Concurrent Programming Jin-Soo Kim (jinsookim@skku.edu) Computer Systems Laboratory Sungkyunkwan University http://csl.skku.edu
Echo Server Revisited int main (int argc, char *argv[]) {... listenfd = socket(af_inet, SOCK_STREAM, 0); bzero((char *)&saddr, sizeof(saddr)); saddr.sin_family = AF_INET; saddr.sin_addr.s_addr = htonl(inaddr_any); saddr.sin_port = htons(port); bind(listenfd, (struct sockaddr *)&saddr, sizeof(saddr)); listen(listenfd, 5); while (1) { connfd = accept(listenfd, (struct sockaddr *)&caddr, &clen); while ((n = read(connfd, buf, MAXLINE)) > 0) { printf ( got %d bytes from client.\n, n); write(connfd, buf, n); close(connfd); 2
Iterative Servers (1) One request at a time client 1 server client 2 call connect ret connect call read ret read close call accept ret accept write close call accept ret accept write close call connect ret connect call read ret read close 3
Iterative Servers (2) Fundamental flaw call connect ret connect call fgets User goes out to lunch Client 1 blocks waiting for user to type in data client 1 server client 2 Server blocks waiting for data from Client 1 call accept ret accept call read Solution: use concurrent servers instead Use multiple concurrent flows to serve multiple clients at the same time. call connect Client 2 blocks waiting to complete its connection request until after lunch! 4
Creating Concurrent Flows Processes Kernel automatically interleaves multiple logical flows. Each flow has its own private address space. Threads Kernel automatically interleaves multiple logical flows. Each flow shares the same address space. Hybrid of processes and I/O multiplexing I/O multiplexing with select() User manually interleaves multiple logical flows Each flow shares the same address space Popular for high-performance server designs. 5
Concurrent Programming Process-based
Process-based Servers client 1 server client 2 call accept call connect call connect ret connect call fgets User goes out to lunch Client 1 blocks waiting for user to type in data call read child 1 fork... ret accept fork call accept ret accept child 2 call read write close ret connect call fgets write call read end read close 7
Echo Server Iterative version int main (int argc, char *argv[]) {... while (1) { connfd = accept (listenfd, (struct sockaddr *)&caddr, &caddrlen)); while ((n = read(connfd, buf, MAXLINE)) > 0) { printf ( got %d bytes from client.\n, n); write(connfd, buf, n); close(connfd); 8
Echo Server: Process-based int main (int argc, char *argv[]) {... signal (SIGCHLD, handler); while (1) { connfd = accept (listenfd, (struct sockaddr *)&caddr, &caddrlen)); if (fork() == 0) { close(listenfd); while ((n = read(connfd, buf, MAXLINE)) > 0) { printf ( got %d bytes from client.\n, n); write(connfd, buf, n); close(connfd); exit(0); close(connfd); void handler(int sig) { pid_t pid; int stat; while ((pid = waitpid(-1, &stat, WNOHANG)) > 0); return; 9
Implementation Issues Servers should restart accept() if it is interrupted by a transfer of control to the SIGCHLD handler Not necessary for systems with POSIX signal handling. Required for portability on some older Unix systems. Server must reap zombie children to avoid fatal memory leak Server must close its copy of connfd. Kernel keeps reference for each socket. After fork(), refcnt(connfd) = 2 Connection will not be closed until refcnt(connfd) = 0 10
Process-based Designs Pros Handles multiple connections concurrently. Clean sharing model. Descriptors (no), file tables (yes), global variables (no) Simple and straightforward. Cons Additional overhead for process control. Process creation and termination Process switching Nontrivial to share data between processes. Requires IPC (InterProcess Communication) mechanisms: FIFO s, System V shared memory and semaphores 11
Concurrent Programming Thread-based
Traditional View Process = process context + address space Process context Program context: Data registers Condition codes Stack pointer (SP) Program counter (PC) Kernel context: VM structures Descriptor table brk pointer SP brk PC 0 Code, data, and stack stack shared libraries run-time heap read/write data read-only code/data 13
Alternate View Process = thread context + kernel context + address space Thread (main thread) Code and Data SP stack Thread context: Data registers Condition codes Stack pointer (SP) Program counter (PC) brk PC 0 shared libraries run-time heap read/write data read-only code/data Kernel context: VM structures Descriptor table brk pointer 14
A Process with Multiple Threads Multiple threads can be associated with a process. Each thread has its own logical control flow (sequence of PC values) Each thread shares the same code, data, and kernel context Each thread has its own thread id (TID) Thread 1 (main thread) Shared code and data stack 1 Thread 1 context: Data registers Condition codes SP1 PC1 shared libraries run-time heap read/write data read-only code/data 0 Kernel context: VM structures Descriptor table brk pointer Thread 2 (peer thread) stack 2 Thread 2 context: Data registers Condition codes SP2 PC2 15
Logical View of Threads Threads associated with a process form a pool of peers Unlike processes which form a tree hierarchy Threads associated with process foo Process hierarchy T1 T2 shared code, data and kernel context T4 P0 P1 sh sh sh T5 T3 foo 16
Threads vs. Processes How threads and processes are similar Each has its own logical control flow. Each can run concurrently. Each is context switched. How threads and processes are different Threads share code and data, processes (typically) do not. Threads are somewhat less expensive than processes. Linux 2.4 Kernel, 512MB RAM, 2 CPUs -> 1,811 forks()/second -> 227,611 threads/second (125x faster) 17
Pthreads Interface POSIX Threads Interface Creating and reaping threads pthread_create() pthread_join() Determining your thread ID pthread_self() Terminating threads pthread_cancel() pthread_exit() exit (terminates all threads), return (terminates current thread) Synchronizing access to shared variables pthread_mutex_init() pthread_mutex_[un]lock() pthread_cond_init() pthread_cond_[timed]wait() pthread_cond_signal(), etc. 18
hello, world Program (1) /* * hello.c - Pthreads "hello, world" program */ #include pthread.h" void *thread(void *vargp); int main() { pthread_t tid; pthread_create(&tid, NULL, thread, NULL); pthread_join(tid, NULL); exit(0); /* thread routine */ void *thread(void *vargp) { printf("hello, world!\n"); return NULL; Thread attributes (usually NULL) Thread arguments (void *p) return value (void **p) 19
hello, world Program (2) Execution of threaded hello, world main thread call pthread_create() pthread_create() returns call Pthread_join() main thread waits for peer thread to terminate pthread_join() returns peer thread printf() return NULL; (peer thread terminates) exit() terminates main thread and any peer threads 20
Echo Server: Thread-based int main (int argc, char *argv[]) { int *connfdp; pthread_t tid;... while (1) { connfdp = (int *) malloc(sizeof(int)); *connfdp = accept (listenfd, (struct sockaddr *)&caddr, &caddrlen)); void *thread_main(void *arg) { int n; char buf[maxline]; int connfd = *((int *)arg); pthread_detach(pthread_self()); free(arg); while((n = read(connfd, buf, MAXLINE)) > 0) write(connfd, buf, n); pthread_create(&tid, NULL, thread_main, connfdp); close(connfd); return NULL; 21
Implementation Issues (1) Must run detached to avoid memory leak. At any point in time, a thread is either joinable or detached. Joinable thread can be reaped and killed by other threads Must be reaped (with pthread_join()) to free memory resources. Detached thread cannot be reaped or killed by other threads. Resources are automatically reaped on termination. Exit state and return value are not saved. Default state is joinable. Use pthread_detach(pthread_self()) to make detached. 22
Implementation Issues (2) Must be careful to avoid unintended sharing For example, what happens if we pass the address connfd to the thread routine? int connfd;... pthread_create(&tid, NULL, thread_main, &connfd);... All functions called by a thread must be thread-safe. A function is said to be thread-safe or reentrant, when the function may be called by more than one thread at a time without requiring any other action on the caller s part. 23
Thread-based Designs Pros Easy to share data structures between threads. e.g., logging information, file cache, etc. Threads are more efficient than processes. Cons Unintentional sharing can introduce subtle and hard-to-reproduce errors! The ease with which data can be shared is both the greatest strength and the greatest weakness of threads. 24
Concurrent Programming Event-based
I/O Multiplexing Event-based Concurrent Servers Maintain a pool of connected descriptors. Repeat the following forever: Use the Unix select() system call to block until:» (a) New connection request arrives on the listening descriptor.» (b) New data arrives on an existing connected descriptor. If (a), add the new connection to the pool of connections. If (b), read any available data from the connection» Close connection on EOF and remove it from the pool. I/O multiplexing provides more control with less overhead. 26
select() int select(int n, fd_set *readfds, fd_set *writefds, fd_set *exceptfds, struct timeval *timeout) readfds n Opaque bit vector (max FD_SETSIZE bits) that indicates membership in a descriptor set. If bit k is 1, then descriptor k is a member of the descriptor set. Maximum descriptor in descriptor set plus 1 Tests descriptors 0, 1, 2,, n-1 for set membership. select() returns the number of ready descriptors and sets each bit of readfds/writefds/exceptfds to indicate the ready status of its corresponding descriptor. 27
Macros Macros for Manipulating Set Descriptors void FD_ZERO(fd_set *fdset) Turn off all bits in fdset void FD_SET(int fd, fd_set *fdset) Turn on bit fd in fdset void FD_CLR (int fd, fd_set *fdset) Turn off bit fd in fdset int FD_ISSET (int fd, fd_set *fdset) Is bit fd in fdset turned on? 28
Echo Server: Event-based (1) typedef struct { int maxfd; // largest descriptor in read_set int nready; // number of ready desc. from select fd_set read_set; // set of all active descriptors fd_set ready_set; // subset of desc. ready for reading pool; int main (int argc, char *argv[]) { int listenfd, connfd, val; pool p;... listenfd =... // socket(), bind(), listen() // initialize pool p.maxfd = listenfd; FD_ZERO(&p.read_set); FD_SET(listenfd, &p.read_set); 29
Echo Server: Event-based (2) while (1) { p.ready_set = p.read_set; p.nready = select(p.maxfd+1, &p.ready_set, NULL, NULL, NULL); if (FD_ISSET(listenfd, &p.ready_set)) { connfd = accept (listenfd, (struct sockaddr *)&caddr, &caddrlen)); FD_SET(connfd, &p.read_set); if (connfd > p.maxfd) p.maxfd = connfd; p.nready--; check_clients (listenfd, &p); 30
Echo Server: Event-based (3) void check_clients (int listenfd, pool *p) { int s, n; char buf[maxline]; for (s = 0; s < p->maxfd+1 && p->nready > 0; s++) { if (s == listenfd) continue; if (FD_ISSET(s, &p->read_set) && FD_ISSET(s, &p->ready_set)) { p->nready--; if ((n = read(s, buf, MAXLINE)) > 0) write(s, buf, n); if (n == 0) { // EOF close(s); FD_CLR(s, &p->read_set); if (s == p->maxfd) { p->maxfd--; while (!FD_ISSET(p->maxfd, &p->read_set)) p->maxfd--; 31
Event-based Designs Pros One logical control flow Can single-step with a debugger No process or thread control overhead Cons Design of choice for high-performance Web servers and search engines Significantly more complex to code than process- or thread-based designs Can be vulnerable to Denial-of-Service attack! 32