stdin

stdin.c

/*!
 * \file
 * Author: Markus J. Kusano
 *
 * A small program recreating a bug found in SPLASH-2
 *
 * See README for more information 
 */

#include <pthread.h>
#include <stdio.h>

/* Comment out to remove debugging messages and calls to sleep() to attempt to
 * force the bug */
#define DEBUG

#ifdef DEBUG
#include <unistd.h>
#endif

/*!
 * ID ``pool''. Threads in the worker() function obtain their local id from
 * this variable.
 *
 * \sa worker()
 */
int gid;

/*!
 * Variable where the result is stored. The program does not do any actual
 * work. Result is initialized to zero by main(). The thread with myid == 0 in
 * the worker() function will store the variable local to worker() data into
 * result.
 *
 * \sa worker()
 */
int result;


/*!
 * Lock that synchronizes read/write access to gid variable.
 */
pthread_mutex_t gidLock = PTHREAD_MUTEX_INITIALIZER;

/*!
 * A function that emulates work being done from SPLASH-2. Each thread is given
 * local id, myid. myid is generated by assigning the current value of gid to
 * myid and then incrementing gid. The operation is protected by gidLock.
 *
 * \param arg Unused
 */
void *worker(void *arg);

void *worker(void *arg) {
#ifdef DEBUG
    printf("Entered worker function\n");
#endif

    int myid;

    int data = 999;

    pthread_mutex_lock(&gidLock);
    myid = gid;
    gid++;
#ifdef DEBUG
    printf("myid == %d\n", myid);
#endif
    pthread_mutex_unlock(&gidLock);

    /* work */

    if (myid == 0) {
#ifdef DEBUG
	printf("Sleeping since myid == 0\n");
	sleep(3);
#endif
	result = data;
    }

    return NULL;
}

/*!
 * Globals (gid and result) are initialized to 0. Two threads are created (t1
 * and t2) that spawn in the worker() function. The main() thread then waits
 * for the second thread to return by calling pthread_join(). 
 *
 * It was first attempted to have the main thread enter the worker function
 * after creating one child worker() thread. This seemed to stall the main()
 * thread for some reason. It was not discovered why this occured.
 *
 * After thread2 (t2) returns, the main thread stores the value of global
 * variable result into local variable tmp and then prints temp using printf().
 *
 * There is assumed atomicity in one of the worker functions (the one with myid
 * == 0) will have stored the data into result. If t2 finishes before t1 and
 * main prints out the result, there is a chance that result will still have
 * the initialized value of 0. 
 *
 * The thread with myid == 0 sets result to 999 to simulate doing work.
 */
int main() {
    pthread_t t1;
    int tmp;

    /* initialize globals */
    gid = 0;
    result = 0;

    pthread_create(&t1, NULL, worker, NULL);

    worker(NULL);

#ifdef DEBUG
    printf("Parent thread exited worker function\n");
#endif

    tmp = result;
    printf("%d\n", tmp);

    pthread_exit((void *) 0);
}