pthreads: thread starvation caused by quick re-locking

Question

I have a two threads, one which works in a tight loop, and the other which occasionally needs to perform a synchronization with the first:

// thread 1
while(1)
{
    lock(work);
    // perform work
    unlock(work);
}

// thread 2
while(1)
{
    // unrelated work that takes a while
    lock(work);
    // synchronizing step
    unlock(work);
}

My intention is that thread 2 can, by taking the lock, effectively pause thread 1 and perform the necessary synchronization. Thread 1 can also offer to pause, by unlocking, and if thread 2 is not waiting on lock, re-lock and return to work.

The problem I have encountered is that mutexes are not fair, so thread 1 quickly re-locks the mutex and starves thread 2. I have attempted to use pthread_yield, and so far it seems to run okay, but I am not sure it will work for all systems / number of cores. Is there a way to guarantee that thread 1 will always yield to thread 2, even on multi-core systems?

What is the most effective way of handling this synchronization process?

Answer 1

In your case it is better to use condition variable to notify second thread when it is required to awake and perform all required operations.

Answer 2

You can build a FIFO "ticket lock" on top of pthreads mutexes, along these lines:

#include <pthread.h>

typedef struct ticket_lock {
    pthread_cond_t cond;
    pthread_mutex_t mutex;
    unsigned long queue_head, queue_tail;
} ticket_lock_t;

#define TICKET_LOCK_INITIALIZER { PTHREAD_COND_INITIALIZER, PTHREAD_MUTEX_INITIALIZER }

void ticket_lock(ticket_lock_t *ticket)
{
    unsigned long queue_me;

    pthread_mutex_lock(&ticket->mutex);
    queue_me = ticket->queue_tail++;
    while (queue_me != ticket->queue_head)
    {
        pthread_cond_wait(&ticket->cond, &ticket->mutex);
    }
    pthread_mutex_unlock(&ticket->mutex);
}

void ticket_unlock(ticket_lock_t *ticket)
{
    pthread_mutex_lock(&ticket->mutex);
    ticket->queue_head++;
    pthread_cond_broadcast(&ticket->cond);
    pthread_mutex_unlock(&ticket->mutex);
}

Under this kind of scheme, no low-level pthreads mutex is held while a thread is within the ticketlock protected critical section, allowing other threads to join the queue.