SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Ramapuram

21CSC202J – Operating Systems

Department & Semester: Computer Science and Engineering YEAR-2 SEM-3
UNIT-II Process Management

SYLLABUS

Process Concept, Process Scheduling, Operations on Processes, Interprocess Communication,

Communication in Client– Server Systems, Threads: Multicore Programming, Multithreading
Models, Thread Libraries, Implicit Threading, Threading Issues. Process Synchronization: The
Critical-Section Problem, Peterson’s Solution, Synchronization Hardware, Mutex Locks,
Semaphores, Classic Problems of Synchronization, Monitors.

Processes

• Process Concept
• Process Scheduling
• Operations on Processes
• Interprocess Communication
• Examples of IPC Systems
• Communication in Client-Server Systems
Objectives

• To introduce the notion of a process -- a program in execution, which forms the basis of all
computation

• To describe the various features of processes, including scheduling, creation and

termination, and communication

• To explore interprocess communication using shared memory and message passing

• To describe communication in client-server systems
Process Concept
Program is passive entity stored on disk (executable file), process is active. Program becomes
process when executable file loaded into memory. Execution of program started via GUI
mouse clicks, command line entry of its name, etc One program can be
several processes Consider multiple users executing the same program.

An operating system executes a variety of programs: –

Batch system – jobs
Time-shared systems – user programs or tasks
Textbook uses the terms job and process almost interchangeably
Process – a program in execution; process execution must progress in sequential fashion
Multiple parts
The program code, also called text section
Current activity including program counter, processor registers
Stack containing temporary data
Function parameters, return addresses, local variables – Data section containing global
variables.
Heap containing memory dynamically allocated during run time.

Process in Memory
Process State
As a process executes, it changes state

– new: The process is being created

– running: Instructions are being executed
– waiting: The process is waiting for some event to
occur

– ready: The process is waiting to be assigned to a

processor

– terminated: The process has finished execution.

– Diagram of Process State

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Process Control Block (PCB)
Information associated with each process(also called task control block)
Process state – running, waiting, etc
Program counter – location of instruction to next execute
CPU registers – contents of all process centric registers
CPU scheduling information- priorities, scheduling queue pointers
Memory-management information – memory allocated to the process
Accounting information – CPU used, clock time elapsed since start, time limits
I/O status information – I/O devices allocated to process, list of
open files
CPU Switch From Process to Process

Threads
So far, process has a single thread of execution
Consider having multiple program counters per process
Multiple locations can execute at once
Multiple threads of control -> threads
Must then have storage for thread details, multiple program counters in PCB.
Process Representation in Linux
Represented by the C structure task_struct

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pid t_pid; /* process identifier */ long state; /* state of the process */
unsigned int time_slice /* scheduling information */ struct task_struct
*parent; /* this process’s parent */ struct list_head children; /* this process’s
children */ struct files_struct *files; /* list of open files */ struct mm_struct
*mm; /* address space of this process */

Process Scheduling
Maximize CPU use, quickly switch processes onto CPU for time sharing
Process scheduler selects among available processes for next execution on CPU
Maintains scheduling queues of processes
Job queue – set of all processes in the system
Ready queue – set of all processes residing in main memory, ready and waiting to execute
Device queues – set of processes waiting for an I/O device
Processes migrate among the various queues Ready Queue And Various I/O Device Queues

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Representation of Process Scheduling
Queueing diagram represents queues, resources, flows

Schedulers
• Short-term scheduler (or CPU scheduler) – selects which process should be executed
next and allocates CPU
Sometimes the only scheduler in a system
Short-term scheduler is invoked frequently (milliseconds) (must be fast)
• Long-term scheduler (or job scheduler) – selects which processes should be brought
into the ready queue
Long-term scheduler is invoked infrequently (seconds, minutes) (may be slow)
The long-term scheduler controls the degree of multiprogramming
Processes can be described as either:
I/O-bound process – spends more time doing I/O than computations, many short CPU
bursts
CPU-bound process – spends more time doing computations; few very long CPU bursts
Long-term scheduler strives for good process mix Addition of Medium Term Scheduling
● Medium-term scheduler can be added if degree of multiple programming needs to
decrease

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Remove process from memory, store on disk, bring back in from disk to
continue execution: swapping

Multitasking in Mobile Systems

Some mobile systems (e.g., early version of iOS) allow only one process to run, others
suspended
Due to screen real estate, user interface limits iOS provides for a Single foreground
process- controlled via user interface Multiple background processes– in memory, running,
but not on the display, and with limits
Limits include single, short task, receiving notification of events, specific long-running
tasks like audio playback
Android runs foreground and background, with fewer limits
Background process uses a service to perform tasks
Service can keep running even if background process is suspended
Service has no user interface, small memory use
Context Switch
When CPU switches to another process, the system must save the state of the old process and
load the saved state for the new process via a context switch
Context of a process represented in the PCB
Context-switch time is overhead; the system does no useful work while switching
The more complex the OS and the PCB 🡺 the longer the context switch
Time dependent on hardware support
Some hardware provides multiple sets of registers per CPU 🡺 multiple contexts loaded at once
Operations on Processes
System must provide mechanisms for:

– process creation,
– process termination,
– and so on as detailed next
Process Creation

• Parent process create children processes, which, in turn create other processes, forming
a tree of processes

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• Generally, process identified and managed via a process identifier (pid)
• Resource sharing options
– Parent and children share all resources
– Children share subset of parent’s resources
– Parent and child share no resources
• Execution options
– Parent and children execute concurrently
– Parent waits until children terminate

A Tree of Processes in Linux

• Address space
– Child duplicate of parent
– Child has a program loaded into it
• UNIX examples
– fork() system call creates new process
– exec() system call used after a fork() to replace the process’ memory space with a new
program

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C Program Forking Separate Process

Creating a Separate Process via Windows API

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Process Termination
Process executes last statement and then asks the operating system to delete it using the exit()
system call.
– Returns status data from child to parent (via wait())
– Process’ resources are deallocated by operating system
Parent may terminate the execution of children processes using the abort() system call. Some
reasons for doing so:
– Child has exceeded allocated resources
– Task assigned to child is no longer required
– The parent is exiting and the operating systems does not allow a child to continue if its
parent terminates

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Process Termination
Some operating systems do not allow child to exists if its parent has terminated. If a process
terminates, then all its children must also be terminated.
– cascading termination. All children, grandchildren, etc. are terminated.
– The termination is initiated by the operating system.
The parent process may wait for termination of a child process by using the wait()system call.
The call returns status information and the pid of the terminated process
pid = wait(&status);
• If no parent waiting (did not invoke wait()) process is a zombie
• If parent terminated without invoking wait , process is an orphan
Multi-process Architecture – Chrome Browser
• Many web browsers ran as single process (some still do)
– If one website causes trouble, entire browser can hang or crash
• Google Chrome Browser is multiprocess with 3 different types of processes: – Browser
process manages user interface, disk and network I/O
– Renderer process renders web pages, deals with HTML, Javascript. A new renderer created
for each website opened
• Runs in sandbox restricting disk and network I/O, minimizing effect of security exploits
– Plug-in process for each type of plug-in

Interprocess Communication
• Processes within a system may be independent or cooperating
• Cooperating process can affect or be affected by other processes, including sharing data
• Reasons for cooperating processes:
– Information sharing
– Computation speedup
– Modularity

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– Convenience
• Cooperating processes need interprocess communication (IPC)
• Two models of IPC
– Shared memory
– Message passing
Communications Models
(a) Message passing. (b) shared memory.

Cooperating Processes

• Independent process cannot affect or be affected by the execution of another process

• Cooperating process can affect or be affected by the execution of another process
• Advantages of process cooperation
– Information sharing
– Computation speed-up
– Modularity
– Convenience
Producer-Consumer Problem

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• Paradigm for cooperating processes, producer process produces
information that is consumed by a consumer process

– unbounded-buffer places no practical limit on the size of the buffer

– bounded-buffer assumes that there is a fixed buffer size
Bounded-Buffer – Shared-Memory Solution
• Shared data
#define BUFFER_SIZE 10 typedef
struct { . . . } item;
item buffer[BUFFER_SIZE]; int in = 0; int
out = 0;
• Solution is correct, but can only use BUFFER_SIZE-1 elements
Bounded-Buffer – Producer
item
next_produced
; while (true) {
/* produce an item in next produced */ while
(((in + 1) % BUFFER_SIZE) == out)
; /* do nothing */ buffer[in] =
next_produced;
in = (in + 1) %
BUFFER_SIZE; }
Bounded Buffer – Consumer
item next_consumed; while
(true) { while (in == out)
; /* do nothing */ next_consumed = buffer[out]; out = (out
+ 1) % BUFFER_SIZE;
/* consume the item in next consumed */
}
Interprocess Communication – Shared Memory

• An area of memory shared among the processes that wish to communicate

• The communication is under the control of the users processes not the operating system.
• Major issues is to provide mechanism that will allow the user processes to synchronize their
actions when they access shared memory.
Interprocess Communication – Message Passing

• Mechanism for processes to communicate and to synchronize their actions

• Message system – processes communicate with each other without resorting to shared
variables

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• IPC facility provides two operations:
– send(message)
– receive(message)
• The message size is either fixed or variable
• If processes P and Q wish to communicate, they need to:
– Establish a communication link between them
– Exchange messages via send/receive
• Implementation issues:
– How are links established?
– Can a link be associated with more than two processes?
– How many links can there be between every pair of communicating processes?
– What is the capacity of a link?
– Is the size of a message that the link can accommodate fixed or variable?
– Is a link unidirectional or bi-directional?
• Implementation of communication link – Physical:
• Shared memory
• Hardware bus
• Network – Logical:
• Direct or indirect
• Synchronous or asynchronous
• Automatic or explicit buffering
Direct Communication

• Processes must name each other explicitly:

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– send (P, message) – send a message to process P
– receive(Q, message) – receive a message from process Q
• Properties of communication link
– Links are established automatically
– A link is associated with exactly one pair of communicating processes
– Between each pair there exists exactly one link
– The link may be unidirectional, but is usually bidirectional
Indirect Communication

• Messages are directed and received from mailboxes

(also referred to as ports)

– Each mailbox has a unique id

– Processes can communicate only if they share a mailbox
• Properties of communication link
– Link established only if processes share a common mailbox
– A link may be associated with many processes
– Each pair of processes may share several communication links
– Link may be unidirectional or bi-directional
• Operations
– create a new mailbox (port)
– send and receive messages through mailbox
– destroy a mailbox
• Primitives are defined as:
send(A, message) – send a message to mailbox A receive(A, message) – receive a
message from mailbox A

• Mailbox sharing
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– P , P , and P share mailbox A – P , sends; P and P receive – Who gets
1 2 3 1 2 3

the message?

• Solutions
– Allow a link to be associated with at most two processes
– Allow only one process at a time to execute a receive operation
– Allow the system to select arbitrarily the receiver. Sender is notified who the
receiver was.
Synchronization
● Message passing may be either blocking or non-blocking

● Blocking is considered synchronous

o Blocking send -- the sender is blocked until the message is received
o Blocking receive -- the receiver is blocked until a message is available
● Non-blocking is considered asynchronous
o Non-blocking send -- the sender sends the message and continue
o Non-blocking receive -- the receiver receives:
o A valid message, or
o Null message
o Different combinations possible
o If both send and receive are blocking, we have a rendezvous
● Producer-consumer becomes trivial
message next_produced; while (true)
{
/* produce an item in next produced */ send(next_produced);
}
message next_consumed; while
(true)
{ receive(next_consumed);
/* consume the item in next consumed */ }
Buffering

• Queue of messages attached to the link.

• implemented in one of three ways
Zero capacity – no messages are queued on a link. Sender must wait for receiver
(rendezvous)
Bounded capacity – finite length of n messages Sender must wait if link full
Unbounded capacity – infinite length Sender never waits
Examples of IPC Systems - POSIX

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● POSIX Shared Memory

● Process first creates shared memory segment

shm_fd = shm_open(name, O CREAT | O

RDWR, 0666);

● Also used to open an existing segment to share it

● Set the size of the object

ftruncate(shm fd, 4096);

● Now the process could write to the shared memory

sprintf(shared memory, "Writing to shared memory");
IPC POSIX Producer

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IPC POSIX Consumer

Examples of IPC Systems - Mach

● Mach communication is message based
o Even system calls are messages
o Each task gets two mailboxes at creation- Kernel and Notify
o Only three system calls needed for message transfer
msg_send(), msg_receive(), msg_rpc()
o Mailboxes needed for commuication, created via port_allocate()
o Send and receive are flexible, for example four options if mailbox full:
● Wait indefinitely

● Wait at most n milliseconds

● Return immediately

• Temporarily cache a message

Examples of IPC Systems – Windows
● Message-passing centric via advanced local procedure call

● (LPC) facility
o Only works between processes on the same system

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o Uses ports (like mailboxes) to establish and maintain communication
channels
o Communication works as follows:
● The client opens a handle to the subsystem’s connection port object.

● The client sends a connection request.

● The server creates two private communication ports and returns the handle to
one of them to the client.
● The client and server use the corresponding port handle to send messages or
callbacks and to listen for replies.
● Local Procedure Calls in Windows

Communications in Client-Server Systems

• Sockets
• Remote Procedure Calls
• Pipes
• Remote Method Invocation (Java)
Sockets
● A socket is defined as an endpoint for communication

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● Concatenation of IP address and port – a number included at start of
message packet to differentiate network services on a host
● The socket 161.25.19.8:1625 refers to port 1625 on host 161.25.19.8

● Communication consists between a pair of sockets

● All ports below 1024 are well known, used for standard services

● Special IP address 127.0.0.1 (loopback) to refer to system on which process is running

● Socket Communication

Sockets in JavaThree types of sockets

– Connectionoriented (TCP)
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– Connectionless
(UDP) – MulticastSock et class– data can be sent to multiple recipients

• Consider this “Date” server:

Remote Procedure Calls
RPC stands for "Remote Procedure Call."
● It is a protocol that allows one computer program to request a service or procedure to
be executed on another remote computer or server.
● How RPC works:

● Client Sends Request: The client program initiates an RPC request by calling a function
or method that is implemented on the remote server. This function call appears as if it
were a local call.
● Request Serialization: The parameters of the function call are serialized (converted into
a format that can be transmitted over the network). This includes the function name,
parameters, and any other necessary information.
● Network Transmission: The serialized request is sent over the network to the remote
server where the requested procedure will be executed.
● Server Receives Request: The remote server receives the serialized request and
deserializes it to extract the function name and parameters.
● Procedure Execution: The server looks up the requested function or method and
executes it using the provided parameters.
● Response Serialization: The server serializes the result of the function call (return value
or any output) and prepares to send it back to the client.
● Network Transmission: The serialized response is sent back over the network to the
client.
● Client Receives Response: The client receives the response, deserializes it to extract the
result, and can then continue its execution based on the received information.
● RPC mechanisms and protocols, such as gRPC, CORBA (Common Object Request Broker
Architecture), Java RMI (Remote Method Invocation), SOAP (Simple Object Access
Protocol)Execution of RPC

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Pipes
● Acts as a conduit allowing two processes to communicate • Issues:
o Is communication unidirectional or bidirectional?
o In the case of two-way communication, is it half or fullduplex?
o Must there exist a relationship (i.e., parent-child) between the communicating
processes?
o Can the pipes be used over a network?
● Ordinary pipes – cannot be accessed from outside the process that created it.
Typically, a parent process creates a pipe and uses it to communicate with a child
process that it created.
● Named pipes – can be accessed without a parent-child relationship.
Ordinary Pipes

● Ordinary Pipes allow communication in standard producer-consumer style

● Producer writes to one end (the write-end of the pipe)

● Consumer reads from the other end (the read-end of the pipe)

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● Ordinary pipes are therefore unidirectional

● Require parent-child relationship between communicating processes

● Windows calls these anonymous pipes

● Named Pipes

● Named Pipes are more powerful than ordinary pipes

● Communication is bidirectional

● No parent-child relationship is necessary between the communicating processes

● Several processes can use the named pipe for communication

● Provided on both UNIX and Windows systemsreads

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Threads
Overview
Multicore Programming
Multithreading Models
Thread Libraries
Implicit Threading
Threading Issues
Operating System Examples
Objectives
● To introduce the notion of a thread—a fundamental unit of CPU utilization that forms
the basis of multithreaded computer systems
● To discuss the APIs for the Pthreads, Windows, and Java thread libraries

● To explore several strategies that provide implicit threading

● To examine issues related to multithreaded programming

● To cover operating system support for threads in Windows and Linux

● Motivation

● Most modern applications are multithreaded

● Threads run within application

● Multiple tasks with the application can be implemented by separate threads

o Update display
o Fetch data
o Spell checking
o Answer a network request
● Process creation is heavy-weight while thread creation is light-weight

● Can simplify code, increase efficiency

● Kernels are generally multithreaded

● Multithreaded Server Architecture

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Benefits
● Responsiveness – may allow continued execution if part of process is blocked,
especially important for user interfaces
● Resource Sharing – threads share resources of process, easier than shared memory or
message passing
● Economy – cheaper than process creation, thread switching lower overhead than
context switching
● Scalability – process can take advantage of multiprocessor architectures

● Multicore Programming

● Multicore or multiprocessor systems putting pressure on programmers, challenges

include:
o Dividing activities
o Balance
o Data splitting
o Data dependency
o Testing and debugging
● Parallelism implies a system can perform more than one task simultaneously

● Concurrency supports more than one task making progress

o Single processor / core, scheduler providing concurrency

Multicore Programming
● Types of parallelism
o Data parallelism – distributes subsets of the same data across multiple cores,
same operation on each
o Task parallelism – distributes threads across cores, each thread performing unique
operation
● As # of threads grows, so does architectural support for threading
o CPUs have cores as well as hardware threads
o Consider Oracle SPARC T4 with 8 cores, and 8 hardware threads per core
● Concurrency vs. Parallelism

● Concurrent execution on single-core system:

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 Parallelism on a multi-core system:

Single and Multithreaded Processes

Amdahl’s Law
● Identifies performance gains from adding additional cores to an application that has
both serial and parallel components
● S is serial portion

● N processing cores

● This formula states that the maximum improvement in speed of a process is limited by
the proportion of the program that can be made parallel.
● That is, if application is 75% parallel / 25% serial, moving from 1 to 2 cores results in
speedup of 1.6 times
● As N approaches infinity, speedup approaches 1 / S

● Serial portion of an application has disproportionate effect on performance gained

by adding additional cores

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 ● But does the law take into account contemporary multicore systems?

● User Threads and Kernel Threads

● User threads - management done by user-level threads library

● Three primary thread libraries:

o POSIX Pthreads – Windows threads
o Java threads
● Kernel threads - Supported by the Kernel

● Examples – virtually all general purpose operating systems, including:

o Windows
o Solaris
o Linux
o Tru64 UNIX
o Mac OS X
Multithreading Models
● Many-to-One

● One-to-One

● Many-to-Many
Many-to-One
● Many user-level threads mapped to single kernel thread

● One thread blocking causes all to block

● Multiple threads may not run in parallel on muticore system because only one may
be in kernel at a time • Few systems currently use this model • Examples:
o Solaris Green Threads

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 o GNU Portable Threads
One-to-One
● Each user-level thread maps to kernel thread

● Creating a user-level thread creates a kernel thread

● More concurrency than many-to-one

● Number of threads per process sometimes restricted due to overhead

● Examples
o Windows
o Linux
o Solaris 9 and later
Many-to-Many Model

● Allows many user level threads to be mapped to many kernel threads

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● ● Allows the operating system to create a sufficient number of kernel
threads

● Solaris prior to version 9

● Windows with the ThreadFiber package

Two-level Model
● Similar to M:M, except that it allows a user thread to be bound to kernel
thread
● Examples – IRIX
o HP-UX
o Tru64 UNIX
o Solaris 8 and earlier
● Pthreads

● May be provided either as user-level or kernel-level

● A POSIX standard (IEEE 1003.1c) API for thread creation and synchronization

● Specification, not implementation

● API specifies behavior of the thread library, implementation is up to development of

the library

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 ● Common in UNIX operating systems (Solaris, Linux, Mac OS X)

● Pthreads Example

Thread Libraries

• Thread library provides programmer with API for creating and managing threads
• Two primary ways of implementing
– Library entirely in user space
– Kernel-level library supported by the OS
Pthreads Example (Cont.)

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Pthreads Code for Joining 10 Threads

Windows Multithreaded C Program

Windows Multithreaded C Program

Java Threads

• Java threads are managed by the JVM

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• Typically implemented using the threads model provided by underlying
OS

• Java threads may be created by:

– Extending Thread class

– Implementing the Runnable interface
Java Multithreaded Program

Java Multithreaded Program (Cont.)

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Implicit Threading
• Growing in popularity as numbers of threads increase, program correctness more difficult
with explicit threads
• Creation and management of threads done by compilers and run-time libraries rather than
programmers
• Three methods explored
– Thread Pools
– OpenMP
– Grand Central Dispatch
• Other methods include Microsoft Threading Building Blocks (TBB), java.util.concurrent
package
Thread Pools
• Create a number of threads in a pool where they await work • Advantages:
– Usually slightly faster to service a request with an existing thread than create a new thread
– Allows the number of threads in the application(s) to be bound to the size of the pool
– Separating task to be performed from mechanics of creating task allows different strategies
for running task
• i.e.Tasks could be scheduled to run periodically

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• Windows API supports thread pools:

OpenMP
• Set of compiler directives and an API for C, C++, FORTRAN
•
•
• Provides support for parallel
programming in shared-memory
environments
• Identifies parallel regions –
blocks of code that can run in parallel
#pragma omp parallel
Create as many threads as there are cores
#pragma omp parallel for for(i=0;i<N;i++) {
c[i] = a[i] + b[i];
}
Run for loop in parallel
Grand Central Dispatch
• Apple technology for Mac OS X and iOS operating systems
• Extensions to C, C++ languages, API, and run-time library
• Allows identification of parallel sections
• Manages most of the details of threading
• Block is in “^{ }” - ˆ{ printf("I am a block"); } • Blocks placed in dispatch queue
– Assigned to available thread in thread pool when removed from queue
Grand Central Dispatch

• Two types of dispatch queues:

– serial – blocks removed in FIFO order, queue is per process, called main queue

• Programmers can create additional serial queues within program

– concurrent – removed in FIFO order but several may be removed at a time

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• Three system wide queues with priorities low, default, high
Threading Issues

• Semantics of fork() and exec() system calls

• Signal handling
– Synchronous and asynchronous
• Thread cancellation of target thread
– Asynchronous or deferred
• Thread-local storage
• Scheduler Activations
Semantics of fork() and exec()

• Does fork()duplicate only the calling thread or all threads?

– Some UNIXes have two versions of fork
• exec() usually works as normal – replace the running process including all threads

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Signal Handling

● Signals are used in UNIX systems to notify a process that a

particular event has occurred.

● A signal handler is used to process signals

1. Signal is generated by particular event

2. Signal is delivered to a process

3. Signal is handled by one of two signal handlers:

1. default

2. user-defined

● Every signal has default handler that kernel runs when handling
signal

● User-defined signal handler can override default

● For single-threaded, signal delivered to process

Signal Handling (Cont.)

● Where should a signal be delivered for multithreaded?

● Deliver the signal to the thread to which the signal applies

● Deliver the signal to every thread in the process

● Deliver the signal to certain threads in the process

● Assign a specific thread to receive all signals for the process

Thread Cancellation

• Terminating a thread before it has finished • Thread to be canceled is target thread

• Two general approaches:
– Asynchronous cancellation terminates the target thread immediately
– Deferred cancellation allows the target thread to periodically check if it should be cancelled
• Pthread code to create and cancel a thread:
Thread Cancellation (Cont.)

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• Invoking thread cancellation requests cancellation, but actual cancellation
depends on thread state

• If thread has cancellation disabled, cancellation remains pending until thread

enables it
• Default type is deferred
– Cancellation only occurs when thread reaches cancellation point
• I.e. pthread_testcancel()

• Then cleanup handler is invoked

• On Linux systems, thread cancellation is handled through signals

Thread-Local Storage

• Thread-local storage (TLS) allows each thread to have its own copy of data
• Useful when you do not have control over the thread creation process (i.e., when using a
thread pool)

• Different from local variables

– Local variables visible only during single function invocation
– TLS visible across function invocations
• Similar to static data
– TLS is unique to each thread
Scheduler Activations

• Both M:M and Two-level models require

communication to maintain the appropriate number of
kernel threads allocated to the application

• Typically use an intermediate data structure between

user and kernel threads – lightweight process (LWP)

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– Appears to be a virtual processor on which process can schedule user
thread to run – Each LWP attached to kernel thread – How many LWPs to create?

• Scheduler activations provide upcalls - a communication mechanism from the kernel to the
upcall handler in the thread library

• This communication allows an application to maintain the correct number kernel threads
Operating System Examples

• Windows Threads
• Linux Threads

* 21CSC202J Operating Systems UNIT 2 38

Windows Threads

• Windows implements the Windows API – primary API for Win 98, Win NT, Win 2000,
Win XP, and Win 7

• Implements the one-to-one mapping, kernel-level

• Each thread contains
– A thread id
– Register set representing state of processor
– Separate user and kernel stacks for when thread runs in user mode or kernel mode
– Private data storage area used by run-time libraries and dynamic link libraries (DLLs)
• The register set, stacks, and private storage area are known as the context of the thread
Windows Threads (Cont.)
• The primary data structures of a thread include:

– ETHREAD (executive thread block) – includes pointer to process to which thread belongs
and to KTHREAD, in kernel space

– KTHREAD (kernel thread block) – scheduling and synchronization info, kernel-mode

stack, pointer to TEB, in kernel space

– TEB (thread environment block) – thread id, user-mode stack, thread-local storage, in user
space
Windows Threads Data Structures

* 21CSC202J Operating Systems UNIT 2 39

Linux Threads

• Linux refers to them as tasks rather than threads

• Thread creation is done through clone() system call
• clone() allows a child task to share the address space of the parent task (process)
– Flags control behavior

• struct task_struct points to process data structures (shared or unique)

* 21CSC202J Operating Systems UNIT 2 40

Process Synchronization
Process Synchronization

• Background
• The Critical-Section Problem • Peterson’s Solution
• Synchronization Hardware
• Mutex Locks
• Semaphores
• Classic Problems of Synchronization
• Monitors
• Synchronization Examples
• Alternative Approaches
Objectives

• To present the concept of process synchronization.

• To introduce the critical-section problem, whose solutions can be used to ensure the consistency
of shared data

• To present both software and hardware solutions of the critical-section problem

• To examine several classical process-synchronization problems
• To explore several tools that are used to solve process synchronization problems
Background
• Processes can execute concurrently
– May be interrupted at any time, partially completing execution
• Concurrent access to shared data may result in data inconsistency
• Maintaining data consistency requires mechanisms to ensure the orderly execution of
cooperating processes
• Illustration of the problem:
Suppose that we wanted to provide a solution to the consumerproducer problem that fills all
the buffers. We can do so by having an integer counter that keeps track of the number of full
buffers. Initially, counter is set to 0. It is incremented by the producer after it produces a new
buffer and is decremented by the consumer after it consumes a buffer.
Producer
while (true) {

* 21CSC202J Operating Systems UNIT 2 42

/* produce an item in next produced
*/
while (counter == BUFFER_SIZE) ;
/* do nothing */ buffer[in] = next_produced; in = (in + 1) %
BUFFER_SIZE; counter++;
}
Consumer
while (true) { while (counter == 0)
; /* do nothing */ next_consumed = buffer[out]; out = (out + 1) %
BUFFER_SIZE;
counter--;
/* consume the item in next consumed */
}
Race Condition

• counter++ could be implemented as

register1 = counter register1 = register1 + 1
counter = register1

• counter-- could be implemented as

register2 = counter register2 = register2 - 1
counter = register2

• Consider this execution interleaving with “count = 5” initially:

S0: producer execute register1 = counter {register1 = 5}
S1: producer execute register1 = register1 + 1 {register1 = 6}
S2: consumer execute register2 = counter {register2 = 5}
S3: consumer execute register2 = register2 – 1 {register2 = 4} S4: producer execute counter
= register1 {counter = 6 }
S5: consumer execute counter = register2 {counter = 4}
Critical Section Problem

• Consider system of n processes {p , p , … p }

0 1 n-1

• Each process has critical section segment of code

– Process may be changing common variables, updating table, writing file, etc
– When one process in critical section, no other may be in its critical section
• Critical section problem is to design protocol to solve this
• Each process must ask permission to enter critical section in entry section, may follow critical
section with exit section, then remainder section
Critical Section

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• General structure of process P i

Algorithm for Process Pi

do { while (turn == j);
critical section
turn = j;
remainder section
} while (true);
Solution to Critical-Section Problem
1. Mutual Exclusion - If process Pi is executing in its critical section, then no other
processes can be executing in their critical sections
2. Progress - If no process is executing in its critical section and there exist some
processes that wish to enter their critical section, then the selection of the processes that will enter
the critical section next cannot be postponed indefinitely
3. Bounded Waiting - A bound must exist on the number of times that other processes
are allowed to enter their critical sections after a process has made a request to enter its critical
section and before that request is granted
⚫Assume that each process executes at a nonzero speed
⚫No assumption concerning relative speed of the n processes
Critical-Section Handling in OS
Two approaches depending on if kernel is preemptive or non- preemptive

– Preemptive– allows preemption of process when running in kernel mode

– Non-preemptive – runs until exits kernel mode, blocks, or voluntarily yields CPU
• Essentially free of race conditions in kernel mode
Peterson’s Solution

* 21CSC202J Operating Systems UNIT 2 44

• Good algorithmic description of solving the problem • Two process solution
• Assume that the and machine-language instructions are atomic; that is, cannot be
load store

interrupted

• The two processes share two variables:

– int turn;
– Boolean flag[2]

• The variable indicates whose turn it is to enter the critical section

turn

• The array is used to indicate if a process is ready to enter the critical section.
flag flag[i] = true implies
that process Pi is ready!
Algorithm for Process Pi
do {
flag[i] = true; turn = j;
while (flag[j] && turn = = j);
critical section
flag[i] = false;
remainder section
} while (true);
Peterson’s Solution (Cont.)
• Provable that the three CS requirement are met: 1. Mutual exclusion
is preserved Pi enters CS only if:
either flag[j] = false or turn = i

2. Progress requirement is satisfied

3. Bounded-waiting requirement is met

Synchronization Hardware
• Many systems provide hardware support for implementing the critical section code.
• All solutions below based on idea of locking
– Protecting critical regions via locks
• Uniprocessors – could disable interrupts
– Currently running code would execute without preemption
– Generally too inefficient on multiprocessor systems
• Operating systems using this not broadly scalable
• Modern machines provide special atomic hardware instructions

* 21CSC202J Operating Systems UNIT 2 45

• Atomic = non-interruptible
– Either test memory word and set value
– Or swap contents of two memory words
Solution to Critical-section Problem Using Locks
do
{ acquire
lock
critical section
release lock remainder section
} while (TRUE);

* 21CSC202J Operating Systems UNIT 2 46

test_and_set Instruction
Definition:
boolean test_and_set (boolean *target)
{ boolean rv = *target; *target = TRUE;
return rv: }

1. Executed atomically

2. Returns the original value of passed parameter

3. Set the new value of passed parameter to “TRUE”.

Solution using test_and_set()
● Shared Boolean variable lock, initialized to FALSE ● Solution:
do { while (test_and_set(&lock))
; /* do nothing */
/* critical section */ lock = false;
/* remainder section */
} while (true);
compare_and_swap Instruction
Definition:
int compare _and_swap(int *value, int expected, int new_value) { int temp = *value;
if (*value == expected)
*value = new_value; return
temp;
}

1. Executed atomically

2. Returns the original value of passed parameter “value”

3. Set the variable “value” the value of the passed parameter “new_value” but only if
“value” ==“expected”. That is, the swap takes place only under this condition.
Solution using compare_and_swap
• Shared integer “lock” initialized to 0; • Solution:
do { while (compare_and_swap(&lock, 0, 1) != 0)
; /* do nothing */
/* critical section */ lock = 0;
/* remainder section */
} while (true);
Bounded-waiting Mutual Exclusion with test_and_set
do
{ waiting[i
] = true;
key = true;
while (waiting[i] && key)
key = test_and_set(&lock);

* 21CSC202J Operating Systems UNIT 2 47

waiting[i] = false; /* critical
section */ j = (i + 1) % n; while
((j != i) && !waiting[j]) j = (j +
1) % n;
if (j ==
i) lock
=
false;
else waiting[j] =
false;
/* remainder section */
} while (true);
Mutex Locks
● Previous solutions are complicated and generally inaccessible to application programmers
● OS designers build software tools to solve critical section problem
● Simplest is mutex lock
● Protect a critical section by first acquire() a lock then release() the lock
● Boolean variable indicating if lock is available or not
● Calls to acquire() and release() must be atomic
● Usually implemented via hardware atomic instructions
● But this solution requires busy waiting
● This lock therefore called a spinlock
acquire() and release()
• acquire() { while (!available)
; /* busy wait */ available = false;;
}
• release() {
available = true;
}
• do {
acquire lock
critical section
release lock
remainder section
} while (true);
Semaphore
• Synchronization tool that provides more sophisticated ways (than Mutex locks) for
process to synchronize their activities.

* 21CSC202J Operating Systems UNIT 2 48

• Semaphore S – integer variable
• Can only be accessed via two indivisible (atomic) operations
– wait() and signal()
• Originally called P() and V()
• Definition of the wait() operation
wait(S) {
while (S <= 0)
; // busy wait
S--;
}
•Definition of the signal() operation
signal(S) {
S++;
}
Semaphore Usage
• Counting semaphore – integer value can range over an unrestricted domain
• Binary semaphore – integer value can range only between 0 and 1
– Same as a mutex lock
• Can solve various synchronization problems
• Consider P1 and P2 that require S1 to happen before S2
Create a semaphore “synch” initialized to 0
P1:
S 1;
signal(sync
h); P2:
wait(synch)
; S2;
• Can implement a counting semaphore S as a binary semaphore
Semaphore Implementation
• Must guarantee that no two processes can execute the wait() and signal() on the same
semaphore at the same time
• Thus, the implementation becomes the critical section problem where the wait and signal
code are placed in the critical section
– Could now have busy waiting in critical section implementation
• But implementation code is short
• Little busy waiting if critical section rarely occupied
• Note that applications may spend lots of time in critical sections and therefore this is not a
good solution
Semaphore Implementation with no Busy waiting

* 21CSC202J Operating Systems UNIT 2 49

• With each semaphore there is an associated waiting queue
• Each entry in a waiting queue has two data items:
– value (of type integer)
– pointer to next record in the list
• Two operations:
– block – place the process invoking the operation on the appropriate waiting queue
– wakeup – remove one of processes in the waiting queue and place it in the ready queue
• typedef struct{ int value; struct process *list;
} semaphore;
Implementation with no Busy waiting (Cont.)
wait(semaphore *S) { S->value--; if (S-
>value < 0) { add this process to S->list;
block();
}

}
signal(semaphore *S) { S->value++; if (S->value
<= 0) { remove a process P from S->list;
wakeup(P);
}
}
Deadlock and Starvation
• Deadlock – two or more processes are waiting indefinitely for an event that can be caused
by only one of the waiting processes
• Let S and Q be two semaphores initialized to 1
P0 P1
wait(S); wait(Q); wait(Q); wait(S);
... ...
signal(S); signal(Q);
signal(Q); signal(S);
• Starvation – indefinite blocking
– A process may never be removed from the semaphore queue in which it is suspended
• Priority Inversion – Scheduling problem when lower-priority process holds a lock needed
by higher-priority process
– Solved via priority-inheritance protocol
Classical Problems of Synchronization

* 21CSC202J Operating Systems UNIT 2 50

• Classical problems used to test newly-proposed synchronization schemes
– Bounded-Buffer Problem
– Readers and Writers Problem
– Dining-Philosophers Problem

* 21CSC202J Operating Systems UNIT 2 51

Bounded-Buffer Problem

• n buffers, each can hold one item

• Semaphore initialized to the value 1
mutex

• Semaphore initialized to the value 0

full

• Semaphore initialized to the value n

empty

* 21CSC202J Operating Systems UNIT 2 52

Bounded Buffer Problem (Cont.)

• The structure of the producer process

do {
...
/* produce an item in next_produced */ ...
wait(empty); wait(mutex);
...
/* add next produced to the buffer */ ...
signal(mutex); signal(full);
} while (true);
Bounded Buffer Problem (Cont.)
●The structure of the consumer process
Do
{ wait(full
);
wait(mute
x);
...
/* remove an item from buffer to next_consumed */ ...
signal(mutex); signal(empty);
...
/* consume the item in next consumed */
...
} while (true);
Readers-Writers Problem
• A data set is shared among a number of concurrent processes
– Readers – only read the data set; they do not perform any updates
– Writers – can both read and write
• Problem – allow multiple readers to read at the same time
– Only one single writer can access the shared data at the same time
• Several variations of how readers and writers are considered – all involve some form of
priorities
• Shared Data
– Data set
– Semaphore rw_mutex initialized to 1
– Semaphore mutex initialized to 1
– Integer read_count initialized to 0
Readers-Writers Problem (Cont.)
• The structure of a writer process

* 21CSC202J Operating Systems UNIT 2 53

do { wait(rw_mutex);
...
/* writing is performed */ ...
signal(rw_mutex);
} while (true);
Readers-Writers Problem (Cont.)
• The structure of a reader process
do { wait(mutex); read_count++; if
(read_count == 1)
wait(rw_mutex);
signal(mutex);
...
/* reading is performed */ ...
wait(mutex); read count--; if
(read_count == 0)
signal(rw_mutex); signal(mutex);
} while (true);
Readers-Writers Problem Variations

• First variation – no reader kept waiting unless writer has permission to use shared object
• Second variation – once writer is ready, it performs the write ASAP
• Both may have starvation leading to even more variations
• Problem is solved on some systems by kernel providing reader-writer locks
Dining-Philosophers Problem

• Philosophers spend their lives alternating thinking and eating

• Don’t interact with their neighbors, occasionally try to pick up 2 chopsticks
(one at a time) to eat from bowl
– Need both to eat, then release both when done

* 21CSC202J Operating Systems UNIT 2 54

• In the case of 5 philosophers
– Shared data

• Bowl of rice (data set)

• Semaphore chopstick [5] initialized to 1
Dining-Philosophers Problem Algorithm

• The structure of Philosopher i:

do { wait (chopstick[i] ); wait (chopStick[ (i + 1) % 5] );
// eat
signal (chopstick[i] ); signal (chopstick[ (i + 1) % 5] );
// think
} while (TRUE);

• What is the problem with this algorithm?

Dining-Philosophers Problem Algorithm (Cont.)

• Deadlock handling
– Allow at most 4 philosophers to be sitting simultaneously at the table.
– Allow a philosopher to pick up the forks only if both are available (picking must be done in a
critical section.
– Use an asymmetric solution -- an odd-numbered philosopher picks up first the left chopstick
and then the right chopstick. Even-numbered philosopher picks up first the right chopstick and
then the left chopstick.
Problems with Semaphores

• Incorrect use of semaphore operations:

– signal (mutex) …. wait (mutex)
– wait (mutex) … wait (mutex)
– Omitting of wait (mutex) or signal (mutex) (or both)

• Deadlock and starvation are possible.

Monitors
• A high-level abstraction that provides a convenient and effective mechanism for process
synchronization
• Abstract data type, internal variables only accessible by code within the procedure
• Only one process may be active within the monitor at a time
• But not powerful enough to model some synchronization schemes
monitor monitor-name
{

* 21CSC202J Operating Systems UNIT 2 55

// shared variable declarations procedure P1 (…)
{ …. } procedure Pn (…) {……}
Initialization code (…) { … }
}
}
Schematic view of a Monitor

Condition Variables
• condition x, y;
• Two operations are allowed on a condition variable:
– – a process that invokes the operation is suspended until x.signal()
x.wait()

– – resumes one of processes (if any) that invoked x.wait()

x.signal()

• If no on the variable, then it has no effect on the variable

x.wait()

Monitor with Condition Variables

* 21CSC202J Operating Systems UNIT 2 56

Condition Variables Choices
• If process P invokes x.signal(), and process Q is suspended in
x.wait(), what should happen next?
– Both Q and P cannot execute in paralel. If Q is resumed, then P must wait
• Options include
– Signal and wait – P waits until Q either leaves the monitor or it waits for another condition
– Signal and continue – Q waits until P either leaves the monitor or it waits for another
condition
– Both have pros and cons – language implementer can decide
– Monitors implemented in Concurrent Pascal compromise
• P executing signal immediately leaves the monitor, Q is resumed – Implemented in other
languages including Mesa, C#, Java
Monitor Solution to Dining Philosophers
monitor DiningPhilosophers
{ enum { THINKING; HUNGRY, EATING) state [5] ; condition
self [5];

* 21CSC202J Operating Systems UNIT 2 57

void pickup (int i) { state[i] = HUNGRY; test(i); if (state[i] !=
EATING) self[i].wait;
}
void putdown (int i) { state[i] =
THINKING;
// test left and right neighbors test((i + 4) % 5); test((i + 1) % 5);
}
Solution to Dining Philosophers (Cont.)
void test (int i) { if ((state[(i + 4) % 5] != EATING) &&
(state[i] == HUNGRY) &&
(state[(i + 1) % 5] != EATING) ) { state[i] = EATING ;
self[i].signal () ;
}
}
initialization_code() { for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
state[i] = THINKING;
}
}
Solution to Dining Philosophers (Cont.)
• Each philosopher i invokes the operations pickup() and putdown() in the following sequence:
DiningPhilosophers.pickup(i);
EAT
DiningPhilosophers.putdown(i);
• No deadlock, but starvation is possible
Monitor Implementation Using Semaphores
• Variables
semaphore mutex; // (initially = 1) semaphore next; // (initially = 0)
int next_count = 0;
• Each procedure F will be replaced by
wait(mutex);
… body of F;
… if (next_count > 0) signal(next)
else signal(mutex);
• Mutual exclusion within a monitor is ensured
Monitor Implementation – Condition Variables
• For each condition variable x, we have:
semaphore x_sem; // (initially = 0) int x_count = 0;
• The operation x.wait can be implemented as:
x_count++; if (next_count >
0) signal(next);
else signal(mutex);
wait(x_sem); x_count--;
Monitor Implementation (Cont.)

* 21CSC202J Operating Systems UNIT 2 58

• The operation x.signal can be implemented as:
if (x_count > 0) { next_count++; signal(x_sem); wait(next);
next_count--;
}
Resuming Processes within a Monitor

• If several processes queued on condition x, and

x.signal() executed, which should be resumed?

• FCFS frequently not adequate

• conditional-wait construct of the form x.wait(c) – Where c is priority number
– Process with lowest number (highest priority) is scheduled next
Single Resource allocation

• Allocate a single resource among competing processes using priority numbers that
specify the maximum time a process plans to use the resource
R.acquire(t); ...
access the resurce; ...
R.release;

• Where R is an instance of type ResourceAllocator

A Monitor to Allocate Single Resource
monitor ResourceAllocator
{ boolean busy; condition x; void
acquire(int time) { if (busy)
x.wait(time);
busy = TRUE;
} void release() { busy
= FALSE;
x.signal();
} initialization code() { busy
= FALSE;
}
}

* 21CSC202J Operating Systems UNIT 2 59