Pthread read / write lock

Question

I am learning pthread and came across a writer lock. The script is very simple; a global variable shared by all threads, the reader continues to print the current value of the same global variable, while the writer updates the same variable. I can achieve this synchronization using two mutexes (pthread_mutex_t), but I want to use a “single” read-write lock to achieve the same result. However, with a single reader-writer lock, as seen here (program output below), the reader sees only the first x value and does not see any updates to the global variable. Please throw some light here.

code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <pthread.h>
#include <poll.h>

#define ACCESS_ONCE(x) (*(volatile typeof(x) *)&(x))

int x = 0;

pthread_rwlock_t lock_rw = PTHREAD_RWLOCK_INITIALIZER;

void *reader_thread(void *arg)
{
    int i;
    int newx, oldx;
    newx = oldx = -1;

    pthread_rwlock_t *p = (pthread_rwlock_t *)arg;

    if (pthread_rwlock_rdlock(p) != 0) {
        perror("reader_thread: pthread_rwlock_rdlock error");
        exit(__LINE__);
    }

    for (i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
        newx = ACCESS_ONCE(x);
        if (newx != oldx) {
            printf("reader_lock: x: %d\n",x);
        }
        oldx = newx;
        poll(NULL, 0, 1);
    }

    if (pthread_rwlock_unlock(p) != 0) {
        perror("reader thread: pthred_rwlock_unlock error");
        exit(__LINE__);
    }

    return NULL;
}

void *writer_thread(void *arg)
{
    int i;
    pthread_rwlock_t *p = (pthread_rwlock_t *)arg;

    if (pthread_rwlock_wrlock(p) != 0) {
        perror("writer thread: pthread_rwlock_wrlock error");
        exit(__LINE__);
    }

    for (i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
        ACCESS_ONCE(x)++;
        poll(NULL, 0, 5);
    }

    if (pthread_rwlock_unlock(p) != 0) {
        perror("writer thread: pthread_rwlock_unlock error");
        exit(__LINE__);
    }

    return NULL;
}

int main(void)
{
    pthread_t tid1, tid2;
    void *vp;
    if (pthread_create(&tid1, NULL, reader_thread, &lock_rw) != 0) {
        perror("pthread_create error");
        exit (__LINE__);
    }

    if (pthread_create(&tid2, NULL, writer_thread, &lock_rw) != 0) {
        perror("pthread_create error");
        exit (__LINE__);
    }

    //wait for the thread to complete
    if (pthread_join(tid1, &vp) != 0) {
        perror("pthread_join error");
        exit (__LINE__);
    }

    if (pthread_join(tid2, &vp) != 0) {
        perror("pthread_join error");
        exit (__LINE__);
    }

    printf("Parent process sees x: %d\n",x);
    return 0;
}

gcc pthread_rwlock.c -o rwlock -pthread -Wall -Werror

./rwlock

reader_lock: x: 0

x: 3

Answer 1

, , , , .

, , , for/poll.

, , , pthread_rwlock_wrlock.

, , - lock/unlock , .

thread_rwlock_rdlock(p);
newx = ACCESS_ONCE(x);
thread_rwlock_unlock(p);
...
thread_rwlock_wrlock(p);
ACCESS_ONCE(x)++;
thread_rwlock_unlock(p);