Operating Systems

Semaphores

Le Hai Duong, PhD. ([email protected])

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Outline

● Definition of semaphores
● Binary semaphores (Locks)
● Semaphores for ordering
● The producer/consumer (bounded buffer) problem
● Reader-writer locks
● The dining philosophers
● Thread Throttling
● Implement semaphores

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Semaphore ( lit. 'apparatus for signalling'; from Ancient Greek σῆμα
(sêma) 'mark, sign, token', and Greek -φόρος (-phóros) 'bearer,
carrier') is the use of an apparatus to create a visual signal transmitted
over distance…
– Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semaphore )

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Overview

● Edsger Dijkstra introduced a synchronization primitive

called the semaphore as a single primitive for all things
related to synchronization
○ can use semaphores as both locks and condition variables

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Semaphore: definition

● A semaphore is an object with an integer value that we

can manipulate with two routines; in the POSIX standard,
these routines are sem_wait() and sem_post()
● The initial value of the semaphore determines its behavior
→ must first initialize it to some value
initialize semaphore to 1

0: shared between threads in 1 process

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Semaphore: definition

● The value of semaphore, when negative, is equal to the

number of waiting threads

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Binary semaphores

● Using a semaphore as a lock

● Locks only have two states (held and not held) → call a
semaphore used as a lock a binary semaphore

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Binary semaphores (conti.)

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Binary semaphores (conti.)

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Semaphores for ordering

● Semaphores are also useful to order events in a

concurrent program.
○ One thread waits for something to happen, and another thread makes
that something happen and then signals that it has happened, thus
wakes the waiting thread → using the semaphore as an ordering
primitive (similar to the use of condition variables).
● Example is as follows → a thread creates another thread
and then wants to wait for it to complete its execution.

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Semaphores for ordering (conti.)
What should the initial value of this semaphore be?

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Semaphores for ordering (conti.)

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Semaphores for ordering (conti.)

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Setting the value of a semaphore

● Set the value to

○ 1 to use the semaphore as a lock
○ 0 to use the semaphore for ordering

→ Consider the number of resources to give away

immediately after initialization

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The producer/consumer (bounded
buffered) problem

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First attempt
Let MAX = 1

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First attempt
Let MAX = 10
→ race
condition

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A solution:
adding mutual
exclusion

→ deadlock

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Avoiding deadlock
→ move the mutex acquire and release to be just around
the critical section
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Reader-writer locks

● Classic problem → a more flexible locking primitive in

which different kinds of locking are required for different
data structure accesses
○ For example, imagine a number of concurrent list operations,
including inserts and simple lookups
■ Inserts change the state of the list → a traditional critical section
■ Lookups simply read the data structure → can allow many lookups to
proceed concurrently
■ The special type of lock supports this type of operation is known as a
reader-writer lock

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The dining philosophers

● The problem is famous because it is fun and somewhat

intellectually interesting; however, its practical utility is
low.
● The basic setup for the problem is this: assume there are
five “philosophers” sitting around a table
○ Between each pair of philosophers is a single fork (and thus, five
total).
○ In order to eat, a philosopher needs two forks, both the one on their
left and the one on their right.
○ The contention for these forks, and the synchronization problems that
ensue, are what makes this a problem we study in concurrent
programming.

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The dining philosophers (conti.)

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Thread throttling
● How can a programmer prevent “too many” threads from doing
something at once and bogging the system down?
Answer: decide upon a threshold for “too many”, and then
use a semaphore to limit the number of threads concurrently
executing the piece of code in question.
→ throttling, and consider it a form of admission control
● A simple semaphore can solve this problem.
○ Initializing the value of the semaphore to the maximum number of threads
○ Put a sem_wait() and sem_post() around the admission controlled
region → a semaphore can naturally throttle the number of threads that are
ever concurrently in the dangerous region of the code

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Implement semaphores

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Implement semaphores (conti.)

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Summary

● Semaphores are a powerful and flexible primitive for

writing concurrent programs → some programmers use
them exclusively, shunning locks and condition variables,
due to their simplicity and utility.

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