should I launch multiple threads if my CPU load suggests otherwise? - c++

Question

I'm making a program in C++ which counts NGS read alignments against a reference annotation. Basically the program reads both the annotation and alignment file into memory, iterates through the annotation, binary searches the alignment file for a probable location, upon finding this location linear searches a frame that is around that probable location.
Typically I want to keep this frame somewhat large (10000 alignments), so I had the idea to split the frame up and throw parts of it into separate threads.
Everything compiles and runs, but it doesn't look like my multithreading is working as intended because my comp is using one core for the job. Would anyone be kind enough to help me figure this out where I implemented the threading wrong.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/fast-count/?source=directory
#include <iostream>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <vector>
#include <string>
#include <thread>
#include <sstream>
#include <fstream>
#include <math.h>
#include "api/BamReader.h"
using namespace std;
using namespace BamTools;
int hit_count = 0;
struct bam_headers{
string chr;
int start;
};
struct thread_data{
int thread_id;
int total_thread;
int start_gtf;
int stop_gtf;
};
struct gtf_headers{
string chr;
string source;
string feature;
string score;
string strand;
string frame;
string annotation;
int start;
int end;
};
void process(int* start_holder, int size, int gtf_start, int gtf_stop){
//threaded counter process
for (int t = 0; t < size; t++){
if((start_holder[t] >= gtf_start) && (start_holder[t] <= gtf_stop)){
hit_count++;
}
}
}
vector <string> find_index(vector <vector <bam_headers> > bams){
//define vector for bam_index to chromosome
vector <string> compute_holder;
for (int bam_idx = 0; bam_idx < bams.size();bam_idx++){
compute_holder.push_back(bams[bam_idx][0].chr);
}
return compute_holder;
}
vector <gtf_headers> load_gtf(char* filename){
//define matrix to memory holding gtf annotations by assoc. header
vector<gtf_headers> push_matrix;
gtf_headers holder;
ifstream gtf_file(filename);
string line;
cout << "Loading GTF to memory" << "\n";
if (gtf_file.is_open()){
int sub_count = 0;
string transfer_hold[8];
while(getline(gtf_file,line)){
//iterate through file
istringstream iss(line);
string token;
//iterate through line, and tokenize by tab delimitor
while(getline(iss,token,'\t')){
if (sub_count == 8){
//assign to hold struct, and push to vector
holder.chr = transfer_hold[0];
holder.source = transfer_hold[1];
holder.feature = transfer_hold[2];
holder.start = atoi(transfer_hold[3].c_str());
holder.end = atoi(transfer_hold[4].c_str());
holder.score = transfer_hold[5];
holder.strand = transfer_hold[6];
holder.frame = transfer_hold[7];
holder.annotation = token;
push_matrix.push_back(holder);
sub_count = 0;
} else {
//temporarily hold tokens
transfer_hold[sub_count] = token;
++sub_count;
}
}
}
cout << "GTF successfully loaded to memory" << "\n";
gtf_file.close();
return(push_matrix);
}else{
cout << "GTF unsuccessfully loaded to memory. Check path to file, and annotation format. Exiting" << "\n";
exit(-1);
}
}
vector <vector <bam_headers>> load_bam(char* filename){
//parse individual bam file to chromosome bins
vector <vector <bam_headers> > push_matrix;
vector <bam_headers> iter_chr;
int iter_refid = -1;
bam_headers bam_holder;
BamReader reader;
BamAlignment al;
const vector<RefData>& references = reader.GetReferenceData();
cout << "Loading " << filename << " to memory" << "\n";
if (reader.Open(filename)) {
while (reader.GetNextAlignmentCore(al)) {
if (al.IsMapped()){
//bam file must be sorted by chr. otherwise the lookup will segfault
if(al.RefID != iter_refid){
//check if chr. position has advanced in the bam file, if true, push empty vector
iter_refid++;
push_matrix.push_back(iter_chr);
}else{
//if chr. position hasn't advanced push to current index in 2d vector
bam_holder.chr = references[al.RefID].RefName;
bam_holder.start = al.Position;
push_matrix.at(iter_refid).push_back(bam_holder);
}
}
}
reader.Close();
cout << "Successfully loaded " << filename << " to memory" << "\n";
return(push_matrix);
}else{
cout << "Could not open input BAM file. Exiting." << endl;
exit(-1);
}
}
short int find_bin(const string & gtf_chr, const vector <string> mapping){
//determines which chr. bin the gtf line is associated with
int bin_compare = -1;
for (int i = 0; i < mapping.size(); i++){
if(gtf_chr == mapping[i]){
bin_compare = i;
}
}
return(bin_compare);
}
int find_frame(gtf_headers gtf_matrix, vector <bam_headers> bam_file_bin){
//binary search to find alignment index with greater and less than gtf position
int bin_size = bam_file_bin.size();
int high_end = bin_size;
int low_end = 0;
int binary_i = bin_size / 2;
int repeat = 0;
int frame_start;
bool found = false;
while (found != true){
if ((bam_file_bin[binary_i].start >= gtf_matrix.start) && (bam_file_bin[binary_i].start <= gtf_matrix.end)){
frame_start = binary_i;
found = true;
}else{
if(repeat != binary_i){
if(bam_file_bin[binary_i].start > gtf_matrix.end){
if(repeat != binary_i){
repeat = binary_i;
high_end = binary_i;
binary_i = ((high_end - low_end) / 2) + low_end;
}
}else{
if(repeat != binary_i){
repeat = binary_i;
low_end = binary_i;
binary_i = ((high_end - low_end) / 2) + low_end;
}
}
}else{
frame_start = low_end;
found = true;
}
}
}
return(frame_start);
}
vector <int > define_frame(int frame_size, int frame_start, int bam_matrix){
//define the frame for the search
vector <int> push_ints;
push_ints.push_back(frame_start - (frame_size / 2));
push_ints.push_back(frame_start + (frame_size / 2));
if(push_ints[0] < 0){
push_ints[0] = 0;
push_ints[1] = frame_size;
if(push_ints[1] > bam_matrix){
push_ints[1] = frame_size;
}
}
if(push_ints[1] > bam_matrix){
push_ints[1] = bam_matrix;
push_ints[0] = bam_matrix - (frame_size / 2);
if(push_ints[0] < 0){
push_ints[0] = 0;
}
}
return(push_ints);
}
void thread_handler(int nthread, vector <int> frame, vector <bam_headers> bam_matrix, gtf_headers gtf_record){
int thread_divide = frame[1]-frame[0];//frame_size / nthread;
int thread_remain = (frame[1]-frame[0]) % nthread;
int* start_holder = new int[thread_divide];
for(int i = 0; i < nthread; i++){
if (i < nthread - 1){
for (int frame_index = 0; frame_index < thread_divide; frame_index++){
start_holder[frame_index] = bam_matrix[frame[0]+frame_index].start;
}
frame[0] = frame[0] + thread_divide;
thread first(process, start_holder,thread_divide,gtf_record.start,gtf_record.end);
first.join();
}else{
for (int frame_index = 0; frame_index < thread_divide + thread_remain; frame_index++){
start_holder[frame_index] = bam_matrix[frame[0]+frame_index].start;
}
thread last(process, start_holder,thread_divide + thread_remain,gtf_record.start,gtf_record.end);
last.join();
}
}
}
int main (int argc, char *argv[])
{
// usage
// ./count threads frame_size gtf_file files
//define matrix to memory holding gtf annotations by assoc. header
vector <gtf_headers> gtf_matrix = load_gtf(argv[3]);
//load bam, perform counts
for(int i = 4;i < argc;i++){
//iterate through filenames in argv, define matrix to memory holding bam alignments chr and bp position
vector <vector <bam_headers> > bam_matrix = load_bam(argv[i]);
//map chromosome to bam matrix index
vector <string> index_mapping = find_index(bam_matrix);
//iterate through gtf matrix, find corresponding bins for chr, set search frames, and count
for(int gtf_i = 0; gtf_i < gtf_i < gtf_matrix.size();gtf_i++){ //gtf_i < gtf_matrix.size()
hit_count = 0;
//find corresponding bins for gtf chr
short int bin_compare = find_bin(gtf_matrix[gtf_i].chr,index_mapping);
if(bin_compare != -1){
//find start of search frame
int frame_start = find_frame(gtf_matrix[gtf_i], bam_matrix[bin_compare]);
//get up lower bounds of search frame;
vector <int> full_frame = define_frame(atoi(argv[2]),frame_start,bam_matrix[bin_compare].size());
//create c array of bam positional data for the frame, and post to thread process
thread_handler(atoi(argv[1]),full_frame,bam_matrix[bin_compare],gtf_matrix[gtf_i]);
}
//counts displayed in STOUT
cout << gtf_matrix[gtf_i].chr << "\t" << gtf_matrix[gtf_i].source << "\t" << gtf_matrix[gtf_i].feature << "\t" << gtf_matrix[gtf_i].start << "\t" << gtf_matrix[gtf_i].end << "\t" << gtf_matrix[gtf_i].score << "\t" << gtf_matrix[gtf_i].strand << "\t" << gtf_matrix[gtf_i].frame << "\t" << gtf_matrix[gtf_i].annotation << "\t" << hit_count << "\n";
}
}
}

Answer 1

The answer to your question is very simple:
thread last(process, start_holder,thread_divide + thread_remain,gtf_record.start,gtf_record.end);
last.join();
Here, the parent task creates a new thread, and ... immediately waits for the thread to finish. That's what join() does, it waits for the thread to terminate.
So, your code starts a new thread, and immediately waits for it to finish, before doing anything else, like starting the next thread.
You need to rewrite thread_handler() to instantiate all std::thread instances, and then after instantiating all of them, call join() on each one, to wait for all of them to finish.
The typical approach is to precreate a std::vector of all thread instances, using std::thread's default constructor, then loop over them to initialize each one, then loop over them again, calling join() on each one.