Synchronize three Threads in C++ - c++

Question

I have the following program (made up example!):
#include<thread>
#include<mutex>
#include<iostream>
class MultiClass {
public:
void Run() {
std::thread t1(&MultiClass::Calc, this);
std::thread t2(&MultiClass::Calc, this);
std::thread t3(&MultiClass::Calc, this);
t1.join();
t2.join();
t3.join();
}
private:
void Calc() {
for (int i = 0; i < 10; ++i) {
std::cout << i << std::endl;
}
}
};
int main() {
MultiClass m;
m.Run();
return 0;
}
What I need is to sync the loop iterations the following way and I cant come up with a solution (I've been fiddling for about an hour now using mutexes but cant find THE combination):
t1 and t2 shall do one loop iteration, then t3 shall do one iteration, then again t1 and t2 shall do one, then t3 shall do one.
So you see, I need t1 and t2 to do things simultaneously and after one iteration, t3 shall do one iteration on its own.
Can you point your finger on how I would be able to achieve that? Like I said, ive been trying this with mutexes and cant come up with a solution.

Answer 1

If you really want to do this by hand with the given thread structure, you could use something like this*:
class SyncObj {
mutex mux;
condition_variable cv;
bool completed[2]{ false,false };
public:
void signalCompetionT1T2(int id) {
lock_guard<mutex> ul(mux);
completed[id] = true;
cv.notify_all();
}
void signalCompetionT3() {
lock_guard<mutex> ul(mux);
completed[0] = false;
completed[1] = false;
cv.notify_all();
}
void waitForCompetionT1T2() {
unique_lock<mutex> ul(mux);
cv.wait(ul, [&]() {return completed[0] && completed[1]; });
}
void waitForCompetionT3(int id) {
unique_lock<mutex> ul(mux);
cv.wait(ul, [&]() {return !completed[id]; });
}
};
class MultiClass {
public:
void Run() {
std::thread t1(&MultiClass::Calc1, this);
std::thread t2(&MultiClass::Calc2, this);
std::thread t3(&MultiClass::Calc3, this);
t1.join();
t2.join();
t3.join();
}
private:
SyncObj obj;
void Calc1() {
for (int i = 0; i < 10; ++i) {
obj.waitForCompetionT3(0);
std::cout << "T1:" << i << std::endl;
obj.signalCompetionT1T2(0);
}
}
void Calc2() {
for (int i = 0; i < 10; ++i) {
obj.waitForCompetionT3(1);
std::cout << "T2:" << i << std::endl;
obj.signalCompetionT1T2(1);
}
}
void Calc3() {
for (int i = 0; i < 10; ++i) {
obj.waitForCompetionT1T2();
std::cout << "T3:" << i << std::endl;
obj.signalCompetionT3();
}
}
};
However, this is only a reasonable approach, if each iteration is computational expensive, such that you can ignore the synchronization overhead. If that is not the case you should probably better have a look at a proper parallel programming library like intel's tbb or microsofts ppl.
*)NOTE: This code is untested and unoptimized. I just wrote it to show what the general structure could look like

Answer 2

Use two condition variables, here is a sketch..
thread 1 & 2 wait on condition variable segment_1:
std::condition_variable segment_1;
thread 3 waits on condition variable segment_2;
std::condition_variable segment_2;
threads 1 & 2 should wait() on segment_1, and thread 3 should wait() on segment_2. To kick off threads 1 & 2, call notify_all() on segment_1, and once they complete, call notify_one() on segment_2 to kick off thread 3. You may want to use some controlling thread to control the sequence unless you can chain (i.e. once 1 & 2 complete, the last one to complete calls notify for thread 3 and so on..)
This is not perfect (see lost wakeups)