pthreads : pthread_cond_signal() from within critical section

Question

I have the following piece of code in thread A, which blocks using pthread_cond_wait()

pthread_mutex_lock(&my_lock);     
if ( false == testCondition )        
    pthread_cond_wait(&my_wait,&my_lock); 
pthread_mutex_unlock(&my_lock);

I have the following piece of code in thread B, which signals thread A

pthread_mutex_lock(&my_lock);  
testCondition = true;
pthread_cond_signal(&my_wait);
pthread_mutex_unlock(&my_lock);

Provided there are no other threads, would it make any difference if pthread_cond_signal(&my_wait) is moved out of the critical section block as shown below ?

pthread_mutex_lock(&my_lock);  
testCondition = true;
pthread_mutex_unlock(&my_lock);
pthread_cond_signal(&my_wait);

Answer 1

My recommendation is typically to keep the pthread_cond_signal() call inside the locked region, but probably not for the reasons you think.

In most cases, it doesn't really matter whether you call pthread_cond_signal() with the lock held or not. Ben is right that some schedulers may force a context switch when the lock is released if there is another thread waiting, so your thread may get switched away before it can call pthread_cond_signal(). On the other hand, some schedulers will run the waiting thread as soon as you call pthread_cond_signal(), so if you call it with the lock held, the waiting thread will wake up and then go right back to sleep (because it's now blocked on the mutex) until the signaling thread unlocks it. The exact behavior is highly implementation-specific and may change between operating system versions, so it isn't anything you can rely on.

But, all of this looks past what should be your primary concern, which is the readability and correctness of your code. You're not likely to see any real-world performance benefit from this kind of micro-optimization (remember the first rule of optimization: profile first, optimize second). However, it's easier to think about the control flow if you know that the set of waiting threads can't change between the point where you set the condition and send the signal. Otherwise, you have to think about things like "what if thread A sets testCondition=TRUE and releases the lock, and then thread B runs and sees that testCondition is true, so it skips the pthread_cond_wait() and goes on to reset testCondition to FALSE, and then finally thread A runs and calls pthread_cond_signal(), which wakes up thread C because thread B wasn't actually waiting, but testCondition isn't true anymore". This is confusing and can lead to hard-to-diagnose race conditions in your code. For that reason, I think it's better to signal with the lock held; that way, you know that setting the condition and sending the signal are atomic with respect to each other.

On a related note, the way you are calling pthread_cond_wait() is incorrect. It's possible (although rare) for pthread_cond_wait() to return without the condition variable actually being signaled, and there are other cases (for example, the race I described above) where a signal could end up awakening a thread even though the condition isn't true. In order to be safe, you need to put the pthread_cond_wait() call inside a while() loop that tests the condition, so that you call back into pthread_cond_wait() if the condition isn't satisfied after you reacquire the lock. In your example it would look like this:

pthread_mutex_lock(&my_lock);     
while ( false == testCondition ) {
    pthread_cond_wait(&my_wait,&my_lock);
}
pthread_mutex_unlock(&my_lock);

(I also corrected what was probably a typo in your original example, which is the use of my_mutex for the pthread_cond_wait() call instead of my_lock.)

Answer 2

The thread waiting on the condition variable should keep the mutex locked, and the other thread should always signal with the mutex locked. This way, you know the other thread is waiting on the condition when you send the signal. Otherwise, it's possible the waiting thread won't see the condition being signaled and will block indefinitely waiting on it.

Condition variables are typically used like this:

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

pthread_mutex_t lock = PTHREAD_MUTEX_INITIALIZER;
pthread_cond_t cond = PTHREAD_COND_INITIALIZER;
int go = 0;

void *threadproc(void *data) {
    printf("Sending go signal\n");
    pthread_mutex_lock(&lock);
    go = 1;
    pthread_cond_signal(&cond);
    pthread_mutex_unlock(&lock);
}

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
    pthread_t thread;
    pthread_mutex_lock(&lock);
    printf("Waiting for signal to go\n");
    pthread_create(&thread, NULL, &threadproc, NULL);
    while(!go) {
        pthread_cond_wait(&cond, &lock);
    }
    printf("We're allowed to go now!\n");
    pthread_mutex_unlock(&lock);
    pthread_join(thread, NULL);
    return 0;
}

This is valid:

void *threadproc(void *data) {
    printf("Sending go signal\n");
    go = 1;
    pthread_cond_signal(&cond);
}

However, consider what's happening in main

while(!go) {
    /* Suppose a long delay happens here, during which the signal is sent */
    pthread_cond_wait(&cond, &lock);
}

If the delay described by that comment happens, pthread_cond_wait will be left waiting—possibly forever. This is why you want to signal with the mutex locked.

Answer 3

Both are correct, however for reactivity issues, most schedulers give hand to another thread when a lock is released. I you don't signal before unlocking, your waiting thread A is not in the ready list and thous will not be scheduled until B is scheduled again and call pthread_cond_signal().

Answer 4

The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7 IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition (which as far as I can tell is the official pthread specification) says this on the matter:

The pthread_cond_broadcast() or pthread_cond_signal() functions may be called by a thread whether or not it currently owns the mutex that threads calling pthread_cond_wait() or pthread_cond_timedwait() have associated with the condition variable during their waits; however, if predictable scheduling behavior is required, then that mutex shall be locked by the thread calling pthread_cond_broadcast() or pthread_cond_signal().

To add my personal experience, I was working on an application that had code where the conditional variable was destroyed (and the memory containing it freed) by the thread that was woken up. We found that on a multi-core device (an iPad Air 2) the pthread_cond_signal() could actually crash sometimes if it was outside the mutex lock, as the waiter woke up and destroyed the conditional variable before the pthread_cond_signal had completed. This was quite unexpected.

So I would definitely veer towards the 'signal inside the lock' version, it appears to be safer.

Answer 5

Here is nice write up about the conditional variables: Techniques for Improving the Scalability of Applications Using POSIX Thread Condition Variables (look under 'Avoiding the Mutex Contention' section and point 7)

It says that, the second version may have some performance benefits. Because it makes possible for thread with pthread_cond_wait to wait less frequently.