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Threads- Threading Issues

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103 views19 pages

Threads- Threading Issues

Uploaded by

bgangabhavani.bvce
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
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Threads- Threading

Issues
 A thread is a single sequential flow of execution of tasks of
a process so it is also known as thread of execution or
thread of control.

 There is a way of thread execution inside the process of


any operating system.

 Each thread has its own program counter, stack, and set of
registers. However, the threads of a single process might
share the same code and data/file. Threads are also
termed lightweight processes as they share
common resources.
Components of Thread
A thread has the following three
components:
1.Program Counter
2.Register Set
3.Stack space
Need of thread

 Since threads use the same data and


code, the operational cost between
threads is low.
 Creating and terminating a thread is
faster compared to creating or
terminating a process.
 Context switching is faster in threads
compared to processes.
Multi threading

 In Multithreading, the idea is to


divide a single process into multiple
threads instead of creating a whole
new process.

 Multithreading is done to achieve


parallelism and to improve the
performance of the applications
Advantages of Multithreading

Resource Sharing: Threads of a single


process share the same resources such
as code, data/file.
Responsiveness: Program responsiveness
enables a program to run even if part of the
program is blocked or executing a lengthy
operation. Thus, increasing the responsiveness
to the user.
Economy: It is more economical to use
threads as they share the resources of a single
Types of thread
User Level Thread:
User-level threads are implemented and
managed by the user and the kernel is not aware
of it.
 User-level threads are implemented using
user-level libraries and the OS does not
recognize these threads.
 User-level thread is faster to create and
manage compared to kernel-level thread.
 Context switching in user-level threads is
faster.
 If one user-level thread performs a blocking
Kernel level Thread:
Kernel level threads are implemented and
managed by the OS.
 Kernel level threads are implemented using
system calls and Kernel level threads
are recognized by the OS.
 Kernel-level threads are slower to create
and manage compared to user-level
threads.
 Context switching in a kernel-level
thread is slower.
 Even if one kernel-level thread performs a
Threading Issues
•System Call
•Thread Cancellation
•Signal Handling
•Thread Pool
•Thread Specific
Data
 The fork() and exec() system calls
 The fork() is used to create a duplicate process. The meaning of the
fork() and exec() system calls change in a multithreaded program.

 If one thread in a program which calls fork(), does the new process
duplicate all threads, or is the new process single-threaded? If we
take, some UNIX systems have chosen to have two versions of
fork(), one that duplicates all threads and another that duplicates
only the thread that invoked the fork() system call.

 If a thread calls the exec() system call, the program specified in the
parameter to exec() will replace the entire process which includes
all threads.
Signal Handling
 Generally, signal is used in UNIX systems to notify
a process that a particular event has occurred.

 A signal received either synchronously or


asynchronously, based on the source of and the
reason for the event being signalled.
 A signal is generated by the occurrence
of a particular event.
 The signal is delivered to a process.
 Once delivered, the signal must be
handled.
Cancellation
 Thread cancellation is the task of terminating a thread
before it has completed.
 For example − If multiple database threads are
concurrently searching through a database and one
thread returns the result the remaining threads might be
cancelled.
 A target thread is a thread that is to be cancelled,
cancellation of target thread may occur in two different
scenarios −
 Asynchronous cancellation − One thread immediately
terminates the target thread.
 Deferred cancellation − The target thread periodically
checks whether it should terminate, allowing it an
opportunity to terminate itself in an ordinary fashion.
Thread polls
Multithreading in a web server, whenever the server
receives a request it creates a separate thread to service
the request.
Some of the problems that arise in creating a thread are
as follows −
 The amount of time required to create the thread prior
to serving the request together with the fact that this
thread will be discarded once it has completed its work.
 If all concurrent requests are allowed to be serviced in
a new thread, there is no bound on the number of
threads concurrently active in the system.
 Unlimited thread could exhaust system resources like
CPU time or memory.

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