Performance of pthread_mutex_lock/unlock

Question

I've noticed that I take a pretty big performance hit when I have an algorithm that locks and unlocks a thread ALOT.

Is there any way to help this overhead? Would using a semaphore be more/less efficient?

Thanks

typedef struct _treenode{
   struct _treenode *leftNode;
   struct _treenode *rightNode;
   int32_t data;
   pthread_mutex_t mutex;
}TreeNode;

pthread_mutex_t _initMutex = PTHREAD_MUTEX_INITIALIZER;

int32_t insertNode(TreeNode **_trunk, int32_t data){
   TreeNode **current;
   pthread_mutex_t *parentMutex = NULL, *currentMutex = &_initMutex;

   if(_trunk != NULL){
      current = _trunk;
      while(*current != NULL){
         pthread_mutex_lock(&(*current)->mutex);
         currentMutex = &(*current)->mutex;
         if((*current)->data < data){
            if(parentMutex != NULL)
               pthread_mutex_unlock(parentMutex);
            pthreadMutex = currentMutex;
            current = &(*current)->rightNode;
         }else if((*current)->data > data){
            if(parentMutex != NULL)
               pthread_mutex_unlock(parentMutex);
            parentMutex = currentMutex;
            current = &(*current)->leftNode;
         }else{
            pthread_mutex_unlock(currentMutex);
            if(parentMutex != NULL)
               pthread_mutex_unlock(parentMutex);
            return 0;
         }
      }
      *current = malloc(sizeof(TreeNode));
      pthread_mutex_init(&(*current)->mutex, NULL);
      pthread_mutex_lock(&(*current)->mutex);
      (*current)->leftNode = NULL;
      (*current)->rightNode = NULL;
      (*current)->data = data;
      pthread_mutex_unlock(&(*current)->mutex);
      pthread_mutex_unlock(currentMutex);
   }else{
      return 1;
   }
   return 0;
}

int main(){
   int i;
   TreeNode *trunk = NULL;
   for(i=0; i<1000000; i++){
      insertNode(&trunk, rand() % 50000);
   }
}

Answer 1

Instead of worrying about the blades of grass, step back and observe the whole forest.

Any algorithm which depends on two threads potentially closely stepping on each each other's toes is inherently inefficient. Try to find a way to drastically reduce the need for interaction.

For example, if one thread produces data and the other consumes it, one can easily think up an inefficient algorithm where the producer publishes the data in shared memory and then waits for the other to consume it. Meanwhile the consumer is waiting for the producer to finish, etc., etc. This is all much simplified by the producer writing into a file or pipe, and the consumer reading from it.