How to make C (P/invoke) code called from C# "Thread-safe"

Question

I have some simple C-code which uses a single global-variable. Obviously this is not thread-safe, so when I call it from multiple threads in C# using P/invoke, things screw up.

How can I either import this function separately for each thread, or make it thread-safe?

I tried declaring the variable __declspec(thread), but that caused the program to crash. I also tried making a C++/CLI class, but it doesn't allow member-functions to be __declspec(naked), which I need (I'm using inline-assembly). I'm not very experienced writing multi-threaded C++ code, so there might be something I'm missing.

---

Here is some example code:

C#

[DllImport("MyDll.dll", CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
public static extern int SomeFunction(int parameter1, int parameter2);

C++

extern "C"
{
    int someGlobalVariable;
    int __declspec(naked) _someFunction(int parameter1, int parameter2)
    {
        __asm
        {
            //someGlobalVariable read/written here
        }
    }
    int __declspec(dllexport) SomeFunction(int parameter1, int parameter2)
    {
        return _someFunction(parameter1, parameter2);
    }
}

---

[Edit]: The result of SomeFunction() must go in some prescribed order based on someGlobalVariable (think of eg. a PRNG, with someGlobalVariable as the internal state). So, using a mutex or other sort of lock is not an option - each thread must have its own copy of someGlobalVariable.

Answer 1

A common pattern is to have

• a function that allocates memory for the state,
• a function that has no side-effects but mutating the passed-in state, and
• a function that releases the memoy for the state.

The C# side would look like this:

Usage:

var state = new ThreadLocal<SomeSafeHandle>(NativeMethods.CreateSomeState);

Parallel.For(0, 100, i =>
{
    var result = NativeMethods.SomeFunction(state.Value, i, 42);

    Console.WriteLine(result);
});

Declarations:

internal static class NativeMethods
{
    [DllImport("MyDll.dll", CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
    public static extern SomeSafeHandle CreateSomeState();

    [DllImport("MyDll.dll", CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
    public static extern int SomeFunction(SomeSafeHandle handle,
                                          int parameter1,
                                          int parameter2);

    [DllImport("MyDll.dll", CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
    internal static extern int FreeSomeState(IntPtr handle);
}

SafeHandle magic:

[SecurityPermission(SecurityAction.InheritanceDemand, UnmanagedCode = true)]
[SecurityPermission(SecurityAction.Demand, UnmanagedCode = true)]
internal class SomeSafeHandle : SafeHandle
{
    [ReliabilityContract(Consistency.WillNotCorruptState, Cer.MayFail)]
    public SomeSafeHandle()
        : base(IntPtr.Zero, true)
    {
    }

    public override bool IsInvalid
    {
        get { return this.handle == IntPtr.Zero; }
    }

    [ReliabilityContract(Consistency.WillNotCorruptState, Cer.MayFail)]
    protected override bool ReleaseHandle()
    {
        return NativeMethods.FreeSomeState(this.handle) == 0;
    }
}

Answer 2

You can either make sure what you only call _someFunction once at a time in your C# code or change the C code to wrap the access to the global variable in a synchronization primitive like a critical section.

I would recommend changing the C# code rather than the C code, as the C# code is multi-threaded, not the C code.

Answer 3

Personally if the C code was to be called elsewhere I would use a mutex there. If that doesn't float your boat you can lock in .Net quite easily:

static object SomeFunctionLock = new Object();

public static int SomeFunction(int parameter1, int parameter2){
  lock ( SomeFunctionLock ){
    return _SomeFunction( parameter1, parameter2 );
  }
}

[DllImport("MyDll", CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
internal static extern int _SomeFunction(int parameter1, int parameter2);

[Edit..]

As pointed out, this serializes access to the function which you can't do yourself in this case. You have some C/C++ code that (wrongly IMO) uses a global for state during the call to the exposed function.

As you have observed that the __declspec(thread) trick doesn't work here then I would try to pass your state/context back and forth as an opaque pointer like so:-

extern "C" 
{
    int _SomeOtherFunction( void* pctx, int p1, int p2 )
    { 
        return stuff;
    }

    // publically exposed library function
    int __declspec(dllexport) SomeFunction(int parameter1, int parameter2)
    {
        StateContext ctx;
        return _SomeOtherFunction( &ctx, parameter1, parameter2 );
    }

    // another publically exposed library function that takes state
    int __declspec(dllexport) SomeFunctionWithState(StateContext * ctx, int parameter1, int parameter2)
    {
        return _SomeOtherFunction( ctx, parameter1, parameter2 );
    }

    // if you wanted to create/preserve/use the state directly
    StateContext * __declspec(dllexport) GetState(void) {
        ctx = (StateContext*) calloc( 1 , sizeof(StateContext) );
        return ctx;
    }

    // tidy up
    void __declspec(dllexport) FreeState(StateContext * ctx) {
        free (ctx);
    }
}

And the corresponding C# wrapper as before:

[DllImport("MyDll", CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
internal static extern int SomeFunction(int parameter1, int parameter2);

[DllImport("MyDll", CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
internal static extern int SomeFunctionWithState(IntPtr ctx, int parameter1, int parameter2);

[DllImport("MyDll", CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
internal static extern IntPtr GetState();

[DllImport("MyDll", CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
internal static extern void FreeState(IntPtr);