Operating Systems (CS F372)

Tutorial 9

BITS Pilani Department of CSIS

Pilani Campus BITS-Pilani
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Tutorial 9
Threads
 Agenda
• Threads
• Basics
• POSIX Threads Library
• POSIX Thread System Calls
• Thread Synchronization
• MUTEX

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Threads
 What are threads?
• A thread, also called a lightweight process, is a flow of control that can execute in
parallel with other threads in the same program.
• A traditional or heavyweight process is equal to a task with one thread.
• As an OS may support multiple processes, a process can have multiple threads.

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 Motivation
• Threads are very useful in modern programming whenever a process has multiple
tasks to perform independently.
• This is particularly true when one of the tasks may block, and it is desired to allow the
other tasks to proceed without blocking.
• For example, in a word processor, a background thread may check spelling and
grammar while a foreground thread processes user input (keystrokes), while yet a
third thread loads images from the hard drive, and a fourth does periodic automatic
backups of the file being edited.
• Another example is a web server - Multiple threads allow for multiple requests to be
processed simultaneously, without having to service requests sequentially or to fork
off separate processes for every incoming request.

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 Thread Basics
• Thread operations include thread creation, termination, synchronization
(joins, blocking), scheduling, data management and process interaction.
• A thread does not maintain a list of created threads, nor does it know
the thread that created it.
• Threads in the same process share: address space, Process instructions,
data, open files (descriptors), signals and signal handlers, current
working directory, user and group id.
• Each thread has a unique: Thread ID, set of registers, stack pointer,
stack for local variables, return addresses, signal mask, priority, return
value: errno.

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 Process vs Threads

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 Benefits of Threads

• Less time to create a new thread than a process

• Less time to terminate a thread than a process
• Less time to switch between two threads within the same process
• Less communication overheads

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 Work Queue Example

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 POSIX Threads Library
• POSIX (Portable Operating System Interface for uni-X) is a set of standard operating system interfaces
based on the UNIX operating system.
• POSIX specifies a set of interfaces (functions, header files) for threaded programming commonly known as
POSIX threads, or pthreads.
• pthreads is the key model for programming with threads in nearly every language and setup that is built
with high level languages, such as C, java, python, etc.
• The lifecycle of a thread, much like a process, begins with creation. Threads are not forked from a parent to
create a child, instead they are simply created with a starting function as the entry point. A thread does not
terminate, like a process, instead they are joined with the main thread, or they are detached to run on their
own until completion.

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POSIX THREAD SYSTEM CALLS

 pthread_create(): creating a thread
#include <pthread.h>
int pthread_create(pthread_t *thread, const pthread_attr_t *attr, void *(*start)(void *),
void *arg);
The pthread_create() function starts a new thread in the calling process. On success, it
returns 0; on error, it returns an errno.
Parameters:
• thread is the location where the ID of the newly created thread should be stored, or NULL if the thread
ID is not required
• attr is the thread attribute object specifying the attributes for the thread that is being created. If attr is
NULL, the thread is created with default attributes
• start is the main function for the thread; the thread begins executing user code at this address
• arg is the argument passed to start

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 pthread_create(): example
#include <stdio.h>
#include <pthread.h>
void * hello(void *input) {
printf("%s\n", (char *)input);
pthread_exit(NULL);
}
int main(void) {
pthread_t tid;
pthread_create(&tid, NULL, hello, "hello world");
pthread_join(tid, NULL);
return 0;
}

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 pthread_create(): example 2
pthread_t ntid; }
void printids(const char *s) { int main(void) {
pid_t pid; int err;
pthread_t tid; err = pthread_create(&ntid, NULL, thr_fn, NULL);
pid = getpid(); if (err != 0)
tid = pthread_self(); err_exit(err, ″can′t create thread″);
printf(″%s pid %lu tid %lu (0x%lx)\n″, s, (unsigned printids(″main thread:″);
long)pid, (unsigned long)tid, (unsigned long)tid); sleep(1);
} exit(0);
void *thr_fn(void *arg) { }
printids(″new thread: ″);
return((void *)0);

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 pthread_join(): wait for thread
termination
A join is performed when one wants to wait for a thread to finish. A thread calling
routine may launch multiple threads then wait for them to finish to get the results.
#include <pthread.h>
int pthread_join(pthread_t thread, void **status);
The pthread_join() function waits for the thread specified by thread to terminate. If that
thread has already terminated, then pthread_join() returns immediately. The thread
specified by thread must be joinable.
On success, it returns 0; on error, it returns an error number.
Parameters:
• thread: the thread to wait
• status: the location where the exit status of the joined thread is stored. This can be set
to NULL if the exit status is not required
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 pthread_detach: detach a thread
Indicates that storage for the thread can be reclaimed when the thread terminates.
#include <pthread.h>
int pthread_detach(pthread_t thread);
A Detached thread automatically releases it allocated resources on exit. No other
thread needs to join it. But by default all threads are joinable, so to make a thread
detached we need to call pthread_detach() with thread id.
On success, pthread_detach() returns 0; on error, it returns an error number.

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 pthread_exit: thread termination
#include <pthread.h>
void pthread_exit(void *status);
Ends the calling thread and makes status available to any thread that calls
pthread_join() with the ending thread's thread ID.
It cannot return to its caller. This function always succeeds.

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Thread Synchronization with MUTEX

 Thread Synchronization
• Thread synchronization is defined as a mechanism which ensures that two or more
concurrent processes or threads do not simultaneously execute some program segment
known as a critical section.
• The threads library provides three synchronization mechanisms:
– Mutex (Mutual exclusion lock): Block access to variables by other threads. This
enforces exclusive access by a thread to a variable or set of variables.
– Join- Make a thread wait till others are complete (terminated).
– Condition variable- data type pthread_cond_t

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 MUTEX
MUTEX system calls:
• int pthread_mutex_lock(pthread_mutex_t *mutex);
• int pthread_mutex_trylock(pthread_mutex_t *mutex);
• int pthread_mutex_unlock(pthread_mutex_t *mutex);
Return values:
• If successful, the pthread_mutex_lock() and pthread_mutex_unlock() functions shall
return zero; otherwise, an error number shall be returned to indicate the error.
• The pthread_mutex_trylock() function shall return zero if a lock on the mutex object
referenced by mutex is acquired. Otherwise, an error number is returned to indicate
the error.

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 Comparison of process and thread
primitives
Process primitive Thread primitive Description

fork pthread_create create new flow of control

exit pthread_exit exit from an existing flow of control
waitpid pthread_join get exit status from flow of control
atexit pthread_cleanup_push register function to be called at exit from
flow of control

getpid pthread_self get id for flow of control

abort pthread_cancel request abnormal termination of flow of
control

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Thank You!