Concurrently push()ing to a shared queue with pthread? - c++

Question

I am practicing pthread.
In my original program, it pushes to the shared queue an instance of a class called request, but I first at least want to make sure that I am pushing something to a shared queue.
It is a very simple code, but it just throws a lot of errors that I could not figure out the reason.
I guess it's probably the syntax, but whatever I tried it did not work.
Do you see why it is not working?
Following is the code I have been trying.
extern "C" {
#include<pthread.h>
#include<unistd.h>
}
#include<queue>
#include<iostream>
#include<string>
using namespace std;
class request {
public:
string req;
request(string s) : req(s) {}
};
int n;
queue<request> q;
pthread_mutex_t mut = PTHREAD_MUTEX_INITIALIZER;
void * putToQueue(string);
int main ( void ) {
pthread_t t1, t2;
request* ff = new request("First");
request* trd = new request("Third");
int result1 = pthread_create(&t1, NULL, &putToQueue, reinterpret_cast<void*>(&ff));
if (result1 != 0) cout << "error 1" << endl;
int result2 = pthread_create(&t2, NULL, &putToQueue, reinterpret_cast<void*>(&trd));
if (result2 != 0) cout << "error 2" << endl;
pthread_join(t1, NULL);
pthread_join(t2, NULL);
for(int i=0; i<q.size(); ++i) {
cout << q.front().req << " is in queue" << endl;
q.pop();
--n;
}
return 0;
}
void * putToQueue(void* elem) {
pthread_mutex_lock(&mut);
q.push(reinterpret_cast<request>(elem));
++n;
cout << n << " items are in the queue." << endl;
pthread_mutex_unlock(&mut);
return 0;
}

Answer 1

The code below comments on everything that had to be changed. I would write up a detailed description of why they had to change, but I hope the code speaks for itself. It still isn't bullet-proof. There are plenty of things that could be done differently or better (exception handling for failed new, etc) but at least it compiles, runs, and doesn't leak memory.
#include <queue>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <pthread.h>
#include <unistd.h>
using namespace std;
// MINOR: param should be a const-ref
class request {
public:
string req;
request(const string& s) : req(s) {}
};
int n;
queue<request> q;
pthread_mutex_t mut = PTHREAD_MUTEX_INITIALIZER;
// FIXED: made protoype a proper pthread-proc signature
void * putToQueue(void*);
int main ( void )
{
pthread_t t1, t2;
// FIXED: made thread param the actual dynamic allocation address
int result1 = pthread_create(&t1, NULL, &putToQueue, new request("First"));
if (result1 != 0) cout << "error 1" << endl;
// FIXED: made thread param the actual dynamic allocation address
int result2 = pthread_create(&t2, NULL, &putToQueue, new request("Third"));
if (result2 != 0) cout << "error 2" << endl;
pthread_join(t1, NULL);
pthread_join(t2, NULL);
// FIXED: was skipping elements because the queue size was shrinking
// with each pop in the while-body.
while (!q.empty())
{
cout << q.front().req << " WAS in queue" << endl;
q.pop();
}
return 0;
}
// FIXED: pretty much a near-total-rewrite
void* putToQueue(void* elem)
{
request *req = static_cast<request*>(elem);
if (pthread_mutex_lock(&mut) == 0)
{
q.push(*req);
cout << ++n << " items are in the queue." << endl;
pthread_mutex_unlock(&mut);
}
delete req; // FIXED: squelched memory leak
return 0;
}
Output (yours may vary)
1 items are in the queue.
2 items are in the queue.
Third WAS in queue
First WAS in queue

Answer 2

As noted in the comment, I'd advise skipping direct use of pthreads, and use the C++11 threading primitives instead. I'd start with a simple protected queue class:
template <class T, template<class, class> class Container=std::deque>
class p_q {
typedef typename Container<T, std::allocator<T>> container;
typedef typename container::iterator iterator;
container data;
std::mutex m;
public:
void push(T a) {
std::lock_guard<std::mutex> l(m);
data.emplace_back(a);
}
iterator begin() { return data.begin(); }
iterator end() { return data.end(); }
// omitting front() and pop() for now, because they're not used in this code
};
Using this, the main-stream of the code stays nearly as simple and clean as single-threaded code, something like this:
int main() {
p_q<std::string> q;
auto pusher = [&q](std::string const& a) { q.push(a); };
std::thread t1{ pusher, "First" };
std::thread t2{ pusher, "Second" };
t1.join();
t2.join();
for (auto s : q)
std::cout << s << "\n";
}
As it stands right now, this is a multiple-producer, single-consumer queue. Further, it depends on the fact that the producers are no longer running when the consuming is happening. That's true in this case, but wouldn't/won't always be. When it's not the case, you'll need a (marginally) more complex queue that does locking as it reads/pops from the queue, not just when writing to it.