Share condition variable & mutex between processes: does mutex have to locked before?
c, condition-variable, ipc, mutex, pthreads
Solution
To be shareable between processes a mutex needs to be initialised accordingly via a properly initialised attribute: http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/functions/pthread_mutexattr_setpshared.html
#include <pthread.h>
...
pthread_mutex_t * pmutex = NULL;
pthread_mutexattr_t attrmutex;
/* Initialise attribute to mutex. */
pthread_mutexattr_init(&attrmutex);
pthread_mutexattr_setpshared(&attrmutex, PTHREAD_PROCESS_SHARED);
/* Allocate memory to pmutex here. */
/* Initialise mutex. */
pthread_mutex_init(pmutex, &attrmutex);
/* Use the mutex. */
/* Clean up. */
pthread_mutex_destroy(pmutex);
pthread_mutexattr_destroy(&attrmutex);
(error checking left out for the sake of this example's readability)
The same applies to a condition variable which should be shared between processes: http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/functions/pthread_condattr_setpshared.html
#include <pthread.h>
...
pthread_cond_t * pcond = NULL;
pthread_condattr_t attrcond;
/* Initialise attribute to condition. */
pthread_condattr_init(&attrcond);
pthread_condattr_setpshared(&attrcond, PTHREAD_PROCESS_SHARED);
/* Allocate memory to pcond here. */
/* Initialise condition. */
pthread_cond_init(pcond, &attrcond);
/* Use the condition. */
/* Clean up. */
pthread_cond_destroy(pcond);
pthread_condattr_destroy(&attrcond);
(error checking left out for the sake of this example's readability)
Also see this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/2390670/694576
Problem
I need to some little help to understand how to use condition variables in C to resolve an exercise. Here is a little example: ``` #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <unistd.h> #include <pthread.h> #include <string.h> #include <errno.h> #include <sys/types.h> #include <sys/mman.h> #include <sys/stat.h> #include <fcntl.h> #define OKTOWRITE "/oktowrite" #define MESSAGE "/message" #define MUTEX "/lock" int main(int argc, char** argv) { pthread_cond_t* condition; pthread_mutex_t *mutex; char* message; int des_cond, des_msg, des_mutex; int mode = S_IRWXU | S_IRWXG; des_mutex = shm_open(MUTEX, O_CREAT | O_RDWR | O_TRUNC, mode); if (des_mutex < 0) { perror("failure on shm_open on des_mutex"); exit(1); } if (ftruncate(des_mutex, sizeof(pthread_mutex_t)) == -1) { perror("Error on ftruncate to sizeof pthread_cond_t\n"); exit(-1); } mutex = (pthread_mutex_t*) mmap(NULL, sizeof(pthread_mutex_t), PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, des_mutex, 0); if (mutex == MAP_FAILED ) { perror("Error on mmap on mutex\n"); exit(1); } pthread_mutex_init(mutex, NULL ); des_cond = shm_open(OKTOWRITE, O_CREAT | O_RDWR | O_TRUNC, mode); if (des_cond < 0) { perror("failure on shm_open on des_cond"); exit(1); } if (ftruncate(des_cond, sizeof(pthread_cond_t)) == -1) { perror("Error on ftruncate to sizeof pthread_cond_t\n"); exit(-1); } condition = (pthread_cond_t*) mmap(NULL, sizeof(pthread_cond_t), PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, des_cond, 0); if (condition == MAP_FAILED ) { perror("Error on mmap on condition\n"); exit(1); } pthread_cond_init(condition, NULL ); if (!fork()) { sleep(3); pthread_mutex_lock(mutex); pthread_cond_signal(condition); pthread_mutex_unlock(mutex); printf("son signaled\n"); exit(0); } else { printf("wait on condition\n"); pthread_mutex_lock(mutex); pthread_cond_wait(condition, mutex); pthread_mutex_unlock(mutex); printf("Signaled by son process, wake up\n"); pthread_mutex_destroy(mutex); pthread_cond_destroy(condition); shm_unlink(OKTOWRITE); shm_unlink(MESSAGE); shm_unlink(MUTEX); return 0; } } ``` The problem is that the father of the process keeps on being locked, even after son's signaling. Everything is in shared memory (using `shm_open` and `mmap`) so the condition should be the same for both the processes. Am I maybe making a mistake by locking the mutex before calling wait or signal? EDIT: Thanks to all who helped me. Here's the right code with the CRITICAL parts marked: ``` #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <unistd.h> #include <pthread.h> #include <string.h> #include <errno.h> #include <sys/types.h> #include <sys/mman.h> #include <sys/stat.h> #include <fcntl.h> #define OKTOWRITE "/condwrite" #define MESSAGE "/msg" #define MUTEX "/mutex_lock" int main(int argc, char** argv) { pthread_cond_t* condition; pthread_mutex_t* mutex; char* message; int des_cond, des_msg, des_mutex; int mode = S_IRWXU | S_IRWXG; des_mutex = shm_open(MUTEX, O_CREAT | O_RDWR | O_TRUNC, mode); if (des_mutex < 0) { perror("failure on shm_open on des_mutex"); exit(1); } if (ftruncate(des_mutex, sizeof(pthread_mutex_t)) == -1) { perror("Error on ftruncate to sizeof pthread_cond_t\n"); exit(-1); } mutex = (pthread_mutex_t*) mmap(NULL, sizeof(pthread_mutex_t), PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, des_mutex, 0); if (mutex == MAP_FAILED ) { perror("Error on mmap on mutex\n"); exit(1); } des_cond = shm_open(OKTOWRITE, O_CREAT | O_RDWR | O_TRUNC, mode); if (des_cond < 0) { perror("failure on shm_open on des_cond"); exit(1); } if (ftruncate(des_cond, sizeof(pthread_cond_t)) == -1) { perror("Error on ftruncate to sizeof pthread_cond_t\n"); exit(-1); } condition = (pthread_cond_t*) mmap(NULL, sizeof(pthread_cond_t), PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, des_cond, 0); if (condition == MAP_FAILED ) { perror("Error on mmap on condition\n"); exit(1); } /* HERE WE GO */ /**************************************/ /* set mutex shared between processes */ pthread_mutexattr_t mutexAttr; pthread_mutexattr_setpshared(&mutexAttr, PTHREAD_PROCESS_SHARED); pthread_mutex_init(mutex, &mutexAttr); /* set condition shared between processes */ pthread_condattr_t condAttr; pthread_condattr_setpshared(&condAttr, PTHREAD_PROCESS_SHARED); pthread_cond_init(condition, &condAttr); /*************************************/ if (!fork()) { sleep(10); pthread_mutex_lock(mutex); pthread_cond_signal(condition); printf("son signaled\n"); pthread_mutex_unlock(mutex); exit(0); } else { printf("father waits on condition\n"); pthread_mutex_lock(mutex); pthread_cond_wait(condition, mutex); pthread_mutex_unlock(mutex); printf("Signaled by son process, wake up!!!!!!!!\n"); pthread_condattr_destroy(&condAttr); pthread_mutexattr_destroy(&mutexAttr); pthread_mutex_destroy(mutex); pthread_cond_destroy(condition); shm_unlink(OKTOWRITE); shm_unlink(MESSAGE); shm_unlink(MUTEX); } return 0; } ```