit Syntax
#include <thread.h> void thr_exit(void *status);

thr_exit Return Values

thr_exit() does not return to its caller.

Wait for Thread Termination

Use thr_join(3C) to wait for a target thread to terminate. For POSIX threads, see pthread_join Syntax on page 25.

thr_join Syntax
#include <thread.h> int thr_join(thread_t tid, thread_t *departedid, void **status);

The target thread must be a member of the current process. The target thread cannot be a detached thread or a daemon thread. Several threads cannot wait for the same thread to complete. One thread will complete successfully. The others will terminate with an ESRCH error. thr_join() will not block processing of the calling thread if the target thread has already terminated.
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thr_join, Join Specic

#include <thread.h> thread_t tid; thread_t departedid; int ret; void *status; /* waiting to join thread "tid" with status */ ret = thr_join(tid, &departedid, &status); /* waiting to join thread "tid" without status */ ret = thr_join(tid, &departedid, NULL); /* waiting to join thread "tid" without return id and status */ ret = thr_join(tid, NULL, NULL);

When the tid is (thread_t)0, then thread_join() waits for any undetached thread in the process to terminate. In other words, when no thread identier is specied, any undetached thread that exits causes thread_join() to return.

thr_join, Join Any

#include <thread.h> thread_t tid; thread_t departedid; int ret; void *status; /* waiting to join any non-detached thread with status */ ret = thr_join(0, &departedid, &status);

By indicating 0 as the thread ID in the Solaris thr_join(), a join takes place when any non detached thread in the process exits. The departedid indicates the thread ID of the exiting thread.

thr_join Return Values

thr_join() returns 0 if successful. When any of the following conditions is detected, thr_join() fails and returns the corresponding value. ESRCH
Description: No undetached thread is found which corresponds to the target thread

ID. EDEADLK
Description: A deadlock was detected or the value of the target thread species the calling thread.
Chapter 8 Programming With Solaris Threads 193

Creating a Thread-Specic Data Key

thr_keycreate(3C) allocates a key that is used to identify thread-specic data in a process. The key is global to all threads in the process. Each thread binds a value to the key when the key gets created. Except for the function names and arguments, thread-specic data is the same for Solaris threads as thread-specic data is for POSIX threads. The synopses for the Solaris functions are described in this section. For POSIX threads, see pthread_key_create Syntax on page 28.

thr_keycreate Syntax
#include <thread.h> int thr_keycreate(thread_key_t *keyp, void (*destructor) (void *value));

keyp independently maintains specic values for each binding thread. Each thread is initially bound to a private element of keyp that allows access to its thread-specic data. Upon key creation, a new key is assigned the value NULL for all active threads. Additionally, upon thread creation, all previously created keys in the new thread are assigned the value NULL. An optional destructor function can be associated with each keyp. Upon thread exit, if a keyp has a non-NULL destructor and the thread has a non-NULL value associated with keyp, the destructor is called with the currently associated value. If more than one destructor exists for a thread when it exits, the order of destructor calls is unspecied.

thr_keycreate Return Values

thr_keycreate() returns 0 if successful. When any of the following conditions is detected, thr_keycreate() fails and returns the corresponding value. EAGAIN
Description: The system does not have the resources to create another thread-specic data key, or the number of keys exceeds the per-process limit for PTHREAD_KEYS_MAX.

ENOMEM
Description: Insufficient memory is available to associate value with keyp.

Setting the Thread-Specic Data Value

thr_setspecific(3C) binds value to the thread-specic data key, key, for the calling thread. For POSIX threads, see pthread_setspecific Syntax on page 30.
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thr_setspecific Syntax
#include <thread.h> int thr_setspecific(thread_key_t key, void *value);

thr_setspecific Return Values

thr_setspecific() returns 0 if successful. When any of the following conditions is detected, thr_setspecific() fails and returns the corresponding value. ENOMEM
Description: Insufficient memory is available to associate value with keyp.

EINVAL
Description: keyp is invalid.

Getting the Thread-Specic Data Value

thr_getspecific(3C) stores the current value bound to key for the calling thread into the location pointed to by valuep. For POSIX threads, see pthread_getspecific Syntax on page 30.

thr_getspecific Syntax
#include <thread.h> int thr_getspecific(thread_key_t key, void **valuep);

thr_getspecific Return Values

thr_getspecific() returns 0 if successful. When any of the following conditions is detected, thr_getspecific() fails and returns the corresponding value. ENOMEM
Description: Insufficient memory is available to associate value with keyp.

EINVAL
Description: keyp is invalid.

Set the Thread Priority

In Solaris threads, a thread created with a priority other than the priority of its parents is created in SUSPEND mode. While suspended, the threads priority is modied using the thr_setprio(3C) function call. After thr_setprio() completes, the thread resumes execution.
Chapter 8 Programming With Solaris Threads 195

A higher priority thread receives precedence over lower priority threads with respect to synchronization object contention.

thr_setprio Syntax
thr_setprio(3C) changes the priority of the thread, specied by tid, within the current process to the priority specied by newprio. For POSIX threads, see pthread_setschedparam Syntax on page 35.
#include <thread.h> int thr_setprio(thread_t tid, int newprio)

By default, threads are scheduled based on xed priorities that range from 0, the least signicant, to 127, the most signicant.
thread_t tid; int ret; int newprio = 20; /* suspended thread creation */ ret = thr_create(NULL, NULL, func, arg, THR_SUSPENDED, &tid); /* set the new priority of suspended child thread */ ret = thr_setprio(tid, newprio); /* suspended child thread starts executing with new priority */ ret = thr_continue(tid);

thr_setprio Return Values

thr_setprio() returns 0 if successful. When any of the following conditions is detected, thr_setprio() fails and returns the corresponding value. ESRCH
Description: The value specied by tid does not refer to an existing thread.

EINVAL
Description: The value of priority makes no sense for the scheduling class associated

with tid.

Get the Thread Priority

Use thr_getprio(3C) to get the current priority for the thread. Each thread inherits a priority from its creator. thr_getprio() stores the current priority, tid, in the location pointed to by newprio. For POSIX threads, see pthread_getschedparam Syntax on page 36.
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thr_getprio Syntax
#include <thread.h> int thr_getprio(thread_t tid, int *newprio)

thr_getprio Return Values

thr_getprio() returns 0 if successful. When the following condition is detected, thr_getprio() fails and returns the corresponding value. ESRCH
Description: The value specied by tid does not refer to an existing thread.

Similar Synchronization FunctionsMutual Exclusion Locks

I I I I I

Initializing a mutex Destroying a mutex Acquiring a mutex Releasing a mutex Trying to acquire a mutex

Initialize a Mutex
Use mutex_init(3C) to initialize the mutex pointed to by mp. For POSIX threads, see Initializing a Mutex on page 84.

mutex_init(3C) Syntax
#include <synch.h> #include <thread.h> int mutex_init(mutex_t *mp, int type, void *arg));

The type can be one of the following values.

I

USYNC_PROCESS. The mutex can be used to synchronize threads in this process and other processes. arg is ignored. USYNC_PROCESS_ROBUST. The mutex can be used to robustly synchronize threads in this process and other processes. arg is ignored.
Chapter 8 Programming With Solaris Threads 197

USYNC_THREAD. The mutex can be used to synchronize threads in this process only. arg is ignored.

When a process fails while holding a USYNC_PROCESS lock, subsequent requestors of that lock hang. This behavior is a problem for systems that share locks with client processes because the client processes can be abnormally killed. To avoid the problem of hanging on a lock held by a dead process, use USYNC_PROCESS_ROBUST to lock the mutex. USYNC_PROCESS_ROBUST adds two capabilities:
I I

In the case of process death, all owned locks held by that process are unlocked. The next requestor for any of the locks owned by the failed process receives the lock. But, the lock is held with an error return indicating that the previous owner failed while holding the lock.

Mutexes can also be initialized by allocation in zeroed memory, in which case a type of USYNC_THREAD is assumed. Multiple threads must not initialize the same mutex simultaneously. A mutex lock must not be reinitialized while other threads might be using the mutex.

Mutexes With Intraprocess Scope

#include <thread.h> mutex_t mp; int ret; /* to be used within this process only */ ret = mutex_init(&mp, USYNC_THREAD, 0);

Mutexes With Interprocess Scope

#include <thread.h> mutex_t mp; int ret; /* to be used among all processes */ ret = mutex_init(&mp, USYNC_PROCESS, 0);

Mutexes With Interprocess Scope-Robust

#include <thread.h> mutex_t mp; int ret; /* to be used among all processes */ 198 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

ret = mutex_init(&mp, USYNC_PROCESS_ROBUST, 0);

mutex_init Return Values

mutex_init() returns 0 if successful. When any of the following conditions is detected, mutex_init() fails and returns the corresponding value. EFAULT
Description: mp points to an illegal address.

EINVAL
Description: The value specied by mp is invalid.

ENOMEM
Description: System has insufficient memory to initialize the mutex.

EAGAIN
Description: System has insufficient resources to initialize the mutex.

EBUSY
Description: System detected an attempt to reinitialize an active mutex.

Destroy a Mutex
Use mutex_destroy(3C) to destroy any state that is associated with the mutex pointed to by mp. The space for storing the mutex is not freed. For POSIX threads, see pthread_mutex_destroy Syntax on page 91.

mutex_destroy Syntax
#include <thread.h> int mutex_destroy (mutex_t *mp);

mutex_destroy Return Values

mutex_destroy() returns 0 if successful. When the following condition is detected, mutex_destroy() fails and returns the corresponding value. EFAULT
Description: mp points to an illegal address.

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Acquiring a Mutex
Use mutex_lock(3C) to lock the mutex pointed to by mp. When the mutex is already locked, the calling thread blocks until the mutex becomes available. Blocked threads wait on a prioritized queue. For POSIX threads, see pthread_mutex_lock Syntax on page 87.

mutex_lock Syntax
#include <thread.h> int mutex_lock(mutex_t *mp);

mutex_lock Return Values

mutex_lock() returns 0 if successful. When any of the following conditions is detected, mutex_lock() fails and returns the corresponding value. EFAULT
Description: mp points to an illegal address.

EDEADLK
Description: The mutex is already locked and is owned by the calling thread.

Releasing a Mutex
Use mutex_unlock(3C) to unlock the mutex pointed to by mp. The mutex must be locked. The calling thread must be the thread that last locked the mutex, the owner. For POSIX threads, see pthread_mutex_unlock Syntax on page 89.

mutex_unlock Syntax
#include <thread.h> int mutex_unlock(mutex_t *mp);

mutex_unlock Return Values

mutex_unlock() returns 0 if successful. When any of the following conditions is detected, mutex_unlock() fails and returns the corresponding value. EFAULT
Description: mp points to an illegal address.
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EPERM
Description: The calling thread does not own the mutex.

Trying to Acquire a Mutex

Use mutex_trylock(3C) to attempt to lock the mutex pointed to by mp. This function is a nonblocking version of mutex_lock(). For POSIX threads, see pthread_mutex_trylock Syntax on page 89.

mutex_trylock Syntax
#include <thread.h> int mutex_trylock(mutex_t *mp);

mutex_trylock Return Values

mutex_trylock() returns 0 if successful. When any of the following conditions is detected, mutex_trylock() fails and returns the corresponding value. EFAULT
Description: mp points to an illegal address.

EBUSY
Description: The system detected an attempt to reinitialize an active mutex.

Similar Synchronization Functions: Condition Variables

I I I I I I I

Initializing a condition variable Destroying a condition variable Waiting for a condition Waiting for an absolute time Waiting for a time interval Unblocking one thread Unblocking all threads

Initialize a Condition Variable

Use cond_init(3C) to initialize the condition variable pointed to by cv.
Chapter 8 Programming With Solaris Threads 201

cond_init Syntax
#include <thread.h> int cond_init(cond_t *cv, int type, int arg);

The type can be one of the following values:

I

USYNC_PROCESS. The condition variable can be used to synchronize threads in this process and other processes. arg is ignored. USYNC_THREAD The condition variable can be used to synchronize threads in this process only. arg is ignored.

Condition variables can also be initialized by allocation in zeroed memory, in which case a type of USYNC_THREAD is assumed. Multiple threads must not initialize the same condition variable simultaneously. A condition variable must not be reinitialized while other threads might be using the condition variable. For POSIX threads, see pthread_condattr_init Syntax on page 97.

Condition Variables With Intraprocess Scope

#include <thread.h> cond_t cv; int ret; /* to be used within this process only */ ret = cond_init(cv, USYNC_THREAD, 0);

Condition Variables With Interprocess Scope

#include <thread.h> cond_t cv; int ret; /* to be used among all processes */ ret = cond_init(&cv, USYNC_PROCESS, 0);

cond_init Return Values

cond_init() returns 0 if successful. When any of the following conditions is detected, cond_init() fails and returns the corresponding value. EFAULT
Description: cv points to an illegal address.
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EINVAL
Description: type is not a recognized type.

Destroying a Condition Variable

Use cond_destroy(3C) to destroy state that is associated with the condition variable pointed to by cv. The space for storing the condition variable is not freed. For POSIX threads, see pthread_condattr_destroy Syntax on page 97.

cond_destroy Syntax
#include <thread.h> int cond_destroy(cond_t *cv);

cond_destroy Return Values

cond_destroy() returns 0 if successful. When any of the following conditions is detected, cond_destroy() fails and returns the corresponding value. EFAULT
Description: cv points to an illegal address.

EBUSY
Description: The system detected an attempt to destroy an active condition

variable.

Waiting for a Condition

Use cond_wait(3C) to atomically release the mutex pointed to by mp and cause the calling thread to block on the condition variable pointed to by cv. The blocked thread can be awakened by cond_signal(), cond_broadcast(), or when interrupted by delivery of a signal or a fork(). cond_wait() always returns with the mutex locked and owned by the calling thread, even when returning an error.

cond_wait Syntax
#include <thread.h> int cond_wait(cond_t *cv, mutex_t *mp); Chapter 8 Programming With Solaris Threads 203

cond_wait Return Values

cond_wait() returns 0 if successful. When any of the following conditions is detected, cond_wait() fails and returns the corresponding value. EFAULT
Description: cv points to an illegal address.

EBUSY
Description: The wait was interrupted by a signal or fork().

Wait for an Absolute Time

cond_timedwait(3C) is very similar to cond_wait(), except that cond_timedwait() does not block past the time of day specied by abstime. For POSIX threads, see pthread_cond_timedwait Syntax on page 104.

cond_timedwait Syntax
#include <thread.h> int cond_timedwait(cond_t *cv, mutex_t *mp, timestruct_t abstime);

cond_timedwait() always returns with the mutex locked and owned by the calling thread, even when returning an error. The cond_timedwait() function blocks until the condition is signaled or until the time of day specied by the last argument has passed. The timeout is specied as the time of day so the condition can be retested efficiently without recomputing the time-out value.

cond_timedwait Return Values

cond_timedwait() returns 0 if successful. When any of the following conditions is detected, cond_timedwait() fails and returns the corresponding value. EFAULT
Description: cv points to an illegal address.

ETIME
Description: The time specied by abstime has expired.

EINVAL
Description: abstime is invalid.
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Waiting for a Time Interval

cond_reltimedwait(3C) is very similar to cond_timedwait(), except for the value for the third argument. cond_reltimedwait() takes a relative time interval value in its third argument rather than an absolute time of day value. For POSIX threads, see the pthread_cond_reltimedwait_np(3C) man page. cond_reltimedwait() always returns with the mutex locked and owned by the calling thread even when returning an error. The cond_reltimedwait() function blocks until the condition is signaled or until the time interval specied by the last argument has elapsed.

cond_reltimedwait Syntax
#include <thread.h> int cond_reltimedwait(cond_t *cv, mutex_t *mp, timestruct_t reltime);

cond_reltimedwait Return Values

cond_reltimedwait() returns 0 if successful. When any of the following conditions is detected, cond_reltimedwait() fails and returns the corresponding value. EFAULT
Description: cv points to an illegal address.

ETIME
Description: The time specied by reltime has expired.

Unblock One Thread

Use cond_signal(3C) to unblock one thread that is blocked on the condition variable pointed to by cv. If no threads are blocked on the condition variable, cond_signal() has no effect.

cond_signal Syntax
#include <thread.h> int cond_signal(cond_t *cv);

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cond_signal Return Values

cond_signal() returns 0 if successful. When the following condition is detected, cond_signal() fails and returns the corresponding value. EFAULT
Description: cv points to an illegal address.

Unblock All Threads

Use cond_broadcast(3C) to unblock all threads that are blocked on the condition variable pointed to by cv. When no threads are blocked on the condition variable, then cond_broadcast() has no effect.

cond_broadcast Syntax
#include <thread.h> int cond_broadcast(cond_t *cv);

cond_broadcast Return Values

cond_broadcast() returns 0 if successful. When the following condition is detected, cond_broadcast() fails and returns the corresponding value. EFAULT
Description: cv points to an illegal address.

Similar Synchronization Functions: Semaphores

Semaphore operations are the same in both the Solaris Operating Environment and the POSIX environment. The function name changed from sema_ in the Solaris Operating Environment to sem_ in pthreads. This section discusses the following topics:
I I I

Initializing a semaphore Incrementing a semaphore Blocking on a semaphore count

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I I

Decrementing a semaphore count Destroying the semaphore state

Initialize a Semaphore
Use sema_init(3C) to initialize the semaphore variable pointed to by sp by count amount.

sema_init Syntax
#include <thread.h> int sema_init(sema_t *sp, unsigned int count, int type, void *arg);

type can be one of the following values:

I

USYNC_PROCESS. The semaphore can be used to synchronize threads in this process and other processes. Only one process should initialize the semaphore. arg is ignored. USYNC_THREAD. The semaphore can be used to synchronize threads in this process, only. arg is ignored.

Multiple threads must not initialize the same semaphore simultaneously. A semaphore must not be reinitialized while other threads might be using the semaphore.

Semaphores With Intraprocess Scope

#include <thread.h> sema_t sp; int ret; int count; count = 4; /* to be used within this process only */ ret = sema_init(&sp, count, USYNC_THREAD, 0);

Semaphores With Interprocess Scope

#include <thread.h> sema_t sp; int ret; int count; count = 4; Chapter 8 Programming With Solaris Threads 207

/* to be used among all the processes */ ret = sema_init (&sp, count, USYNC_PROCESS, 0);

sema_init Return Values

sema_init() returns 0 if successful. When any of the following conditions is detected, sema_init() fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: sp refers to an invalid semaphore.

EFAULT
Description: Either sp or arg point to an illegal address.

Increment a Semaphore
Use sema_post(3C) to atomically increment the semaphore pointed to by sp. When any threads are blocked on the semaphore, one thread is unblocked.

sema_post Syntax
#include <thread.h> int sema_post(sema_t *sp);

sema_post Return Values

sema_post() returns 0 if successful. When any of the following conditions is detected, sema_post() fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: sp refers to an invalid semaphore.

EFAULT
Description: sp points to an illegal address.

EOVERFLOW
Description: The semaphore value pointed to by sp exceeds SEM_VALUE_MAX.

Block on a Semaphore Count

Use sema_wait(3C) to block the calling thread until the count in the semaphore pointed to by sp becomes greater than zero. When the count becomes greater than zero, atomically decrement the count.
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sema_wait Syntax
#include <thread.h> int sema_wait(sema_t *sp);

sema_wait Return Values

sema_wait() returns 0 if successful. When any of the following conditions is detected, sema_wait() fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: sp refers to an invalid semaphore.

EINTR
Description: The wait was interrupted by a signal or fork().

Decrement a Semaphore Count

Use sema_trywait(3C) to atomically decrement the count in the semaphore pointed to by sp when the count is greater than zero. This function is a nonblocking version of sema_wait().

sema_trywait Syntax
#include <thread.h> int sema_trywait(sema_t *sp);

sema_trywait Return Values

sema_trywait() returns 0 if successful. When any of the following conditions is detected, sema_trywait() fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: sp refers to an invalid semaphore.

EBUSY
Description: The semaphore pointed to by sp has a zero count.

Destroy the Semaphore State

Use sema_destroy(3C) to destroy any state that is associated with the semaphore pointed to by sp. The space for storing the semaphore is not freed.
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sema_destroy(3C) Syntax
#include <thread.h> int sema_destroy(sema_t *sp);

sema_destroy(3C) Return Values

sema_destroy() returns 0 if successful. When the following condition is detected, sema_destroy() fails and returns the corresponding value. EINVAL
Description: sp refers to an invalid semaphore.

Synchronizing Across Process Boundaries

Each of the synchronization primitives can be set up to be used across process boundaries. This cross-boundary setup is done by ensuring that the synchronization variable is located in a shared memory segment and by calling the appropriate init routine with type set to USYNC_PROCESS. If type is set to USYNC_PROCESS, then the operations on the synchronization variables work just as the variables do when type is USYNC_THREAD.
mutex_init(&m, USYNC_PROCESS, 0); rwlock_init(&rw, USYNC_PROCESS, 0); cond_init(&cv, USYNC_PROCESS, 0); sema_init(&s, count, USYNC_PROCESS, 0);

Example of Producer and Consumer Problem

Example 82 shows the producer and consumer problem with the producer and consumer in separate processes. The main routine maps zero-lled memory that main shares with its child process, into its address space. Note that mutex_init() and cond_init() must be called because the type of the synchronization variables is USYNC_PROCESS. A child process is created to run the consumer. The parent runs the producer. This example also shows the drivers for the producer and consumer. The producer_driver reads characters from stdin and calls the producer. The consumer_driver gets characters by calling the consumer and writes them to stdout.
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The data structure for Example 82 is the same as that used for the solution with condition variables. See Examples of Using Nested Locking With a Singly-Linked List on page 93.
EXAMPLE 82

Producer and Consumer Problem Using USYNC_PROCESS

main() { int zfd; buffer_t *buffer; zfd = open(/dev/zero, O_RDWR); buffer = (buffer_t *)mmap(NULL, sizeof(buffer_t), PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, zfd, 0); buffer->occupied = buffer->nextin = buffer->nextout = 0; mutex_init(&buffer->lock, USYNC_PROCESS, 0); cond_init(&buffer->less, USYNC_PROCESS, 0); cond_init(&buffer->more, USYNC_PROCESS, 0); if (fork() == 0) consumer_driver(buffer); else producer_driver(buffer); } void producer_driver(buffer_t *b) { int item; while (1) { item = getchar(); if (item == EOF) { producer(b, \0); break; } else producer(b, (char)item); } } void consumer_driver(buffer_t *b) { char item; while (1) { if ((item = consumer(b)) == \0) break; putchar(item); } }

A child process is created to run the consumer. The parent runs the producer.

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Special Issues for fork() and Solaris Threads

Prior to the Solaris 10 release, Solaris threads and POSIX threads dened the behavior of fork() differently. See Process Creation: exec and exit Issues on page 137 for a thorough discussion of fork() issues. Solaris libthread supported both fork() and fork1(). The fork() call has fork-all semantics. fork() duplicated everything in the process, including threads and LWPs, creating a true clone of the parent. The fork1() call created a clone that had only one thread. The process state and address space are duplicated, but only the calling thread was cloned. POSIX libpthread supported only fork(), which has the same semantics as fork1() in Solaris threads. Whether fork() has fork-all semantics or fork-one semantics was dependent on which library is used. Link with -lthread to assign fork-all semantics to fork(). Link with -lpthread to assign fork-one semantics to fork(). Effective with the Solaris 10 release, fork() has the same semantics in both Solaris threads and POSIX threads. More specically, fork1() semantics replicate only the caller. A new function, forkall(), is provided for those applications that require replicate-all semantics. See Linking With libthread or libpthread on page 165 for more details.

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CHAPTER

Programming Guidelines
This chapter provides some pointers on programming with threads. Most pointers apply to both Solaris and POSIX threads, but where utility differs, the behavior is noted. A change from single-threaded thinking to multithreaded thinking is emphasized in this chapter. The chapter discusses the following topics:
I I I I I I I I

Rethinking Global Variables on page 213 Providing for Static Local Variables on page 214 Synchronizing Threads on page 215 Avoiding Deadlock on page 218 Some Basic Guidelines for Threaded Code on page 220 Creating and Using Threads on page 221 Working With Multiprocessors on page 221 Examples of Threads Programs on page 226

Rethinking Global Variables

Historically, most code has been designed for single-threaded programs. This code design is especially true for most of the library routines that are called from C programs. The following implicit assumptions were made for single-threaded code:
I

When you write into a global variable and then, a moment later, read from the variable, what you read is exactly what you just wrote. A write into nonglobal, static storage, and moment later, a read from the variable results in a read of exactly what you just wrote. You do not need synchronization because concurrent access to the variable is not invoked.

The following examples discuss some of the problems that arise in multithreaded programs because of these assumptions, and how you can deal with the problems.
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Traditional, single-threaded C and UNIX have a convention for handling errors detected in system calls. System calls can return anything as a functional value. For example, write() returns the number of bytes that were transferred. However, the value -1 is reserved to indicate that something went wrong. So, when a system call returns -1, you know that the call failed.
EXAMPLE 91

Global Variables and errno

extern int errno; ... if (write(file_desc, buffer, size) == -1) { /* the system call failed */ fprintf(stderr, something went wrong, error code = %d\n, errno); exit(1); } ...

Rather than returning the actual error code, which could be confused with normal return values, the error code is placed into the global variable errno. When the system call fails, you can look in errno to nd out what went wrong. Now, consider what happens in a multithreaded environment when two threads fail at about the same time but with different errors. Both threads expect to nd their error codes in errno, but one copy of errno cannot hold both values. This global variable approach does not work for multithreaded programs. Threads solve this problem through a conceptually new storage class: thread-specic data. This storage is similar to global storage. Thread-specic data can be accessed from any procedure in which a thread might be running. However, thread-specic data is private to the thread. When two threads refer to the thread-specic data location of the same name, the threads are referring to two different areas of storage. So, when using threads, each reference to errno is thread specic because each thread has a private copy of errno. A reference to errno as thread-specic is achieved in this implementation by making errno a macro that expands to a function call.

Providing for Static Local Variables

Example 92 shows a problem that is similar to the errno problem, but involving static storage instead of global storage. The function gethostbyname(3NSL) is called with the computer name as its argument. The return value is a pointer to a structure that contains the required information for contacting the computer through network communications.
EXAMPLE 92

The gethostbyname() Problem

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EXAMPLE 92

The gethostbyname() Problem

(Continued)

/* Lookup name in hosts database */ /* Put answer in result */ return(&result); }

A pointer that is returned to a local variable is generally not a good idea. Using a pointer works in this example because the variable is static. However, when two threads call this variable at once with different computer names, the use of static storage conicts. Thread-specic data could be used as a replacement for static storage, as in the errno problem. But, this replacement involves dynamic allocation of storage and adds to the expense of the call. A better way to handle this kind of problem is to make the caller of gethostbyname() supply the storage for the result of the call. An additional output argument to the routine enables the caller to supply the storage. The additional output argument requires a new interface to the gethostbyname() function. This technique is used in threads to x many of these problems. In most cases, the name of the new interface is the old name with _r appended, as in gethostbyname_r(3NSL).

Synchronizing Threads
The threads in an application must cooperate and synchronize when sharing the data and the resources of the process. A problem arises when multiple threads call functions that manipulate an object. In a single-threaded world, synchronizing access to such objects is not a problem. However, as Example 93 illustrates, synchronization is a concern with multithreaded code. Note that the printf(3S) function is safe to call for a multithreaded program. This example illustrates what could happen if printf() were not safe.
EXAMPLE 93 printf() Problem

/* thread 1: */ printf("go to statement reached");

/* thread 2: */ printf("hello world");

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EXAMPLE 93 printf() Problem

(Continued)

printed on display: go to hello

Single-Threaded Strategy
One strategy is to have a single, application-wide mutex lock acquired whenever any thread in the application is running and released before it must block. Because only one thread can be accessing shared data at any one time, each thread has a consistent view of memory. Because this strategy is effectively single-threaded, very little is gained by this strategy.

Re-entrant Function
A better approach is to take advantage of the principles of modularity and data encapsulation. A re-entrant function behaves correctly if called simultaneously by several threads. To write a re-entrant function is a matter of understanding just what behaves correctly means for this particular function. Functions that are callable by several threads must be made re-entrant. To make a function re-entrant might require changes to the function interface or to the implementation. Functions that access global state, like memory or les, have re-entrance problems. These functions need to protect their use of global state with the appropriate synchronization mechanisms provided by threads. The two basic strategies for making functions in modules re-entrant are code locking and data locking.

Code Locking
Code locking is done at the function call level and guarantees that a function executes entirely under the protection of a lock. The assumption is for all access to data to be done through functions. Functions that share data should execute under the same lock. Some parallel programming languages provide a construct called a monitor. The monitor implicitly does code locking for functions that are dened within the scope of the monitor. A monitor can also be implemented by a mutex lock. Functions under the protection of the same mutex lock or within the same monitor are guaranteed to execute atomically with respect to other functions in the monitor.
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Data Locking
Data locking guarantees that access to a collection of data is maintained consistently. For data locking, the concept of locking code is still there, but code locking is around references to shared (global) data, only. For mutual exclusion locking, only one thread can be in the critical section for each collection of data. Alternatively, in a multiple reader, single writer protocol, several readers can be allowed for each collection of data or one writer. Multiple threads can execute in a single module when the threads operate on different data collections. In particular, the threads do not conict on a single collection for the multiple readers, single writer protocol. So, data locking typically allows more concurrency than does code locking. What strategy should you use when using locks, whether implemented with mutexes, condition variables, or semaphores, in a program? Should you try to achieve maximum parallelism by locking only when necessary and unlocking as soon as possible, called ne-grained locking? Or should you hold locks for long periods to minimize the overhead of taking and releasing locks, called coarse-grained locking? The granularity of the lock depends on the amount of data protected by the lock. A very coarse-grained lock might be a single lock to protect all data. Dividing how the data is protected by the appropriate number of locks is very important. Locking that is too ne-grained can degrade performance. The overhead associated with acquiring and releasing locks can become signicant when your application contains too many locks. The common wisdom is to start with a coarse-grained approach, identify bottlenecks, and add ner-grained locking where necessary to alleviate the bottlenecks. This approach is reasonably sound advice, but use your own judgment about nding the balance between maximizing parallelism and minimizing lock overhead.

Invariants and Locks

For both code locking and data locking, invariants are important to control lock complexity. An invariant is a condition or relation that is always true. The denition is modied somewhat for concurrent execution: an invariant is a condition or relation that is true when the associated lock is being set. Once the lock is set, the invariant can be false. However, the code that holds the lock must reestablish the invariant before releasing the lock. An invariant can also be a condition or relation that is true when a lock is being set. Condition variables can be thought of as having an invariant that is the condition.
EXAMPLE 94

Testing the Invariant With assert(3X)

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EXAMPLE 94

Testing the Invariant With assert(3X)

(Continued)

assert((condition)==TRUE); . . . mutex_unlock(&lock);

The assert() statement is testing the invariant. The cond_wait() function does not preserve the invariant, which is why the invariant must be reevaluated when the thread returns. Another example is a module that manages a doubly linked list of elements. For each item on the list, a good invariant is the forward pointer of the previous item on the list. The forward pointer should also point to the same element as the backward pointer of the forward item. Assume that this module uses code-based locking and therefore is protected by a single global mutex lock. When an item is deleted or added, the mutex lock is acquired, the correct manipulation of the pointers is made, and the mutex lock is released. Obviously, at some point in the manipulation of the pointers the invariant is false, but the invariant is re-established before the mutex lock is released.

Avoiding Deadlock
Deadlock is a permanent blocking of a set of threads that are competing for a set of resources. Just because some thread can make progress does not mean that a deadlock has not occurred somewhere else. The most common error that causes deadlock is self deadlock or recursive deadlock. In a self deadlock or recusive deadlock, a thread tries to acquire a lock already held by the thread. Recursive deadlock is very easy to program by mistake. For example, assume that a code monitor has every module function grab the mutex lock for the duration of the call. Then, any call between the functions within the module protected by the mutex lock immediately deadlocks. If a function calls code outside the module that circuitously calls back into any method protected by the same mutex lock, the function deadlocks too. The solution for this kind of deadlock is to avoid calling functions outside the module that might depend on this module through some path. In particular, avoid calling functions that call back into the module without re-establishing invariants and do not drop all module locks before making the call. Of course, after the call completes and the locks are reacquired, the state must be veried to be sure the intended operation is still valid.
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An example of another kind of deadlock is when two threads, thread 1 and thread 2, acquire a mutex lock, A and B, respectively. Suppose that thread 1 tries to acquire mutex lock B and thread 2 tries to acquire mutex lock A. Thread 1 cannot proceed while blocked waiting for mutex lock B. Thread 2 cannot proceed while blocked waiting for mutex lock A. Nothing can change. So, this condition is a permanent blocking of the threads, and a deadlock. This kind of deadlock is avoided by establishing an order in which locks are acquired, a lock hierarchy. When all threads always acquire locks in the specied order, this deadlock is avoided. Adherence to a strict order of lock acquisition is not always optimal. For instance, thread 2 has many assumptions about the state of the module while holding mutex lock B. Giving up mutex lock B to acquire mutex lock A and then reacquiring mutex lock B in that order causes the thread to discard its assumptions. The state of the module must be re-evaluated. The blocking synchronization primitives usually have variants that attempt to get a lock and fail if the variants cannot get the lock. An example is mutex_trylock(). This behavior of primitive variants allows threads to violate the lock hierarchy when no contention occurs. When contention occurs, the held locks must usually be discarded and the locks reacquired in order.

Deadlocks Related to Scheduling

Because the order in which locks are acquired is not guaranteed, a problem can occur where a particular thread never acquires a lock. This problem usually happens when the thread holding the lock releases the lock, lets a small amount of time pass, and then reacquires the lock. Because the lock was released, the appearance is that the other thread should acquire the lock. But, nothing blocks the thread holding the lock. Consequently, that thread continues to run from the time the thread releases the lock until the time the lock is reacquired. Thus, no other thread is run. You can usually solve this type of problem by calling thr_yield(3C) just before the call to reacquire the lock. thr_yield() allows other threads to run and to acquire the lock. Because the time-slice requirements of applications are so variable, the system does not impose any requirements. Use calls to thr_yield() to make threads share time as you require.

Locking Guidelines
Follow these simple guidelines for locking.
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Try not to hold locks across long operations like I/O where performance can be adversely affected. Do not hold locks when calling a function that is outside the module and might reenter the module. In general, start with a coarse-grained approach, identify bottlenecks, and add ner-grained locking where necessary to alleviate the bottlenecks. Most locks are held for short amounts of time and contention is rare. So, x only those locks that have measured contention. When using multiple locks, avoid deadlocks by making sure that all threads acquire the locks in the same order.

Some Basic Guidelines for Threaded Code

I

Know what you are importing and know whether it is safe. A threaded program cannot arbitrarily enter nonthreaded code. Threaded code can safely refer to unsafe code only from the initial thread. References to unsafe code in this way ensures that the static storage associated with the initial thread is used only by that thread.

When making a library safe for multithreaded use, do not thread global process operations. Do not change global operations, or actions with global side effects, to behave in a threaded manner. For example, if le I/O is changed to per-thread operation, threads cannot cooperate in accessing les. For thread-specic behavior, or thread cognizant behavior, use thread facilities. For example, when the termination of main() should terminate only the thread that is exiting main().
thr_exit(); /*NOTREACHED*/

Sun-supplied libraries are assumed to be unsafe unless explicitly documented as safe. If a reference manual entry does not explicitly state that an interface is MT-Safe, you should assume that the interface is unsafe.

Use compilation ags to manage binary incompatible source changes. See Chapter 7 for complete instructions.
I I

-D_REENTRANT enables multithreading. -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE gives POSIX threads behavior.

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-D_POSIX_PTHREADS_SEMANTICS enables both Solaris threads and pthreads interfaces. When the two interfaces conict, the POSIX interfaces take precedence.

Creating and Using Threads

The threads packages cache the threads data structure and stacks so that the repetitive creation of threads can be reasonably inexpensive. However, creating and destroying threads as the threads are required is usually more expensive than managing a pool of threads that wait for independent work. A good example is an RPC server that creates a thread for each request and destroys the thread when the reply is delivered. Thread creation has less overhead than the overhead of process creation. However, thread creation is not efficient when compared to the cost of creating a few instructions. Create threads for processing that lasts at least a couple of thousand machine instructions.

Working With Multiprocessors

Multithreading enables you to take advantage of multiprocessors, primarily through parallelism and scalability. Programmers should be aware of the differences between the memory models of a multiprocessor and a uniprocessor. Memory consistency is directly interrelated to the processor that interrogates memory. For uniprocessors, memory is obviously consistent because only one processor is viewing memory. To improve multiprocessor performance, memory consistency is relaxed. You cannot always assume that changes made to memory by one processor are immediately reected in the other processors views of that memory. You can avoid this complexity by using synchronization variables when you use shared or global variables. Barrier synchronization is sometimes an efficient way to control parallelism on multiprocessors. An example of barriers can be found in Appendix B. Another multiprocessor issue is efficient synchronization when threads must wait until all threads have reached a common point in their execution.
Chapter 9 Programming Guidelines 221

Note The issues discussed here are not important when the threads synchronization primitives are always used to access shared memory locations.

Underlying Architecture
Threads synchronize access to shared storage locations by using the threads synchronization routines. With threads synchronization, running a program on a shared-memory multiprocessor has the identical effect of running the program on a uniprocessor. However, in many situations a programmer might be tempted to take advantage of the multiprocessor and use tricks to avoid the synchronization routines. As Example 95 and Example 96 show, such tricks can be dangerous. An understanding of the memory models supported by common multiprocessor architectures helps to understand the dangers. The major multiprocessor components are:
I I I I

The processors that run the programs Store buffers, which connect the processors to their caches Caches, which hold the contents of recently accessed or modied storage locations Memory, which is the primary storage and is shared by all processors

In the simple traditional model, the multiprocessor behaves as if the processors are connected directly to memory: when one processor stores into a location and another processor immediately loads from the same location, the second processor loads what was stored by the rst. Caches can be used to speed the average memory access. The desired semantics can be achieved when the caches are kept consistent with the other caches. A problem with this simple approach is that the processor must often be delayed to make certain that the desired semantics are achieved. Many modern multiprocessors use various techniques to prevent such delays, which unfortunately change the semantics of the memory model. Two of these techniques and their effects are explained in the next two examples.

Shared-Memory Multiprocessors
Consider the purported solution to the producer and consumer problem that is shown in Example 95.
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Although this program works on current SPARC-based multiprocessors, the program assumes that all multiprocessors have strongly ordered memory. This program is therefore not portable.
EXAMPLE 95

Producer and Consumer Problem: Shared Memory Multiprocessors

char buffer[BSIZE]; unsigned int in = 0; unsigned int out = 0;

void producer(char item) { do ;/* nothing */ while (in - out == BSIZE); buffer[in%BSIZE] = item; in++; }

char consumer(void) { char item; do ;/* nothing */ while (in - out == 0); item = buffer[out%BSIZE]; out++; }

When this program has exactly one producer and exactly one consumer and is run on a shared-memory multiprocessor, the program appears to be correct. The difference between in and out is the number of items in the buffer. The producer waits, by repeatedly computing this difference, until room is available in the buffer for a new item. The consumer waits until an item is present in the buffer. Strongly-ordered memory makes a modication to memory on one processor immediately available to the other processors. For strongly ordered memory, the solution is correct even taking into account that in and out will eventually overow. The overow occurs as long as BSIZE is less than the largest integer that can be represented in a word. Shared-memory multiprocessors do not necessarily have strongly ordered memory. A change to memory by one processor is not necessarily available immediately to the other processors. See what happens when two changes to different memory locations are made by one processor. The other processors do not necessarily detect the changes in the order in which the changes were made because memory modications do not happen immediately. First the changes are stored in store buffers that are not visible to the cache. The processor checks these store buffers to ensure that a program has a consistent view. But, because store buffers are not visible to other processors, a write by one processor does not become visible until the processor writes to cache. The synchronization primitives use special instructions that ush the store buffers to cache. See Chapter 4. So, using locks around your shared data ensures memory consistency.
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When memory ordering is very relaxed, Example 95 has a problem. The consumer might see that in has been incremented by the producer before the consumer sees the change to the corresponding buffer slot. This ordering is called weak ordering because stores made by one processor can appear to happen out of order by another processor. Memory, however, is always consistent from the same processor. To x this inconsistency, the code should use mutexes to ush the cache. Because the trend is toward relaxing memory order, programmers are becoming increasingly careful to use locks around all global or shared data. As demonstrated by Example 95 and Example 96, locking is essential.

Petersons Algorithm
The code in Example 96 is an implementation of Petersons Algorithm, which handles mutual exclusion between two threads. This code tries to guarantee that only one thread is in the critical section. When a thread calls mut_excl(), the thread enters the critical section sometime soon. An assumption here is that a thread exits fairly quickly after entering the critical section.
EXAMPLE 96

Mutual Exclusion for Two Threads?

void mut_excl(int me /* 0 or 1 */) { static int loser; static int interested[2] = {0, 0}; int other; /* local variable */ other = 1 - me; interested[me] = 1; loser = me; while (loser == me && interested[other]) ; /* critical section */ interested[me] = 0; }

This algorithm works some of the time when the multiprocessor has strongly ordered memory. Some multiprocessors, including some SPARC-based multiprocessors, have store buffers. When a thread issues a store instruction, the data is put into a store buffer. The buffer contents are eventually sent to the cache, but not necessarily right away. The caches on each of the processors maintain a consistent view of memory, but modied data does not reach the cache right away.
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When multiple memory locations are stored into, the changes reach the cache and memory in the correct order, but possibly after a delay. SPARC-based multiprocessors with this property are said to have total store order (TSO). Suppose you have a situation where one processor stores into location A and loads from location B. Another processor stores into location B and loads from location A. Either the rst processor fetches the newly-modied value from location B, or the second processor fetches the newly-modied value from location A, or both. However, the case in which both processors load the old values cannot happen. Moreover, with the delays caused by load and store buffers, the impossible case can happen. What could happen with Petersons algorithm is that two threads running on separate processors both enter the critical section. Each thread stores into its own slot of the particular array and then loads from the other slot. Both threads read the old values (0), each thread assumes that the other party is not present, and both enter the critical section. This kind of problem might not be detected when you test a program, but only occurs much later. To avoid this problem use the threads synchronization primitives, whose implementations issue special instructions, to force the writing of the store buffers to the cache.

Parallelizing a Loop on a Shared-Memory Parallel Computer

In many applications, and especially numerical applications, while part of the algorithm can be parallelized, other parts are inherently sequential, as shown in the following table.
TABLE 91 Table Caption Sequential Execution Parallel Execution

Thread 1 while(many_iterations) { sequential_computation --- Barrier --parallel_computation }

Thread 2 through Thread n while(many_iterations) {

--- Barrier --parallel_computation }

For example, you might produce a set of matrixes with a strictly linear computation, and perform operations on the matrixes that use a parallel algorithm. You then use the results of these operations to produce another set of matrixes, operate on these matrixes in parallel, and so on.
Chapter 9 Programming Guidelines 225

The nature of the parallel algorithms for such a computation is that little synchronization is required during the computation. But, synchronization of all the threads is required to ensure that the sequential computation is nished before the parallel computation begins. The barrier forces all the threads that are doing the parallel computation to wait until all involved threads have reached the barrier. When the threads have reached the barrier, the threads are released and begin computing together.

Examples of Threads Programs

This guide has covered a wide variety of important threads programming issues. Appendix A provides a pthreads program example that uses many of the features and styles that have been discussed. Appendix B provides a program example that uses Solaris threads.

Further Reading
For more in-depth information about multithreading, see Programming with Threads by Steve Kleiman, Devang Shah, and Bart Smaalders (Prentice-Hall, published in 1995)

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APPENDIX

Sample Application: Multithreaded grep

This appendix provides a sample program, tgrep, showing a multithreaded version of find(1) combined with grep(1).

Description of tgrep
tgrep supports all but the -w word search options of the normal grep, and exclusively available options. By default, the tgrep searches are like the following command:
find . -exec grep [options] pattern {} \;

For large directory hierarchies, tgrep gets results more quickly than the find command, depending on the number of processors available. On uniprocessor machines tgrep is about twice as fast as find, and on four processor machines tgrep is about four times as fast. The -e option changes the way that tgrep interprets the pattern string. Ordinarily, without the -e option, tgrep uses a literal string match. With the -e option, tgrep uses an MT-Safe public domain version of a regular expression handler. The regular expression method is slower. The tgrep -B option uses the value of the TGLIMIT environment variable to limit the number of threads that are used during a search. This option has no affect if TGLIMIT is not set. Because tgrep can use a lot of system resources, using the -B option is a way to run tgrep politely on a timesharing system.

227

Note Source for tgrep is included on the Catalyst Developers CD. Contact your sales representative to nd out how you can get a copy.

Only the multithreaded main.c module appears here. Other modules, including those modules for regular expression handling, plus documentation and Makeles, are available on the Catalyst Developers CD.
EXAMPLE A1

Source Code for tgrep Program

/* Copyright (c) 1993, 1994 Ron Winacott */ /* This program may be used, copied, modified, and redistributed freely */ /* for ANY purpose, so long as this notice remains intact. */ #define _REENTRANT #include #include #include #include #include #include #include #include #include #include #include <stdio.h> <string.h> <stdlib.h> <unistd.h> <assert.h> <errno.h> <ctype.h> <sys/types.h> <time.h> <sys/stat.h> <dirent.h>

#include "version.h" #include #include #include #include <fcntl.h> <sys/uio.h> <pthread.h> <sched.h>

#ifdef MARK #include <prof.h> /* to turn on MARK(), use -DMARK to compile (see man prof5)*/ #endif #include "pmatch.h" #define #define #define #define #define #define #define #define #define #define 228 PATH_MAX HOLD_FDS UNLIMITED MAXREGEXP FB_BLOCK FC_COUNT FH_HOLDNAME FI_IGNCASE FL_NAMEONLY FN_NUMBER 1024 /* max # of characters in a path name */ 6 /* stdin,out,err and a buffer */ 99999 /* The default tglimit */ 10 /* max number of -e options */ 0x00001 0x00002 0x00004 0x00008 0x00010 0x00020

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EXAMPLE A1

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0x00040 0x00080 0x00100 0x00200 0x00400 0x00800 0x01000 0x02000 0x04000 0x08000 0x10000 0x20000 1 2

(Continued)

#define #define #define #define #define #define #define #define #define #define #define #define

FS_NOERROR FV_REVERSE FW_WORD FR_RECUR FU_UNSORT FX_STDIN TG_BATCH TG_FILEPAT FE_REGEXP FS_STATS FC_LINE TG_PROGRESS

#define FILET #define DIRT typedef struct work_st { char *path; int tp; struct work_st *next; } work_t;

typedef struct out_st { char *line; int line_count; long byte_count; struct out_st *next; } out_t; #define ALPHASIZ 128 typedef struct bm_pattern { /* Boyer short p_m; /* short p_r[ALPHASIZ]; /* short *p_R; /* char *p_pat; /* } BM_PATTERN;

Moore pattern length of pattern string "r" vector "R" vector pattern string

*/ */ */ */ */

/* bmpmatch.c */ extern BM_PATTERN *bm_makepat(char *p); extern char *bm_pmatch(BM_PATTERN *pat, register char *s); extern void bm_freepat(BM_PATTERN *pattern); BM_PATTERN *bm_pat; /* the global target read only after main */ /* pmatch.c */ extern char *pmatch(register PATTERN *pattern, register char *string, int *len); extern PATTERN *makepat(char *string, char *metas); extern void freepat(register PATTERN *pat); extern void printpat(PATTERN *pat); PATTERN *pm_pat[MAXREGEXP]; /* global targets read only for pmatch */ #include "proto.h" /* function prototypes of main.c */

/* local functions to POSIX threads only */ Appendix A Sample Application: Multithreaded grep 229

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(Continued)

void pthread_setconcurrency_np(int con); int pthread_getconcurrency_np(void); void pthread_yield_np(void); pthread_attr_t detached_attr; pthread_mutex_t output_print_lk; pthread_mutex_t global_count_lk; int work_t pthread_cond_t pthread_mutex_t pthread_mutex_t global_count = 0; *work_q = NULL; work_q_cv; work_q_lk; debug_lock; /* must be included AFTER the mutex_t debug_lock line */

#include "debug.h"

work_t pthread_mutex_t pthread_cond_t int int work_t pthread_mutex_t pthread_cond_t int int

*search_q = NULL; search_q_lk; search_q_cv; search_pool_cnt = 0; search_thr_limit = 0; *cascade_q = NULL; cascade_q_lk; cascade_q_cv; cascade_pool_cnt = 0; cascade_thr_limit = 0;

/* the count in the pool now */ /* the max in the pool */

int running = 0; pthread_mutex_t running_lk; pthread_mutex_t time_t int int int int int int int int int int int int int int int int int 230 stat_lk; st_start = 0; st_dir_search = 0; st_file_search = 0; st_line_search = 0; st_cascade = 0; st_cascade_pool = 0; st_cascade_destroy = 0; st_search = 0; st_pool = 0; st_maxrun = 0; st_worknull = 0; st_workfds = 0; st_worklimit = 0; st_destroy = 0; all_done = 0; work_cnt = 0; current_open_files = 0; tglimit = UNLIMITED; /* if -B limit the number of Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

EXAMPLE A1

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(Continued)

int int unsigned int int char int int char PATTERN

threads */ progress_offset = 1; progress = 0; /* protected by the print_lock ! */ flags = 0; regexp_cnt = 0; *string[MAXREGEXP]; debug = 0; use_pmatch = 0; file_pat[255]; /* file patten match */ *pm_file_pat; /* compiled file target string (pmatch()) */

/* * Main: This is where the fun starts */ int main(int argc, char **argv) { int c,out_thr_flags; long max_open_files = 0l, ncpus = 0l; extern int optind; extern char *optarg; int prio = 0; struct stat sbuf; pthread_t tid,dtid; void *status; char *e = NULL, *d = NULL; /* for debug flags */ int debug_file = 0; struct sigaction sigact; sigset_t set,oset; int err = 0, i = 0, pm_file_len = 0; work_t *work; int restart_cnt = 10; /* NO OTHER THREADS ARE RUNNING */ flags = FR_RECUR; /* the default */ while ((c = getopt(argc, argv, "d:e:bchilnsvwruf:p:BCSZzHP:")) != EOF) { switch (c) { #ifdef DEBUG case d: debug = atoi(optarg); if (debug == 0) debug_usage(); d = optarg; fprintf(stderr,"tgrep: Debug on at level(s) "); while (*d) { for (i=0; i<9; i++) if (debug_set[i].level == *d) { debug_levels |= debug_set[i].flag; fprintf(stderr,"%c ",debug_set[i].level); break; } Appendix A Sample Application: Multithreaded grep 231

EXAMPLE A1

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(Continued)

#endif

d++; } fprintf(stderr,"\n"); break; case f: debug_file = atoi(optarg); break; /* DEBUG */

case B: flags |= TG_BATCH; #ifndef __lock_lint /* locklint complains here, but there are no other threads */ if ((e = getenv("TGLIMIT"))) { tglimit = atoi(e); } else { if (!(flags & FS_NOERROR)) /* order dependent! */ fprintf(stderr,"env TGLIMIT not set, overriding -B\n"); flags &= ~TG_BATCH; } #endif break; case p: flags |= TG_FILEPAT; strcpy(file_pat,optarg); pm_file_pat = makepat(file_pat,NULL); break; case P: flags |= TG_PROGRESS; progress_offset = atoi(optarg); break; case S: flags |= FS_STATS; break; case b: flags |= FB_BLOCK; break; case c: flags |= FC_COUNT; break; case h: flags |= FH_HOLDNAME; break; case i: flags |= FI_IGNCASE; break; case l: flags |= FL_NAMEONLY; break; case n: flags |= FN_NUMBER; break; case s: flags |= FS_NOERROR; break; case v: flags |= FV_REVERSE; break; case w: flags |= FW_WORD; break; case r: flags &= ~FR_RECUR; break; case C: flags |= FC_LINE; break; case e: if (regexp_cnt == MAXREGEXP) { fprintf(stderr,"Max number of regexps (%d) exceeded!\n", MAXREGEXP); exit(1); } flags |= FE_REGEXP; if ((string[regexp_cnt] =(char *)malloc(strlen(optarg)+1))==NULL){ fprintf(stderr,"tgrep: No space for search string(s)\n"); exit(1); } 232 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

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(Continued)

memset(string[regexp_cnt],0,strlen(optarg)+1); strcpy(string[regexp_cnt],optarg); regexp_cnt++; break; case z: case Z: regexp_usage(); break; case H: case ?: default : usage(); } } if (flags & FS_STATS) st_start = time(NULL); if (!(flags & FE_REGEXP)) { if (argc - optind < 1) { fprintf(stderr,"tgrep: Must supply a search string(s) " "and file list or directory\n"); usage(); } if ((string[0]=(char *)malloc(strlen(argv[optind])+1))==NULL){ fprintf(stderr,"tgrep: No space for search string(s)\n"); exit(1); } memset(string[0],0,strlen(argv[optind])+1); strcpy(string[0],argv[optind]); regexp_cnt=1; optind++; } if (flags & FI_IGNCASE) for (i=0; i<regexp_cnt; i++) uncase(string[i]); if (flags & FE_REGEXP) { for (i=0; i<regexp_cnt; i++) pm_pat[i] = makepat(string[i],NULL); use_pmatch = 1; } else { bm_pat = bm_makepat(string[0]); /* only one allowed */ } flags |= FX_STDIN;

max_open_files = sysconf(_SC_OPEN_MAX); ncpus = sysconf(_SC_NPROCESSORS_ONLN); if ((max_open_files - HOLD_FDS - debug_file) < 1) { fprintf(stderr,"tgrep: You MUST have at least ONE fd " "that can be used, check limit (>10)\n"); exit(1); Appendix A Sample Application: Multithreaded grep 233

EXAMPLE A1

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(Continued)

} search_thr_limit = max_open_files - HOLD_FDS - debug_file; cascade_thr_limit = search_thr_limit / 2; /* the number of files that can be open */ current_open_files = search_thr_limit; pthread_attr_init(&detached_attr); pthread_attr_setdetachstate(&detached_attr, PTHREAD_CREATE_DETACHED); pthread_mutex_init(&global_count_lk,NULL); pthread_mutex_init(&output_print_lk,NULL); pthread_mutex_init(&work_q_lk,NULL); pthread_mutex_init(&running_lk,NULL); pthread_cond_init(&work_q_cv,NULL); pthread_mutex_init(&search_q_lk,NULL); pthread_cond_init(&search_q_cv,NULL); pthread_mutex_init(&cascade_q_lk,NULL); pthread_cond_init(&cascade_q_cv,NULL); if ((argc == optind) && ((flags & TG_FILEPAT) || (flags & FR_RECUR))) { add_work(".",DIRT); flags = (flags & ~FX_STDIN); } for ( ; optind < argc; optind++) { restart_cnt = 10; flags = (flags & ~FX_STDIN); STAT_AGAIN: if (stat(argv[optind], &sbuf)) { if (errno == EINTR) { /* try again !, restart */ if (--restart_cnt) goto STAT_AGAIN; } if (!(flags & FS_NOERROR)) fprintf(stderr,"tgrep: Cant stat file/dir %s, %s\n", argv[optind], strerror(errno)); continue; } switch (sbuf.st_mode & S_IFMT) { case S_IFREG : if (flags & TG_FILEPAT) { if (pmatch(pm_file_pat, argv[optind], &pm_file_len)) DP(DLEVEL1,("File pat match %s\n",argv[optind])); add_work(argv[optind],FILET); } else { add_work(argv[optind],FILET); } break; case S_IFDIR : if (flags & FR_RECUR) { add_work(argv[optind],DIRT); } 234 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

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(Continued)

else { if (!(flags & FS_NOERROR)) fprintf(stderr,"tgrep: Cant search directory %s, " "-r option is on. Directory ignored.\n", argv[optind]); } break; } } pthread_setconcurrency_np(3); if (flags & FX_STDIN) { fprintf(stderr,"tgrep: stdin option is not coded at this time\n"); exit(0); /* XXX Need to fix this SOON */ search_thr(NULL); if (flags & FC_COUNT) { pthread_mutex_lock(&global_count_lk); printf("%d\n",global_count); pthread_mutex_unlock(&global_count_lk); } if (flags & FS_STATS) prnt_stats(); exit(0); } pthread_mutex_lock(&work_q_lk); if (!work_q) { if (!(flags & FS_NOERROR)) fprintf(stderr,"tgrep: No files to search.\n"); exit(0); } pthread_mutex_unlock(&work_q_lk); DP(DLEVEL1,("Starting to loop through the work_q for work\n")); /* OTHER THREADS ARE RUNNING */ while (1) { pthread_mutex_lock(&work_q_lk); while ((work_q == NULL || current_open_files == 0 || tglimit <= 0) && all_done == 0) { if (flags & FS_STATS) { pthread_mutex_lock(&stat_lk); if (work_q == NULL) st_worknull++; if (current_open_files == 0) st_workfds++; if (tglimit <= 0) st_worklimit++; pthread_mutex_unlock(&stat_lk); } pthread_cond_wait(&work_q_cv,&work_q_lk); } Appendix A Sample Application: Multithreaded grep 235

EXAMPLE A1

Source Code for tgrep Program

(Continued)

if (all_done != 0) { pthread_mutex_unlock(&work_q_lk); DP(DLEVEL1,("All_done was set to TRUE\n")); goto OUT; } work = work_q; work_q = work->next; /* maybe NULL */ work->next = NULL; current_open_files--; pthread_mutex_unlock(&work_q_lk); tid = 0; switch (work->tp) { case DIRT: pthread_mutex_lock(&cascade_q_lk); if (cascade_pool_cnt) { if (flags & FS_STATS) { pthread_mutex_lock(&stat_lk); st_cascade_pool++; pthread_mutex_unlock(&stat_lk); } work->next = cascade_q; cascade_q = work; pthread_cond_signal(&cascade_q_cv); pthread_mutex_unlock(&cascade_q_lk); DP(DLEVEL2,("Sent work to cascade pool thread\n")); } else { pthread_mutex_unlock(&cascade_q_lk); err = pthread_create(&tid,&detached_attr,cascade,(void *)work); DP(DLEVEL2,("Sent work to new cascade thread\n")); if (flags & FS_STATS) { pthread_mutex_lock(&stat_lk); st_cascade++; pthread_mutex_unlock(&stat_lk); } } break; case FILET: pthread_mutex_lock(&search_q_lk); if (search_pool_cnt) { if (flags & FS_STATS) { pthread_mutex_lock(&stat_lk); st_pool++; pthread_mutex_unlock(&stat_lk); } work->next = search_q; /* could be null */ search_q = work; pthread_cond_signal(&search_q_cv); pthread_mutex_unlock(&search_q_lk); DP(DLEVEL2,("Sent work to search pool thread\n")); } else { 236 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

EXAMPLE A1

Source Code for tgrep Program

(Continued)

pthread_mutex_unlock(&search_q_lk); err = pthread_create(&tid,&detached_attr, search_thr,(void *)work); pthread_setconcurrency_np(pthread_getconcurrency_np()+1); DP(DLEVEL2,("Sent work to new search thread\n")); if (flags & FS_STATS) { pthread_mutex_lock(&stat_lk); st_search++; pthread_mutex_unlock(&stat_lk); } } break; default: fprintf(stderr,"tgrep: Internal error, work_t->tp not valid\n"); exit(1); } if (err) { /* NEED TO FIX THIS CODE. Exiting is just wrong */ fprintf(stderr,"Could not create new thread!\n"); exit(1); } } OUT: if (flags & TG_PROGRESS) { if (progress) fprintf(stderr,".\n"); else fprintf(stderr,"\n"); } /* we are done, print the stuff. All other threads are parked */ if (flags & FC_COUNT) { pthread_mutex_lock(&global_count_lk); printf("%d\n",global_count); pthread_mutex_unlock(&global_count_lk); } if (flags & FS_STATS) prnt_stats(); return(0); /* should have a return from main */ } /* * Add_Work: Called from the main thread, and cascade threads to add file * and directory names to the work Q. */ int add_work(char *path,int tp) { work_t *wt,*ww,*wp; if ((wt = (work_t *)malloc(sizeof(work_t))) == NULL) goto ERROR; if ((wt->path = (char *)malloc(strlen(path)+1)) == NULL) goto ERROR; Appendix A Sample Application: Multithreaded grep 237

EXAMPLE A1

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(Continued)

strcpy(wt->path,path); wt->tp = tp; wt->next = NULL; if (flags & FS_STATS) { pthread_mutex_lock(&stat_lk); if (wt->tp == DIRT) st_dir_search++; else st_file_search++; pthread_mutex_unlock(&stat_lk); } pthread_mutex_lock(&work_q_lk); work_cnt++; wt->next = work_q; work_q = wt; pthread_cond_signal(&work_q_cv); pthread_mutex_unlock(&work_q_lk); return(0); ERROR: if (!(flags & FS_NOERROR)) fprintf(stderr,"tgrep: Could not add %s to work queue. Ignored\n", path); return(-1); } /* * Search thread: Started by the main thread when a file name is found * on the work Q to be serached. If all the needed resources are ready * a new search thread will be created. */ void * search_thr(void *arg) /* work_t *arg */ { FILE *fin; char fin_buf[(BUFSIZ*4)]; /* 4 Kbytes */ work_t *wt,std; int line_count; char rline[128]; char cline[128]; char *line; register char *p,*pp; int pm_len; int len = 0; long byte_count; long next_line; int show_line; /* for the -v option */ register int slen,plen,i; out_t *out = NULL; /* this threads output list */ pthread_yield_np(); wt = (work_t *)arg; /* first pass, wt is passed to use. */

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(Continued)

/* len = strlen(string);*/

/* only set on first pass */

while (1) { /* reuse the search threads */ /* init all back to zero */ line_count = 0; byte_count = 0l; next_line = 0l; show_line = 0; pthread_mutex_lock(&running_lk); running++; pthread_mutex_unlock(&running_lk); pthread_mutex_lock(&work_q_lk); tglimit--; pthread_mutex_unlock(&work_q_lk); DP(DLEVEL5,("searching file (STDIO) %s\n",wt->path)); if ((fin = fopen(wt->path,"r")) == NULL) { if (!(flags & FS_NOERROR)) { fprintf(stderr,"tgrep: %s. File \"%s\" not searched.\n", strerror(errno),wt->path); } goto ERROR; } setvbuf(fin,fin_buf,_IOFBF,(BUFSIZ*4)); /* XXX */ DP(DLEVEL5,("Search thread has opened file %s\n",wt->path)); while ((fgets(rline,127,fin)) != NULL) { if (flags & FS_STATS) { pthread_mutex_lock(&stat_lk); st_line_search++; pthread_mutex_unlock(&stat_lk); } slen = strlen(rline); next_line += slen; line_count++; if (rline[slen-1] == \n) rline[slen-1] = \0; /* ** If the uncase flag is set, copy the read in line (rline) ** To the uncase line (cline) Set the line pointer to point at ** cline. ** If the case flag is NOT set, then point line at rline. ** line is what is compared, rline is what is printed on a ** match. */ if (flags & FI_IGNCASE) { strcpy(cline,rline); uncase(cline); line = cline; } else { line = rline; } Appendix A Sample Application: Multithreaded grep 239

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(Continued)

show_line = 1; /* assume no match, if -v set */ /* The old code removed */ if (use_pmatch) { for (i=0; i<regexp_cnt; i++) { if (pmatch(pm_pat[i], line, &pm_len)) { if (!(flags & FV_REVERSE)) { add_output_local(&out,wt,line_count, byte_count,rline); continue_line(rline,fin,out,wt, &line_count,&byte_count); } else { show_line = 0; } /* end of if -v flag if / else block */ /* ** if we get here on ANY of the regexp targets ** jump out of the loop, we found a single ** match so do not keep looking! ** If name only, do not keep searcthing the same ** file, we found a single match, so close the file, ** print the file name and move on to the next file. */ if (flags & FL_NAMEONLY) goto OUT_OF_LOOP; else goto OUT_AND_DONE; } /* end found a match if block */ } /* end of the for pat[s] loop */ } else { if (bm_pmatch( bm_pat, line)) { if (!(flags & FV_REVERSE)) { add_output_local(&out,wt,line_count,byte_count,rline); continue_line(rline,fin,out,wt, &line_count,&byte_count); } else { show_line = 0; } if (flags & FL_NAMEONLY) goto OUT_OF_LOOP; } } OUT_AND_DONE: if ((flags & FV_REVERSE) && show_line) { add_output_local(&out,wt,line_count,byte_count,rline); show_line = 0; } byte_count = next_line; } OUT_OF_LOOP: fclose(fin); /* 240 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

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(Continued)

** The search part is done, but before we give back the FD, ** and park this thread in the search thread pool, print the ** local output we have gathered. */ print_local_output(out,wt); /* this also frees out nodes */ out = NULL; /* for the next time around, if there is one */ ERROR: DP(DLEVEL5,("Search done for %s\n",wt->path)); free(wt->path); free(wt); notrun(); pthread_mutex_lock(&search_q_lk); if (search_pool_cnt > search_thr_limit) { pthread_mutex_unlock(&search_q_lk); DP(DLEVEL5,("Search thread exiting\n")); if (flags & FS_STATS) { pthread_mutex_lock(&stat_lk); st_destroy++; pthread_mutex_unlock(&stat_lk); } return(0); } else { search_pool_cnt++; while (!search_q) pthread_cond_wait(&search_q_cv,&search_q_lk); search_pool_cnt--; wt = search_q; /* we have work to do! */ if (search_q->next) search_q = search_q->next; else search_q = NULL; pthread_mutex_unlock(&search_q_lk); } } /*NOTREACHED*/ } /* * Continue line: Special case search with the -C flag set. If you are * searching files like Makefiles, some lines might have escape chars to * contine the line on the next line. So the target string can be found, but * no data is displayed. This function continues to print the escaped line * until there are no more "\" chars found. */ int continue_line(char *rline, FILE *fin, out_t *out, work_t *wt, int *lc, long *bc) { int len; int cnt = 0; char *line; Appendix A Sample Application: Multithreaded grep 241

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(Continued)

char nline[128]; if (!(flags & FC_LINE)) return(0); line = rline; AGAIN: len = strlen(line); if (line[len-1] == \\) { if ((fgets(nline,127,fin)) == NULL) { return(cnt); } line = nline; len = strlen(line); if (line[len-1] == \n) line[len-1] = \0; *bc = *bc + len; *lc++; add_output_local(&out,wt,*lc,*bc,line); cnt++; goto AGAIN; } return(cnt); } /* * cascade: This thread is started by the main thread when directory names * are found on the work Q. The thread reads all the new file, and directory * names from the directory it was started when and adds the names to the * work Q. (it finds more work!) */ void * cascade(void *arg) /* work_t *arg */ { char fullpath[1025]; int restart_cnt = 10; DIR *dp; char dir_buf[sizeof(struct dirent) + PATH_MAX]; struct dirent *dent = (struct dirent *)dir_buf; struct stat sbuf; char *fpath; work_t *wt; int fl = 0, dl = 0; int pm_file_len = 0; pthread_yield_np(); wt = (work_t *)arg; while(1) { fl = 0; dl = 0; 242 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005 /* try toi give control back to main thread */

EXAMPLE A1

Source Code for tgrep Program

(Continued)

restart_cnt = 10; pm_file_len = 0; pthread_mutex_lock(&running_lk); running++; pthread_mutex_unlock(&running_lk); pthread_mutex_lock(&work_q_lk); tglimit--; pthread_mutex_unlock(&work_q_lk); if (!wt) { if (!(flags & FS_NOERROR)) fprintf(stderr,"tgrep: Bad work node passed to cascade\n"); goto DONE; } fpath = (char *)wt->path; if (!fpath) { if (!(flags & FS_NOERROR)) fprintf(stderr,"tgrep: Bad path name passed to cascade\n"); goto DONE; } DP(DLEVEL3,("Cascading on %s\n",fpath)); if (( dp = opendir(fpath)) == NULL) { if (!(flags & FS_NOERROR)) fprintf(stderr,"tgrep: Cant open dir %s, %s. Ignored.\n", fpath,strerror(errno)); goto DONE; } while ((readdir_r(dp,dent)) != NULL) { restart_cnt = 10; /* only try to restart the interupted 10 X */ if (dent->d_name[0] == .) { if (dent->d_name[1] == . && dent->d_name[2] == \0) continue; if (dent->d_name[1] == \0) continue; } fl = strlen(fpath); dl = strlen(dent->d_name); if ((fl + 1 + dl) > 1024) { fprintf(stderr,"tgrep: Path %s/%s is too long. " "MaxPath = 1024\n", fpath, dent->d_name); continue; /* try the next name in this directory */ } strcpy(fullpath,fpath); strcat(fullpath,"/"); strcat(fullpath,dent->d_name); RESTART_STAT: if (stat(fullpath,&sbuf)) { if (errno == EINTR) { Appendix A Sample Application: Multithreaded grep 243

EXAMPLE A1

Source Code for tgrep Program

(Continued)

if (--restart_cnt) goto RESTART_STAT; } if (!(flags & FS_NOERROR)) fprintf(stderr,"tgrep: Cant stat file/dir %s, %s. " "Ignored.\n", fullpath,strerror(errno)); goto ERROR; } switch (sbuf.st_mode & S_IFMT) { case S_IFREG : if (flags & TG_FILEPAT) { if (pmatch(pm_file_pat, dent->d_name, &pm_file_len)) { DP(DLEVEL3,("file pat match (cascade) %s\n", dent->d_name)); add_work(fullpath,FILET); } } else { add_work(fullpath,FILET); DP(DLEVEL3,("cascade added file (MATCH) %s to Work Q\n", fullpath)); } break; case S_IFDIR : DP(DLEVEL3,("cascade added dir %s to Work Q\n",fullpath)); add_work(fullpath,DIRT); break; } } ERROR: closedir(dp); DONE: free(wt->path); free(wt); notrun(); pthread_mutex_lock(&cascade_q_lk); if (cascade_pool_cnt > cascade_thr_limit) { pthread_mutex_unlock(&cascade_q_lk); DP(DLEVEL5,("Cascade thread exiting\n")); if (flags & FS_STATS) { pthread_mutex_lock(&stat_lk); st_cascade_destroy++; pthread_mutex_unlock(&stat_lk); } return(0); /* pthread_exit */ } else { DP(DLEVEL5,("Cascade thread waiting in pool\n")); 244 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

EXAMPLE A1

Source Code for tgrep Program

(Continued)

cascade_pool_cnt++; while (!cascade_q) pthread_cond_wait(&cascade_q_cv,&cascade_q_lk); cascade_pool_cnt--; wt = cascade_q; /* we have work to do! */ if (cascade_q->next) cascade_q = cascade_q->next; else cascade_q = NULL; pthread_mutex_unlock(&cascade_q_lk); } } /*NOTREACHED*/ } /* * Print Local Output: Called by the search thread after it is done searching * a single file. If any oputput was saved (matching lines), the lines are * displayed as a group on stdout. */ int print_local_output(out_t *out, work_t *wt) { out_t *pp, *op; int out_count = 0; int printed = 0; pp = out; pthread_mutex_lock(&output_print_lk); if (pp && (flags & TG_PROGRESS)) { progress++; if (progress >= progress_offset) { progress = 0; fprintf(stderr,"."); } } while (pp) { out_count++; if (!(flags & FC_COUNT)) { if (flags & FL_NAMEONLY) { /* Pint name ONLY ! */ if (!printed) { printed = 1; printf("%s\n",wt->path); } } else { /* We are printing more then just the name */ if (!(flags & FH_HOLDNAME)) printf("%s :",wt->path); if (flags & FB_BLOCK) printf("%ld:",pp->byte_count/512+1); if (flags & FN_NUMBER) printf("%d:",pp->line_count); printf("%s\n",pp->line); Appendix A Sample Application: Multithreaded grep 245

EXAMPLE A1

Source Code for tgrep Program

(Continued)

} } op = pp; pp = pp->next; /* free the nodes as we go down the list */ free(op->line); free(op); } pthread_mutex_unlock(&output_print_lk); pthread_mutex_lock(&global_count_lk); global_count += out_count; pthread_mutex_unlock(&global_count_lk); return(0); } /* * add output local: is called by a search thread as it finds matching lines. * the matching line, its byte offset, line count, etc. are stored until the * search thread is done searching the file, then the lines are printed as * a group. This way the lines from more then a single file are not mixed * together. */ int add_output_local(out_t **out, work_t *wt,int lc, long bc, char *line) { out_t *ot,*oo, *op; if (( ot = (out_t *)malloc(sizeof(out_t))) == NULL) goto ERROR; if (( ot->line = (char *)malloc(strlen(line)+1)) == NULL) goto ERROR; strcpy(ot->line,line); ot->line_count = lc; ot->byte_count = bc; if (!*out) { *out = ot; ot->next = NULL; return(0); } /* append to the END of the list; keep things sorted! */ op = oo = *out; while(oo) { op = oo; oo = oo->next; } op->next = ot; ot->next = NULL; return(0);

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EXAMPLE A1

Source Code for tgrep Program

(Continued)

ERROR: if (!(flags & FS_NOERROR)) fprintf(stderr,"tgrep: Output lost. No space. " "[%s: line %d byte %d match : %s\n", wt->path,lc,bc,line); return(1); } /* * print stats: If the -S flag is set, after ALL files have been searched, * main thread calls this function to print the stats it keeps on how the * search went. */ void prnt_stats(void) { float a,b,c; float t = 0.0; time_t st_end = 0; char tl[80]; st_end = time(NULL); /* stop the clock */ printf("\n----------------- Tgrep Stats. --------------------\n"); printf("Number of directories searched: %d\n",st_dir_search); printf("Number of files searched: %d\n",st_file_search); c = (float)(st_dir_search + st_file_search) / (float)(st_end - st_start); printf("Dir/files per second: %3.2f\n",c); printf("Number of lines searched: %d\n",st_line_search); printf("Number of matching lines to target: %d\n",global_count); printf("Number of cascade threads created: printf("Number of cascade threads from pool: a = st_cascade_pool; b = st_dir_search; printf("Cascade thread pool hit rate: printf("Cascade pool overall size: printf("Number of search threads created: printf("Number of search threads from pool: a = st_pool; b = st_file_search; printf("Search thread pool hit rate: printf("Search pool overall size: printf("Search pool size limit: printf("Number of search threads destroyed: printf("Max # of threads running concurrenly: printf("Total run time, in seconds. (st_end - st_start)); /* Why did we wait ? */ a = st_workfds; b = st_dir_search+st_file_search; c = (a/b)*100; t += c; printf("Work stopped due to no FDs: (%.3d) search_thr_limit,st_workfds,c); %d\n",st_cascade); %d\n",st_cascade_pool); %3.2f%%\n",((a/b)*100)); %d\n",cascade_pool_cnt); %d\n",st_search); %d\n",st_pool); %3.2f%%\n",((a/b)*100)); %d\n",search_pool_cnt); %d\n",search_thr_limit); %d\n",st_destroy); %d\n",st_maxrun); %d\n",

%d Times, %3.2f%%\n",

Appendix A Sample Application: Multithreaded grep

247

EXAMPLE A1

Source Code for tgrep Program

(Continued)

a = st_worknull; b = st_dir_search+st_file_search; c = (a/b)*100; t += c; printf("Work stopped due to no work on Q: %d Times, %3.2f%%\n", st_worknull,c); if (tglimit == UNLIMITED) strcpy(tl,"Unlimited"); else sprintf(tl," %.3d ",tglimit); a = st_worklimit; b = st_dir_search+st_file_search; c = (a/b)*100; t += c; printf("Work stopped due to TGLIMIT: (%.9s) %d Times, %3.2f%%\n", tl,st_worklimit,c); printf("Work continued to be handed out: %3.2f%%\n",100.00-t); printf("----------------------------------------------------\n"); } /* * not running: A glue function to track if any search threads or cascade * threads are running. When the count is zero, and the work Q is NULL, * we can safely say, WE ARE DONE. */ void notrun (void) { pthread_mutex_lock(&work_q_lk); work_cnt--; tglimit++; current_open_files++; pthread_mutex_lock(&running_lk); if (flags & FS_STATS) { pthread_mutex_lock(&stat_lk); if (running > st_maxrun) { st_maxrun = running; DP(DLEVEL6,("Max Running has increased to %d\n",st_maxrun)); } pthread_mutex_unlock(&stat_lk); } running--; if (work_cnt == 0 && running == 0) { all_done = 1; DP(DLEVEL6,("Setting ALL_DONE flag to TRUE.\n")); } pthread_mutex_unlock(&running_lk); pthread_cond_signal(&work_q_cv); pthread_mutex_unlock(&work_q_lk); } /* * uncase: A glue function. If the -i (case insensitive) flag is set, the * target strng and the read in line is converted to lower case before * comparing them. */ void uncase(char *s) 248 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

EXAMPLE A1

Source Code for tgrep Program

(Continued)

{ char *p;

for (p = s; *p != NULL; p++) *p = (char)tolower(*p); } /* * usage: Have to have one of these. */ void usage(void) { fprintf(stderr,"usage: tgrep <options> pattern <{file,dir}>...\n"); fprintf(stderr,"\n"); fprintf(stderr,"Where:\n"); #ifdef DEBUG fprintf(stderr,"Debug -d = debug level -d <levels> (-d0 for usage)\n"); fprintf(stderr,"Debug -f = block fds from use (-f #)\n"); #endif fprintf(stderr," -b = show block count (512 byte block)\n"); fprintf(stderr," -c = print only a line count\n"); fprintf(stderr," -h = Do NOT print file names\n"); fprintf(stderr," -i = case insensitive\n"); fprintf(stderr," -l = print file name only\n"); fprintf(stderr," -n = print the line number with the line\n"); fprintf(stderr," -s = Suppress error messages\n"); fprintf(stderr," -v = print all but matching lines\n"); #ifdef NOT_IMP fprintf(stderr," -w = search for a \"word\"\n"); #endif fprintf(stderr," -r = Do not search for files in all " "sub-directories\n"); fprintf(stderr," -C = show continued lines (\"\\\")\n"); fprintf(stderr," -p = File name regexp pattern. (Quote it)\n"); fprintf(stderr," -P = show progress. -P 1 prints a DOT on stderr\n" " for each file it finds, -P 10 prints a DOT\n" " on stderr for each 10 files it finds, etc...\n"); fprintf(stderr," -e = expression search.(regexp) More then one\n"); fprintf(stderr," -B = limit the number of threads to TGLIMIT\n"); fprintf(stderr," -S = Print thread stats when done.\n"); fprintf(stderr," -Z = Print help on the regexp used.\n"); fprintf(stderr,"\n"); fprintf(stderr,"Notes:\n"); fprintf(stderr," If you start tgrep with only a directory name\n"); fprintf(stderr," and no file names, you must not have the -r option\n"); fprintf(stderr," set or you will get no output.\n"); fprintf(stderr," To search stdin (piped input), you must set -r\n"); fprintf(stderr," Tgrep will search ALL files in ALL \n"); fprintf(stderr," sub-directories. (like */* */*/* */*/*/* etc..)\n"); fprintf(stderr," if you supply a directory name.\n"); fprintf(stderr," If you do not supply a file, or directory name,\n"); Appendix A Sample Application: Multithreaded grep 249

EXAMPLE A1

Source Code for tgrep Program

(Continued)

fprintf(stderr," fprintf(stderr," fprintf(stderr," fprintf(stderr," fprintf(stderr,"\n"); fprintf(stderr," fprintf(stderr,"\n"); exit(0); }

and the -r option is not set, the current \n"); directory \".\" will be used.\n"); All the other options should work \"like\" grep\n"); The -p patten is regexp; tgrep will search only\n"); Copy Right By Ron Winacott, 1993-1995.\n");

/* * regexp usage: Tell the world about tgrep custom (THREAD SAFE) regexp! */ int regexp_usage (void) { fprintf(stderr,"usage: tgrep <options> -e \"pattern\" <-e ...> " "<{file,dir}>...\n"); fprintf(stderr,"\n"); fprintf(stderr,"metachars:\n"); fprintf(stderr," . - match any character\n"); fprintf(stderr," * - match 0 or more occurrences of previous char\n"); fprintf(stderr," + - match 1 or more occurrences of previous char.\n"); fprintf(stderr," ^ - match at beginning of string\n"); fprintf(stderr," $ - match end of string\n"); fprintf(stderr," [ - start of character class\n"); fprintf(stderr," ] - end of character class\n"); fprintf(stderr," ( - start of a new pattern\n"); fprintf(stderr," ) - end of a new pattern\n"); fprintf(stderr," @(n)c - match <c> at column <n>\n"); fprintf(stderr," | - match either pattern\n"); fprintf(stderr," \\ - escape any special characters\n"); fprintf(stderr," \\c - escape any special characters\n"); fprintf(stderr," \\o - turn on any special characters\n"); fprintf(stderr,"\n"); fprintf(stderr,"To match two diffrerent patterns in the same command\n"); fprintf(stderr,"Use the or function. \n" "ie: tgrep -e \"(pat1)|(pat2)\" file\n" "This will match any line with \"pat1\" or \"pat2\" in it.\n"); fprintf(stderr,"You can also use up to %d -e expressions\n",MAXREGEXP); fprintf(stderr,"RegExp Pattern matching brought to you by Marc Staveley\n"); exit(0); } /* * debug usage: If compiled with -DDEBUG, turn it on, and tell the world * how to get tgrep to print debug info on different threads. */ #ifdef DEBUG void debug_usage(void) { 250 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

EXAMPLE A1

Source Code for tgrep Program

(Continued)

int i = 0; fprintf(stderr,"DEBUG usage and levels:\n"); fprintf(stderr,"--------------------------------------------------\n"); fprintf(stderr,"Level code\n"); fprintf(stderr,"--------------------------------------------------\n"); fprintf(stderr,"0 This message.\n"); for (i=0; i<9; i++) { fprintf(stderr,"%d %s\n",i+1,debug_set[i].name); } fprintf(stderr,"--------------------------------------------------\n"); fprintf(stderr,"You can or the levels together like -d134 for levels\n"); fprintf(stderr,"1 and 3 and 4.\n"); fprintf(stderr,"\n"); exit(0); } #endif /* Pthreads NP functions */ #ifdef __sun void pthread_setconcurrency_np(int con) { thr_setconcurrency(con); } int pthread_getconcurrency_np(void) { return(thr_getconcurrency()); } void pthread_yield_np(void) { /* In Solaris 2.4, these functions always return - 1 and set errno to ENOSYS */ if (sched_yield()) /* call UI interface if we are older than 2.5 */ thr_yield(); } #else void pthread_setconcurrency_np(int con) { return; } int pthread_getconcurrency_np(void) { return(0); } Appendix A Sample Application: Multithreaded grep 251

EXAMPLE A1

Source Code for tgrep Program

(Continued)

void pthread_yield_np(void) { return; } #endif

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Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

APPENDIX

Solaris Threads Example: barrier.c

The barrier.c program demonstrates an implementation of a barrier for Solaris threads. See Parallelizing a Loop on a Shared-Memory Parallel Computer on page 225 for a denition of barriers.
EXAMPLE B1

Solaris Threads Example: barrier.c

#define _REENTRANT /* Include Files #include #include <thread.h> <errno.h> * */ */

/* Constants & Macros /* Data Declarations

typedef struct { int maxcnt; /* maximum number of runners */ struct _sb { cond_t wait_cv; /* cv for waiters at barrier */ mutex_t wait_lk; /* mutex for waiters at barrier */ int runners; /* number of running threads */ } sb[2]; struct _sb *sbp; /* current sub-barrier */ } barrier_t;

/* * barrier_init - initialize a barrier variable. * */ int barrier_init( barrier_t *bp, int count, int type, void *arg ) { int n; 253

EXAMPLE B1

Solaris Threads Example: barrier.c

(Continued)

int i; if (count < 1) return(EINVAL); bp->maxcnt = count; bp->sbp = &bp->sb[0]; for (i = 0; i < 2; ++i) { #if defined(__cplusplus) struct barrier_t::_sb *sbp = &( bp->sb[i] ); #else struct _sb *sbp = &( bp->sb[i] ); #endif sbp->runners = count; if (n = mutex_init(&sbp->wait_lk, type, arg)) return(n); if (n = cond_init(&sbp->wait_cv, type, arg)) return(n); } return(0); } /* * barrier_wait - wait at a barrier for everyone to arrive. * */ int barrier_wait(register barrier_t *bp) { #if defined(__cplusplus) register struct barrier_t::_sb *sbp = bp->sbp; #else register struct _sb *sbp = bp->sbp; #endif mutex_lock(&sbp->wait_lk); if (sbp->runners == 1) { /* last thread to reach barrier */ if (bp->maxcnt != 1) { /* reset runner count and switch sub-barriers */ sbp->runners = bp->maxcnt; bp->sbp = (bp->sbp == &bp->sb[0]) ? &bp->sb[1] : &bp->sb[0]; /* wake up the waiters cond_broadcast(&sbp->wait_cv); } } else { sbp->runners--; */

/* one less runner

*/

while (sbp->runners != bp->maxcnt) 254 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

EXAMPLE B1

Solaris Threads Example: barrier.c

(Continued)

cond_wait( &sbp->wait_cv, &sbp->wait_lk); } mutex_unlock(&sbp->wait_lk); return(0); } /* * barrier_destroy - destroy a barrier variable. * */ int barrier_destroy(barrier_t *bp) { int n; int i; for (i=0; i < 2; ++ i) { if (n = cond_destroy(&bp->sb[i].wait_cv)) return( n ); if (n = mutex_destroy( &bp->sb[i].wait_lk)) return(n); } return(0); }

#define #define #define #define

NTHR 4 NCOMPUTATION 2 NITER 1000 NSQRT 1000

void * compute(barrier_t *ba ) { int count = NCOMPUTATION; while (count--) { barrier_wait( ba ); /* do parallel computation */ } } main( int argc, char *argv[] ) { int i; int niter; int nthr; barrier_t ba; double et; thread_t *tid; Appendix B Solaris Threads Example: barrier.c 255

EXAMPLE B1

Solaris Threads Example: barrier.c

(Continued)

switch ( argc ) { default: case 3 : niter nthr break; case 2 : niter nthr break; niter nthr break;

= atoi( argv[1] ); = atoi( argv[2] );

= atoi( argv[1] ); = NTHR;

case 1 :

= NITER; = NTHR;

} barrier_init( &ba, nthr + 1, USYNC_THREAD, NULL ); tid = (thread_t *) calloc(nthr, sizeof(thread_t)); for (i = 0; i < nthr; ++i) { int n; if (n = thr_create(NULL, 0, (void *(*)( void *)) compute, &ba, NULL, &tid[i])) { errno = n; perror("thr_create"); exit(1); } } for (i = 0; i < NCOMPUTATION; i++) { barrier_wait(&ba ); /* do parallel algorithm */ } for (i = 0; i < nthr; i++) { thr_join(tid[i], NULL, NULL); } }

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Index
Numbers and Symbols
__errno, 167 __t_errno, 167 32-bit architectures, 68 64-bit environment data type model, 21 /dev/kmem, 22 /dev/mem, 22 large le support, 22 large virtual address space, 21 libkvm, 22 libraries, 22 /proc restrictions, 22 registers, 22 allocating storage from heap, malloc, 26 ANSI C, 170 application-level threads, 16 architecture multiprocessor, 222-226 SPARC, 68, 223, 224 assert statement, 110, 218 Async-Signal-Safe signal handlers, 149 functions, 147, 160 asynchronous event notication, 114 I/O, 152, 153, 154 semaphore use, 114 signal, 143 signals, 147 atomic, dened, 68 automatic, stack allocation, 63

A
accessing the signal mask, 37 Ada, 149 adding signals to mask, 38 aio_errno, 153 AIO_INPROGRESS, 153 aio_result_t, 154 aiocancel, 153, 154 aioread, 153, 154 aiowait, 154 aiowrite, 153, 154 alarm, per thread, 139 algorithms faster with MT, 18 parallel, 226 sequential, 226

B
binary semaphores, 112 binding threads to LWPs, 188 values to key, 194 bottlenecks, 220 bound threads, 16 dened, 16

C
C++, 170
257

cache, dened, 222 caching, threads data structure, 221 changing the signal mask, 37, 191 circularly-linked list, example, 95 coarse-grained locking, 217 code lock, 216, 217 code monitor, 216, 218 compare thread identiers, 34 compile ag -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE, 165 -D_POSIX_PTHREAD_SEMANTICS, 165 -D_REENTRANT, 165 single-threaded application, 165 compiling a multithreaded application, 163 completion semantics, 148 cond_broadcast return values, 206 syntax, 206 cond_destroy return values, 203 syntax, 203 cond_init, 210 return values, 202 syntax, 202 USYNC_THREAD, 210 cond_reltimedwait return values, 205 syntax, 205 cond_signal return values, 206 syntax, 205 cond_timedwait return values, 204 syntax, 204 cond_wait, 152 return values, 204 syntax, 203 condition variables, 68, 95-99, 111 blocking for specied time, 105 blocking on, 101 blocking until specied time, 104 destroying state, 108 getting scope, 99 initializing, 100 intializing attributes, 96 removing attribute, 97 setting scope, 98 unblocking one thread, 103
258 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

condition variables (Continued) unblocking threads, 106 condition wait POSIX threads, 151 Solaris threads, 151 contention, 219, 220 continuing execution, 179 counting semaphores, 16, 112 creating stacks, 64, 65, 187, 189 threads, 221 creating a default thread, 23 critical section, 224 custom stack, 64, 189

D
daemon threads, 188 data lock, 216, 217 races, 157 shared, 20, 223 thread-specic, 28 dbx, 189 dbx(1), 170 deadlock, 218, 219 debugging, 168, 171 asynchronous signals, 168 dbx, 189 dbx(1), 170 deadlocks, 168 hidden gap in synchronization, 168 inadequate stack size, 169 large automatic arrays, 169 long-jumping without releasing mutex lock, 168 mdb(1), 169 no synchronization of global memory, 168 passing pointer to callers stack, 168 recursive deadlock, 168 reevaluate conditions after return from condition wait, 168 deleting signals from mask, 38 destroying an existing thread-specic data key, 29 detached threads, 50, 187 Dijkstra, E. W., 111

E
errno, 31, 165, 214 errno, 167 errno, global variables, 214 event notication, 114 examining the signal mask, 37, 191 exec, 134, 136, 137 exit, 137, 188

interrupt, 143 invariants, 110, 217

J
joining threads, 25, 40, 50, 192

K F
fair share scheduler (FSS) scheduling class, 142 nding thread priority, 197 ne-grained locking, 217 xed priority scheduling class (FX), 142 ags to thr_create, 187 flockfile, 155 fork, 137 fork1, 135, 137 FORTRAN, 170 funlockfile, 155 key, binding value to key, 194 keys, storing value of, 195 kill, 143, 145

L
/lib/libc, 161, 163, 166 /lib/libC, 161 /lib/libdl_stubs, 161 /lib/libintl, 161, 163 /lib/libm, 161, 163 /lib/libmalloc, 161, 163 /lib/libmapmalloc, 161, 163 /lib/libnsl, 161, 163, 167 /lib/libpthread, 163, 166 /lib/libresolv, 161 /lib/librt, 163 /lib/libsocket, 161, 163 /lib/libthread, 163, 166 /lib/libthread, 19 /lib/libw, 161, 163 /lib/libX11, 161 /lib/strtoaddr, 161 libraries, MT-Safe, 161 library C routines, 213 threads, 163 lightweight processes, 140 debugging, 169 dened, 16 limits, resources, 140 linking with libpthread -lc, 166 ld, 166 -lpthread, 166
259

G
getc, 155 getc_unlocked, 155 gethostbyname, 214 gethostbyname_r, 215 getrusage, 140 getting thread-specic key binding, 30-31 global data, 217 side effects, 220 state, 216 variables, 31, 213-214

I
I/O asynchronous, 152, 153-154 nonsequential, 154 standard, 155 synchronous, 152 inheriting priority, 187 initializing the mutex, 84

linking with libthread -lc, 166 ld, 166 -lthread, 166 ln, linking, 163 local variable, 215 lock hierarchy, 219 locking, 216 coarse grained, 217, 220 code, 216 conditional, 93 data, 217 ne-grained, 217, 220 guidelines, 219-220 invariants, 217 locks, 68 mutual exclusion, 68, 95 read-write, 185 readers/writer, 68 longjmp, 140, 149 -lposix4 library, POSIX 1003.1 semaphore, 167 lseek(2), 154

M
malloc, 26 MAP_NORESERVE, 63 MAP_SHARED, 137 mdb(1), 169 memory consistency, 221 ordering, relaxed, 224 strongly ordered, 223 mmap, 137 mmap(2), 63 monitor, code, 216, 218 mprotect, 189 -mt, 166 MT-Safe libraries alternative mmap(2)-based memory allocation library, 161 C++ runtime shared objects, 161 internationalization, 161 math library, 161 network interfaces of the form getXXbyYY_r, 161
260 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

MT-Safe libraries (Continued) network name-to-address translation, 161 socket library for making network connections, 161 space-efficient memory allocation, 161 static switch compiling, 161 thread-safe form of unsafe interfaces, 161 thread-specic errno support, 161 wide character and wide string support for multibyte locales, 161 X11 Windows routines, 161 multiple-readers, single-writer locks, 185 multiprocessors, 221-226, 226 multithreading, dened, 16 mutex, mutual exclusion locks, 218 mutex_destroy return values, 199 syntax, 199 mutex_init, 210 return values, 199 syntax, 197-199 USYNC_THREAD, 210 mutex_lock return values, 200 syntax, 200 mutex scope, 71 mutex_trylock return values, 201 syntax, 201 mutex_trylock(3C), 219 mutex type PTHREAD_MUTEX_ERRORCHECK, 87 PTHREAD_MUTEX_NORMAL, 87 PTHREAD_MUTEX_RECUSIVE, 87 mutex_unlock, 200 return values, 200 mutual exclusion locks, 68, 95 attributes, 70 deadlock, 92 default attributes, 68 destroying mutex, 70 destroying mutex state, 91 getting mutex robust attribute, 83 getting mutex scope, 72 getting priority ceiling of mutex, 80 getting priority ceiling of mutex attribute, 78 getting protocol of mutex attribute, 76 initializing, 84

mutual exclusion locks (Continued) locking, 87 making consistent, 86 nonblock locking, 89 scope, Solaris and POSIX, 69 setting mutex robust attribute, 81 setting priority ceiling of mutex, 79 setting priority ceiling of mutex attribute, 78 setting protocol of mutex attribute, 74 setting type attribute, 73 unlocking, 88

N
NDEBUG, 110 netdir, 161 netselect, 161 nice, 141 nice(2), 141 nonsequential I/O, 154 null threads, 64, 189 null procedures /lib/libpthread stub, 166 /lib/libthread stub, 166 null threads, 189

P
parallel, algorithms, 226 Pascal, 170 PC, program counter, 20 PC_GETCID, 141 PC_GETCLINFO, 141 PC_GETPARMS, 141 PC_SETPARMS, 141 Petersons Algorithm, 224 PL/1 language, 144 portability, 68 pread, 153, 154 printf, 149 problem, 215 priocntl, 140, 141 PC_GETCID, 141 PC_GETCLINFO, 141 PC_SETPARMS, 141

priocntl(2), PC_GETPARMS, 141 priority, 20, 141 inheritance, 187, 197 and scheduling, 196 range, 196 setting for a thread, 196 priority inversion, 75 producer and consumer problem, 118, 129, 222 producer/consumer problem, 210 prole, multithread program, 139 programmer-allocated stack, 64, 189 prolagen, decrease semaphore, P operation, 112 pthread_atfork, 136 return value, 136 syntax, 38, 136 pthread_attr_destroy return values, 50 syntax, 49 pthread_attr_getdetachstate return values, 51 syntax, 51 pthread_attr_getguardsize return values, 53 syntax, 53 pthread_attr_getinheritsched return values, 59 syntax, 58-59 pthread_attr_getschedparam return values, 61 syntax, 60-61 pthread_attr_getschedpolicy return values, 57 syntax, 57 pthread_attr_getscope return values, 55 syntax, 54-55 pthread_attr_getstackaddr return values, 66 syntax, 66 pthread_attr_getstacksize return values, 63 syntax, 62 pthread_attr_init attribute values, 48 return values, 49 syntax, 48-49 pthread_attr_setdetachstate return values, 51
261

pthread_attr_setdetachstate (Continued) syntax, 50-51 pthread_attr_setguardsize return values, 52 syntax, 52 pthread_attr_setinheritsched return values, 58 syntax, 58 pthread_attr_setschedparam return values, 59 syntax, 59 pthread_attr_setschedpolicy return values, 57 syntax, 56-57 pthread_attr_setscope return values, 54 syntax, 53-54 pthread_attr_setstackaddr return values, 65 syntax, 64-65 pthread_attr_setstacksize return values, 62 syntax, 61-62 pthread_cancel return values, 42 syntax, 42 pthread_cleanup_pop, syntax, 45 pthread_cleanup_push, syntax, 44 pthread_cond_broadcast, 102, 108, 143 example, 107 return values, 107 syntax, 106-107 pthread_cond_destroy return values, 108 syntax, 108 pthread_cond_init return values, 101 syntax, 100-101 pthread_cond_reltimedwait_np return values, 106 syntax, 105-106 pthread_cond_signal, 102, 108, 110, 143 example, 103 return values, 104 syntax, 103-104 pthread_cond_timedwait example, 105
262 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

pthread_cond_timedwait (Continued) return values, 105 syntax, 104-105 pthread_cond_wait, 108, 109, 143 example, 103 return values, 102 syntax, 101-102 pthread_condattr_destroy return values, 98 syntax, 97-98 pthread_condattr_getpshared return values, 99 syntax, 99 pthread_condattr_init return values, 97 syntax, 97 pthread_condattr_setpshared return values, 99 syntax, 98 pthread_create return values, 24 syntax, 24 pthread_detach return values, 27 syntax, 27 pthread_equal return values, 34 syntax, 34 pthread_exit return values, 39 syntax, 39 pthread_getconcurrency return values, 56 syntax, 56 pthread_getschedparam return values, 36 syntax, 36 pthread_getspecific, syntax, 30-31 pthread_join, 152 return values, 25 syntax, 25 pthread_join(3C), 63 pthread_key_create example, 32 return values, 29 syntax, 28 pthread_key_delete return values, 29

pthread_key_delete (Continued) syntax, 29 pthread_kill, 145 return values, 37 syntax, 37 pthread_mutex_consistent_np return values, 86 syntax, 86 pthread_mutex_destroy return values, 91 syntax, 91 pthread_mutex_getprioceiling return values, 81 syntax, 80 pthread_mutex_init return values, 85 syntax, 85 pthread_mutex_lock example, 91, 94, 95 return values, 87 syntax, 87 pthread_mutex_setprioceiling return values, 80 syntax, 79 pthread_mutex_trylock, 93 return values, 90 syntax, 89 pthread_mutex_unlock example, 91, 94, 95 return values, 89 syntax, 89 pthread_mutexattr_destroy return values, 71 syntax, 70-71 pthread_mutexattr_getprioceiling return values, 79 syntax, 78 pthread_mutexattr_getprotocol return values, 77 syntax, 76 pthread_mutexattr_getpshared return values, 72 syntax, 72 pthread_mutexattr_getrobust_np return values, 83 syntax, 83 pthread_mutexattr_gettype return values, 74

pthread_mutexattr_gettype (Continued) syntax, 74 pthread_mutexattr_init return values, 70 syntax, 70 pthread_mutexattr_setprioceiling return values, 78 syntax, 77 pthread_mutexattr_setprotocol return values, 76 syntax, 74 pthread_mutexattr_setpshared return values, 72 syntax, 71 pthread_mutexattr_setrobust_np return valuea, 82 syntax, 81 pthread_mutexattr_settype return values, 73 syntax, 72 pthread_once return values, 34 syntax, 34 PTHREAD_PRIO_INHERIT, 75, 76 PTHREAD_PRIO_NONE, 75 PTHREAD_PRIO_PROTECT, 75 pthread_rwlock_destroy return values, 128 syntax, 128 pthread_rwlock_init return values, 124 syntax, 123-124 pthread_rwlock_rdlock return values, 125 syntax, 124-125 pthread_rwlock_tryrdlock return values, 125 syntax, 125 pthread_rwlock_trywrlock return values, 127 syntax, 126-127 pthread_rwlock_unlock return values, 128 syntax, 127-128 pthread_rwlock_wrlock return values, 126 syntax, 126
263

pthread_rwlockattr_destroy return values, 121 syntax, 121 pthread_rwlockattr_getpshared return values, 122 syntax, 122 pthread_rwlockattr_init return values, 120 syntax, 120 pthread_rwlockattr_setpshared return values, 122 syntax, 121 PTHREAD_SCOPE_SYSTEM, 53 pthread_self return values, 33 syntax, 33 pthread_setcancelstate return values, 42 syntax, 42 pthread_setcanceltype return values, 43 syntax, 43 pthread_setconcurrency return values, 55 syntax, 55 pthread_setschedparam return values, 36 syntax, 35-36 pthread_setspecific example, 32 return values, 30 syntax, 30 pthread_sigmask, 145 return values, 38, 39 syntax, 37-38 PTHREAD_STACK_MIN(), 64 pthread_testcancel, syntax, 43-44 putc, 155 putc_unlocked, 155 pwrite, 153, 154

R
_r, 215 read, 154 read-write locks, 185 acquiring read lock, 124
264 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

read-write locks (Continued) acquiring write lock, 126 attributes, 119 destroying, 128 destroying lock attribute, 121 getting lock attribute, 122 initializing lock, 120, 123 locking read lock, 125 locking write lock, 126 releasing read lock, 127 setting lock attribute, 121 readers/writer locks, 68 realtime, scheduling, 141 red zone, 63, 189 reentrant, 216 described, 216-218 functions, 159 strategies for making, 216 register state, 20 relaxed memory ordering, 224 remote procedure call RPC, 18 replacing signal mask, 38 resuming execution, 179 RPC, 18, 161, 221 RT,, See realtime rw_rdlock return values, 182 syntax, 182 rw_tryrdlock return values, 182 syntax, 182 rw_trywrlock return values, 184 syntax, 183-184 rw_unlock return values, 184 syntax, 184 rw_wrlock return values, 183 syntax, 183 rwlock_destroy return values, 185 syntax, 185 rwlock_init return values, 181 syntax, 180-181 USYNC_THREAD, 210

S
SA_RESTART, 152 safety, threads interfaces, 157-161, 161 sched_yield return values, 35 syntax, 35 scheduling realtime, 141 system class, 140 timeshare, 141 scheduling class fair share scheduler (FSS), 142 xed priority scheduler (FX), 142 priority, 140 timeshare, 141 sem_destroy return values, 118 syntax, 117-118 sem_init example, 118 return values, 115 sem_post, 112 example, 119 return values, 116 syntax, 116 sem_trywait, 112 return values, 117 syntax, 117 sem_wait, 112 example, 119 return values, 116 syntax, 116 sema_destroy return values, 210 syntax, 210 sema_init return values, 208 syntax, 114-115, 207-208 USYNC_THREAD, 210 sema_post, 160 return values, 208 syntax, 208 sema_trywait return values, 209 syntax, 209 sema_wait return values, 209 syntax, 209

semaphores, 68, 111-119, 131 binary, 112 blocking calling thread, 116 counting, 112 counting, dened, 16 decrement semaphore value, 112 decrementing count, 117 destroying state, 117 increment semaphore value, 112 incrementing, 115 initializing, 114 interprocess, 115 intraprocess, 115 named, 113 unnamed, 113 sending signal to thread, 37 sequential algorithms, 225 setjmp, 140, 148, 149 setting thread-specic key binding, 30 shared data, 20, 217 shared-memory multiprocessor, 223 SIG_DFL, 143 SIG_IGN, 143 SIG_SETMASK, 38 sigaction, 142, 143, 151 SIGFPE, 143, 149 SIGILL, 143 SIGINT, 144, 148, 151 SIGIO, 144, 154 siglongjmp, 149 signal, 142, 143 signal asynchronous, 143, 147 handler, 143, 147 unmasked and caught, 151 signal.h, 190, 191 signals access mask, 191 adding to mask, 38 deleting from mask, 38 inheritance, 187 masks, 20 pending, 179, 187 replacing current mask, 38 sending to thread, 37, 190 SIG_BLOCK, 38 SIG_SETMASK, 38 SIG_UNBLOCK, 38
265

signals (Continued) SIGSEGV, 63 sigprocmask, 145 SIGPROF, interval timer, 138 sigqueue, 143 SIGSEGV, 63, 143 sigsend, 143 sigsetjmp, 149 sigtimedwait, 147 SIGVTALRM, interval timer, 138 sigwait, 146-147, 147, 149 single-threaded assumptions, 213 code, 68 dened, 16 processes, 137 singly-linked list, example, 94 singly-linked list with nested locking, example, 94 size of stack, 62, 64, 187, 189 stack, 221 address, 65, 187 boundaries, 63 creation, 65, 187 custom, 189 deallocation, 189 minimum size, 64 overows, 63 pointer, 20 programmer-allocated, 64, 189 red zone, 63, 189 returning a pointer to, 159 size, 62, 64, 187 stack_base, 65, 187 stack_size, 62, 187 stack size nding minimum, 189 minimum, 189 standard I/O, 155 standards, UNIX, 17 start_routine(), 187 static storage, 167, 213 stdio, 165 store buffer, 224 storing thread key value, 195 streaming a tape drive, 153 strongly ordered memory, 223 suspending a new thread, 187
266 Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005

swap space, 63 synchronization objects condition variables, 68, 95-99, 111 mutex locks, 68, 95 read-write locks, 185 semaphores, 68, 111-119, 206, 211 synchronous I/O, 152, 153 system calls, handling errors, 214 system scheduling class, 140

T
tape drive, streaming, 153 THR_BOUND, 188 thr_continue, 187 return values, 179 syntax, 179 thr_create, 189 return values, 188 syntax, 187-188 THR_DAEMON, 188 THR_DETACHED, 187 thr_exit, 188 return values, 192 syntax, 192 thr_getprio return values, 197 syntax, 197 thr_getspecific return values, 195 syntax, 195 thr_join return values, 193 syntax, 192 thr_keycreate return values, 194 syntax, 194 thr_kill, 160 return values, 191 syntax, 190 thr_min_stack, 187, 189 thr_self, syntax, 190 thr_setprio return values, 196 syntax, 196 thr_setspecific return values, 195

thr_setspecific (Continued) syntax, 195 thr_sigsetmask, 160 return values, 192 syntax, 191 thr_suspend return values, 179 syntax, 178 thr_yield, 219 syntax, 190 thread create, exit status, 24 thread-directed signal, 147 thread identier, 33 thread-private storage, 20 thread-specic data, 28 example, 31-33 getting, 195 global into private, 32 new storage class, 214 setting, 194 thread-specic keys creating, 28, 194 thread synchronization condition variables, 21 mutex locks, 21 mutual exclusion locks, 68 read-write locks, 119 read/write locks, 21 semaphores, 21, 111-119 threads acquiring identiers, 190 creating, 186, 188, 221 daemon, 188 detached, 50, 187 identiers, 188 joining, 192 key, 194 library, 163 null, 64, 189 priority, 187 safety, 157, 161 sending signal to, 190 signals, 151 stack, 159 suspended, 179 suspending, 187 synchronizing, 68, 131 terminating, 39, 192

threads (Continued) thread-specic data, 214 user-level, 16, 19 yielding execution, 190 threads dened, 15 time-out, example, 105 timer, per LWP, 138 timeshare scheduling class, 141 TLI, 161 tools dbx, 189 dbx(1), 170 mdb(1), 169 total store order, 225 trap, 143 default action, 144 TS,, See timeshare scheduling class

U
unbound threads, 140 caching, 221 priorities, 140 and scheduling, 140 priocntl(2), 141 user-level threads, 16, 19 /usr/include/errno.h, 163 /usr/include/limits.h, 163 /usr/include/pthread.h, 163 /usr/include/signal.h, 163 /usr/include/thread.h, 163 /usr/include/unistd.h, 163 /usr/lib, 32bit threads library, Solaris 9, 168 /usr/lib/lwp, 32-bit threads library, Solaris 8, 168 /usr/lib/lwp/64, 64-bit threads library, Solaris 8, 168 USYNC_PROCESS, 210 condition variable, 202 mutex, 197 read-write lock, 181 semaphore, 207 USYNC_PROCESS_ROBUST, mutex, 197 USYNC_THREAD condition variable, 202 mutex, 198 read-write lock, 181
267

USYNC_THREAD (Continued) semaphore, 207

V
variables condition, 68, 95-99, 111, 130 global, 213-214 primitive, 68 verhogen, increase semaphore, V operation, 112 vfork, 135

W
write, 154 write(2), 154

X
XDR, 161

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Multithreaded Programming Guide January 2005