I'm declaring a pointer to a thread in my class.
class A{
std::thread* m_pThread;
bool StartThread();
UINT DisableThread();
}
Here is how I call a function using a thread.
bool A::StartThread()
{
bool mThreadSuccess = false;
{
try {
m_pThread= new std::thread(&A::DisableThread, this);
mThreadSuccess = true;
}
catch (...) {
m_pDisable = false;
}
if(m_pThread)
{
m_pThread= nullptr;
}
}
return mThreadSuccess;
}
Here is the function called by my thread spawned.
UINT A::DisableThread()
{
//print something here.
return 0;
}
If I call this StartThread() function 10 times. Will it have a memory leak?
for (i = 0; i<10; i++){
bool sResult = StartThread();
if (sResult) {
m_pAcceptStarted = true;
}
}
What is the correct way of freeing
m_pThread= new std::thread(&A::DisableThread, this);
The correct way to free a non-array object created using allocating new is to use delete.
Avoid bare owning pointers and avoid unnecessary dynamic allocation. The example doesn't demonstrate any need for dynamic storage, and ideally you should use a std::thread member instead of a pointer.
If I call this StartThread() function 10 times. Will it have a memory leak?
Even a single call will result in a memory leak. The leak happens when you throw away the pointer value here:
m_pThread= nullptr;
could you add your better solution
Here's one:
auto future = std::async(std::launch::async, &A::DisableThread, this);
// do something while the other task executes in another thread
do_something();
// wait for the thread to finish and get the value returned by A::DisableThread
return future.get()
I'd personally would prefer using a threadpool in a real project but this example should give you an idea of how you could handle threads without new/delete.
#include <iostream>
#include <thread>
#include <vector>
class A
{
public:
template<typename Fn>
void CallAsync(Fn fn)
{
// put thread in vector
m_threads.emplace_back(std::thread(fn));
}
~A()
{
for (auto& thread : m_threads)
{
thread.join();
}
}
void someHandler()
{
std::cout << "*";
};
private:
std::vector<std::thread> m_threads;
};
int main()
{
A a;
for (int i = 0; i < 10; ++i)
{
a.CallAsync([&a] { a.someHandler(); });
}
}
I wrapped std::async in a class similar to this:
class AsyncTask
{
public:
AsyncTask() {}
~AsyncTask()
{
m_shouldTerminate.store(true, std::memory_order::memory_order_release);
}
std::future<int> runAsync()
{
return std::async(std::launch::async, [this]() { threadMain(); return m_result; });
}
private:
void threadMain()
{
for(int i=0; i<std::numeric_limits<int>::max(); ++i)
{
if (m_shouldTerminate.load(std::memory_order::memory_order_acquire))
{
break;
}
// do time consuming calculation but abort if m_shouldTerminate becomes true
m_result += foo([this]() { return m_shouldTerminate.load(std::memory_order::memory_order_acquire); });
}
}
int m_result = 0;
std::atomic<bool> m_shouldTerminate = false;
};
AFAIK std::future::~future blocks if the future was returned from std::async. This would mean that for code like
{
AsyncTask myTask;
myTask.runAsync();
}
bar();
It would block in the temporary future's destructor, then destruct myTask and only then the call to bar() would happen. Considering this it should be ensured that the lifetime of any AsyncTask object exceeds the run time of the task itself and my implementation should be safe.
If AsyncTask is dynamically allocated this guarantee would no longer hold, obviously.
Are my assumptions correct an is my implementation safe? In particular is it possible that an AsyncTask object is destroyed while the async task is still running?
I used to code on C++ long ago, but now decided to recall old skills and achieve some new ones :D
For now I am trying to rewrite my C# program in C++ and one problem occured - I don't know how to manage threads, or even how to create them, using class methods and calling methods from the class.
class MyObj {
private:
void thread() {
while (true) {
std::string a;
cin >> a;
}
}
static DWORD static_entry(LPVOID* param) {
MyObj *myObj = (MyObj*)param;
myObj->thread();
return 0;
}
public:
void start() {
CreateThread(NULL, 0, (LPTHREAD_START_ROUTINE)static_entry, this, 0, NULL);
}
};
That is sample, I've found here, on StackOverflow but 'void thread()' was empty function, I've added code, given above, but the thread seems to start and close immediately.
I've added code, given above, but the thread seems to start and close immediately.
That's because you don't wait for threads to finish in your main thread.
As from their documentation, you'll need to add something like
// Wait until all threads have terminated.
WaitForMultipleObjects(MAX_THREADS, hThreadArray, TRUE, INFINITE);
For std::thread this should be a call to std::thread::join().
I'd rather recommend using std::thread as a member of the MyObj class:
class MyObj {
private:
void thread_fn() {
while (true) {
std::string a;
cin >> a;
}
}
std::thread t;
public:
void start() {
t = std::thread(&MyObj::thread_fn,*this);
}
~MyObj() {
if(t.joinable())
t.join();
}
};
Thank you for your answers.
Using std::thread turned out to be easier than using CLI Tread class.
static void input() {
while (true) {
std::string a;
cin >> a;
secureProg::execute_command(a);
}
}
auto start() {
std::thread thread(secureProg::input);
thread.join();
return thread.get_id();
}
Thread start from main
secureProg a;
auto thread_ptr = a.start();
Final version (I hope) of two methods within class
I have an object which contains a thread which indirectly accesses this object like so:
#include <iostream>
#include <thread>
#include <atomic>
class A;
class Manager
{
public:
Manager(void) = default;
void StartA(void)
{
a = std::make_unique<A>(*this);
}
void StopA(void)
{
a = nullptr;
}
A& GetA(void)
{
return *a;
}
private:
std::unique_ptr<A> a;
};
class A
{
public:
A(Manager& manager)
: manager{manager},
shouldwork{true},
thread{[&]{ this->Run(); }}
{
}
~A(void)
{
shouldwork = false;
thread.join();
}
private:
Manager& manager;
std::atomic<bool> shouldwork;
std::thread thread;
void Run(void)
{
while (shouldwork)
{
// Here goes a lot of code which calls manager.GetA().
auto& a = manager.GetA();
}
}
};
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
try
{
Manager man;
man.StartA();
man.StopA();
}
catch (std::exception& e)
{
std::cerr << "Exception caught: " << e.what() << '\n';
}
catch (...)
{
std::cerr << "Unknown exception.\n";
}
The problem is that when one thread calls Manager::StopA and enters destructor of A, the thread inside A segfaults at Manager::GetA. How can I fix this?
In StopA() you set a = nullptr;, this in turn destroys the a object and all further access to its members result in undefined behaviour (a likely cause the segmentation fault).
Simply moving the a = nullptr; to the destructor of the Manager could resolve this problem. Even better, allow the RAII mechanism of the std::unique_ptr to destroy the a object when the destructor of the Manager runs (i.e. remove the line of code completely).
With active object implementations, careful control of the member variables is important, especially the "stop variable/control" (here the shouldwork = false;). Allow the manager to access the variable directly or via a method to stop the active object before its destruction.
Some of the code here looks out of place or obscure, e.g. a = std::make_unique<A>(*this);. A redesign could help simplify some of the code. The Manager class could be removed.
class A
{
public:
A(): shouldwork{true}, thread{[&]{ this->Run(); }}
{
}
void StopA()
{
shouldwork = false;
thread.join();
}
private:
std::atomic<bool> shouldwork;
std::thread thread;
void Run(void)
{
while (shouldwork)
{
// code...
}
}
};
The code is modelled along the lines of std::thread, were the stopping of the tread is more controlled before an attempt is made to join it. The destructor is left empty in this case, to mimic the termination (calling std::terminate) result, as is the case with the standard thread library. Threads must be explicitly joined (or detached) before destruction.
Re-introducing the Manager, the code could look as follows;
class A
{
public:
A() : shouldwork{true}, thread{[&]{ this->Run(); }} {}
void StopA() { shouldwork = false; thread.join(); }
private:
void Run();
std::atomic<bool> shouldwork;
std::thread thread;
};
class Manager
{
public:
Manager() = default;
void StartA(void)
{
a = std::make_unique<A>();
}
void StopA(void)
{
a->StopA();
}
A& GetA(void)
{
return *a;
}
private:
std::unique_ptr<A> a;
};
void A::Run()
{
while (shouldwork)
{
// Here goes a lot of code which calls manager.GetA().
auto& a = manager.GetA();
}
}
And your main remains as it is.
I am trying to design a multithreaded event system in C++. In it, the objects may be located in different threads and every object should be able to queue events for other threads. Each thread has its own event queue and event dispatcher, as well as an event loop. It should be possible to change the thread affinity of the objects.
Let's say we have two threads: A and B, and an object myobj, which belongs to B. Obviously, A needs a pointer to myobj in order to be able to send events to it. A doesn't have any pointer to B, but it needs some way to get a reference to it in order to be able to lock the event queue and add the event to it.
I could store a pointer to B in myobj, but then I obviously need to protect myobj. If I place a mutex in myobj, myobj could be destructed while the mutex is being locked, thus causing a segmentation fault.
I could also use a global table where I associate each object with its corresponding thread. However, this would consume a lot of memory and cause any thread that wants to send an event to block until A has finish
ed.
What is the most efficient safe strategy to implement this? Is there perhaps some kind of design pattern for this?
Thanks in advance.
I've implemented a thread wrapper base class ThreadEventComponent for sending and processing events between instances of itself. Each ThreadEventComponent has it's own event queue that is automatically locked internally whenever used. The events themselves are negotiated by a static map of type map<EventKey, vector<ThreadEventComponent*>> that is also automatically locked whenever used. As you can see, multiple ThreadEventComponent derived instances can subscribe to the same event. Each event sent with SendEvent(Event*) is copied per instance to insure that multiple threads aren't fighting over the same data held within the event.
Admittedly, this is not the most efficient strategy, opposed to sharing memory. There are optimizations to be made regarding the addEvent(Event&)method. With drawbacks aside, it does work well for configuring a thread to do some operation outside of the main thread.
Both MainLoop() and ProcessEvent(Event*) are virtual functions to be implemented by the derived class. ProcessEvent(Event*) is called whenever an event is available in the queue. After that, MainLoop() is called regardless of the event queue state. MainLoop() is where you should tell your thread to sleep and where any other operations such as file reading/writing or network reading/writing should go.
The following code is something I've been working on for my own person use to get my head wrapped around threading in C++. This code has never been reviewed, so I'd love to hear any suggestions you have. I am aware of two elements that are less than desirable in this code sample. 1) I'm using new at run-time, the drawback being that finding memory takes time, but this can be mitigated by creating a memory buffer to construct new events over in the ThreadEventComponent base class. 2)Event casting to TEvent<T> can cause run-time errors if not implemented correctly in ProcessEvent. I'm not sure what the best solution for this is.
Note: I have EventKey implemented as a string, but you can change it to whatever type you wish as long as it has a default value along with the equality and assignment operators available.
Event.h
#include <string>
using namespace std;
typedef string EventKey;
class Event
{
public:
Event()
: mKey()
{
}
Event(EventKey key)
: mKey(key)
{
}
Event(const Event& e)
: mKey(e.mKey)
{
}
virtual ~Event()
{
}
EventKey GetKey()
{
return mKey;
}
protected:
EventKey mKey;
};
template<class T>
class TEvent : public Event
{
public:
TEvent()
: Event()
{
}
TEvent(EventKey type, T& object)
: Event(type), mObject(object)
{
}
TEvent(const TEvent<T>& e)
: Event(e.mKey), mObject(e.mObject)
{
}
virtual ~TEvent()
{
}
T& GetObject()
{
return mObject;
}
private:
T mObject;
};
ThreadEventComponent.h
#include "Event.h"
#include <thread>
#include <atomic>
#include <algorithm>
#include <vector>
#include <queue>
#include <map>
#include <mutex>
#include <assert.h>
class ThreadEventComponent
{
public:
ThreadEventComponent();
~ThreadEventComponent();
void Start(bool detached = false);
void Stop();
void ForceStop();
void WaitToFinish();
virtual void Init() = 0;
virtual void MainLoop() = 0;
virtual void ProcessEvent(Event* incoming) = 0;
template<class T>
void SendEvent(TEvent<T>& e)
{
sEventListLocker.lock();
EventKey key = e.GetKey();
for (unsigned int i = 0; i < sEventList[key].size(); i++)
{
assert(sEventList[key][i] != nullptr);
sEventList[key][i]->addEvent<T>(e);
}
sEventListLocker.unlock();
}
void SendEvent(Event& e);
void Subscribe(EventKey key);
void Unsubscribe(EventKey key);
protected:
template<class T>
void addEvent(TEvent<T>& e)
{
mQueueLocker.lock();
// The event gets copied per thread
mEventQueue.push(new TEvent<T>(e));
mQueueLocker.unlock();
}
void addEvent(Event& e);
thread mThread;
atomic<bool> mShouldExit;
private:
void threadLoop();
queue<Event*> mEventQueue;
mutex mQueueLocker;
typedef map<EventKey, vector<ThreadEventComponent*>> EventMap;
static EventMap sEventList;
static mutex sEventListLocker;
};
ThreadEventComponent.cpp
#include "ThreadEventComponent.h"
ThreadEventComponent::EventMap ThreadEventComponent::sEventList = ThreadEventComponent::EventMap();
std::mutex ThreadEventComponent::sEventListLocker;
ThreadEventComponent::ThreadEventComponent()
{
mShouldExit = false;
}
ThreadEventComponent::~ThreadEventComponent()
{
}
void ThreadEventComponent::Start(bool detached)
{
mShouldExit = false;
mThread = thread(&ThreadEventComponent::threadLoop, this);
if (detached)
mThread.detach();
}
void ThreadEventComponent::Stop()
{
mShouldExit = true;
}
void ThreadEventComponent::ForceStop()
{
mQueueLocker.lock();
while (!mEventQueue.empty())
{
delete mEventQueue.front();
mEventQueue.pop();
}
mQueueLocker.unlock();
mShouldExit = true;
}
void ThreadEventComponent::WaitToFinish()
{
if(mThread.joinable())
mThread.join();
}
void ThreadEventComponent::SendEvent(Event& e)
{
sEventListLocker.lock();
EventKey key = e.GetKey();
for (unsigned int i = 0; i < sEventList[key].size(); i++)
{
assert(sEventList[key][i] != nullptr);
sEventList[key][i]->addEvent(e);
}
sEventListLocker.unlock();
}
void ThreadEventComponent::Subscribe(EventKey key)
{
sEventListLocker.lock();
if (find(sEventList[key].begin(), sEventList[key].end(), this) == sEventList[key].end())
{
sEventList[key].push_back(this);
}
sEventListLocker.unlock();
}
void ThreadEventComponent::Unsubscribe(EventKey key)
{
sEventListLocker.lock();
// Finds event listener of correct type
EventMap::iterator mapIt = sEventList.find(key);
assert(mapIt != sEventList.end());
// Finds the pointer to itself
std::vector<ThreadEventComponent*>::iterator elIt =
std::find(mapIt->second.begin(), mapIt->second.end(), this);
assert(elIt != mapIt->second.end());
// Removes it from the event list
mapIt->second.erase(elIt);
sEventListLocker.unlock();
}
void ThreadEventComponent::addEvent(Event& e)
{
mQueueLocker.lock();
// The event gets copied per thread
mEventQueue.push(new Event(e));
mQueueLocker.unlock();
}
void ThreadEventComponent::threadLoop()
{
Init();
bool shouldExit = false;
while (!shouldExit)
{
if (mQueueLocker.try_lock())
{
if (mEventQueue.empty())
{
mQueueLocker.unlock();
if(mShouldExit)
shouldExit = true;
}
else
{
Event* e = mEventQueue.front();
mEventQueue.pop();
mQueueLocker.unlock();
ProcessEvent(e);
delete e;
}
}
MainLoop();
}
}
Example Class - A.h
#include "ThreadEventComponent.h"
class A : public ThreadEventComponent
{
public:
A() : ThreadEventComponent()
{
}
void Init()
{
Subscribe("a stop");
Subscribe("a");
}
void MainLoop()
{
this_thread::sleep_for(50ms);
}
void ProcessEvent(Event* incoming)
{
if (incoming->GetKey() == "a")
{
auto e = static_cast<TEvent<vector<int>>*>(incoming);
mData = e->GetObject();
for (unsigned int i = 0; i < mData.size(); i++)
{
mData[i] = sqrt(mData[i]);
}
SendEvent(TEvent<vector<int>>("a done", mData));
}
else if(incoming->GetKey() == "a stop")
{
StopWhenDone();
}
}
private:
vector<int> mData;
};
Example Class - B.h
#include "ThreadEventComponent.h"
int compare(const void * a, const void * b)
{
return (*(int*)a - *(int*)b);
}
class B : public ThreadEventComponent
{
public:
B() : ThreadEventComponent()
{
}
void Init()
{
Subscribe("b stop");
Subscribe("b");
}
void MainLoop()
{
this_thread::sleep_for(50ms);
}
void ProcessEvent(Event* incoming)
{
if (incoming->GetKey() == "b")
{
auto e = static_cast<TEvent<vector<int>>*>(incoming);
mData = e->GetObject();
qsort(&mData[0], mData.size(), sizeof(int), compare);
SendEvent(TEvent<vector<int>>("b done", mData));
}
else if (incoming->GetKey() == "b stop")
{
StopWhenDone();
}
}
private:
vector<int> mData;
};
Test Example - main.cpp
#include <iostream>
#include <random>
#include "A.h"
#include "B.h"
class Master : public ThreadEventComponent
{
public:
Master() : ThreadEventComponent()
{
}
void Init()
{
Subscribe("a done");
Subscribe("b done");
}
void MainLoop()
{
this_thread::sleep_for(50ms);
}
void ProcessEvent(Event* incoming)
{
if (incoming->GetKey() == "a done")
{
TEvent<vector<int>>* e = static_cast<TEvent<vector<int>>*>(incoming);
cout << "A finished" << endl;
mDataSetA = e->GetObject();
for (unsigned int i = 0; i < mDataSetA.size(); i++)
{
cout << mDataSetA[i] << " ";
}
cout << endl << endl;
}
else if (incoming->GetKey() == "b done")
{
TEvent<vector<int>>* e = static_cast<TEvent<vector<int>>*>(incoming);
cout << "B finished" << endl;
mDataSetB = e->GetObject();
for (unsigned int i = 0; i < mDataSetB.size(); i++)
{
cout << mDataSetB[i] << " ";
}
cout << endl << endl;
}
}
private:
vector<int> mDataSetA;
vector<int> mDataSetB;
};
int main()
{
srand(time(0));
A a;
B b;
a.Start();
b.Start();
vector<int> data;
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
data.push_back(rand() % 100);
}
Master master;
master.Start();
master.SendEvent(TEvent<vector<int>>("a", data));
master.SendEvent(TEvent<vector<int>>("b", data));
master.SendEvent(TEvent<vector<int>>("a", data));
master.SendEvent(TEvent<vector<int>>("b", data));
master.SendEvent(Event("a stop"));
master.SendEvent(Event("b stop"));
a.WaitToFinish();
b.WaitToFinish();
// cin.get();
master.StopWhenDone();
master.WaitToFinish();
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
I have not used it myself, but Boost.Signals2 claims to be thread-safe.
The primary motivation for Boost.Signals2 is to provide a version of the original Boost.Signals library which can be used safely in a multi-threaded environment.
Of course, using this would make your project depend on boost, which might not be in your interest.
[edit] It seems slots are executed in the emitting thread (no queue), so this might not be what you had in mind after all.
I'd consider making the thread part of classes to encapsulate them. That way you can easily design your interfaces around the thread loops (provided as member functions of these classes) and have defined entry points to send data to the thread loop (e.g. using a std::queue protected with a mutex).
I don't know if this is a designated, well known design pattern, but that's what I'm using for my all day productive code at work, and I (and my colleagues) feel and experience pretty good with it.
I'll try to give you a point:
class A {
public:
A() {}
bool start();
bool stop();
bool terminate() const;
void terminate(bool value);
int data() const;
void data(int value);
private:
std::thread thread_;
void threadLoop();
bool terminate_;
mutable std::mutex internalDataGuard_;
int data_;
};
bool A::start() {
thread_ = std::thread(std::bind(this,threadLoop));
return true;
}
bool A::stop() {
terminate(true);
thread_.join();
return true;
}
bool A::terminate() const {
std::lock_guard<std::mutex> lock(internalDataGuard_);
return terminate_;
}
void A::terminate(bool value) {
std::lock_guard<std::mutex> lock(internalDataGuard_);
terminate_ = value;
}
int A::data() const {
std::lock_guard<std::mutex> lock(internalDataGuard_);
return data_;
}
void A::data(int value) {
std::lock_guard<std::mutex> lock(internalDataGuard_);
data_ = value;
// Notify thread loop about data changes
}
void A::threadLoop() {
while(!terminate())
{
// Wait (blocking) for data changes
}
}
To setup signalling of data changes there are several choices and (OS) constraints:
The simplest thing you could use to wake up the thread loop to process changed/new data is a semaphore. In c++11 the nearest approx for a semaphore is a condition variable. Advanced versions of the pthreads API also provide condition variable support. Anyway since only one thread should be waiting there, and no kind of event broadcasing is necessary, it should be easy to implement with simple locking mechanisms.
If you have the choice to use an advanced OS, you might prefer implementing event signalling using s.th. like poll(), which provides lock-free implementation at the user space.
Some frameworks like boost, Qt, Platinum C++, and others also support event handling by signal/slot abstractions, you might have a look at their documentation and implementation to get a grip what's necessary/state of the art.
Obviously, A needs a pointer to myobj in order to be able to send
events to it.
I question the above assumption -- To me, allowing thread A to have a pointer to an object that is controlled/owned/accessed by thread B is kind of asking for trouble... in particular, some code running in thread A might be tempted later on to use that pointer to directly call methods on myobj, causing race conditions and discord; or B might delete myobj, at which point A is holding a dangling-pointer and is thereby in a precarious state.
If I was designing the system, I would try to do it in such a way that cross-thread messaging was done without requiring pointers-to-objects-in-other-threads, for the reasons you mention -- they are unsafe, in particular such a pointer might become a dangling-pointer at any time.
So then the question becomes, how do I send a message to an object in another thread, if I don't have a pointer to that object?
One way would be to give each object a unique ID by which it can be specified. This ID could be an integer (either hard-coded or dynamically assigned using an atomic counter or similar), or perhaps a short string if you wanted it to be more easily human-readable.
Then instead of the code in thread A sending the message directly to myobj, it would send a message to thread B, and the message would include a field indicating the ID of the object that is intended to receive the message.
When thread B's event loop receives the message, it would use the included ID value to look up the appropriate object (using an efficient key-value lookup mechanism such as std::unordered_map) and call the appropriate method on that object. If the object had already been destroyed, then the key-value lookup would fail (because you'd have a mechanism to make sure that the object removed itself from its thread's object-map as part of its destructor), and thus trying to send a message to a destroyed-object would fail cleanly (as opposed to invoking undefined behavior).
Note that this approach does mean that thread A's code has to know which thread myobj is owned by, in order to know which thread to send the message to. Typically thread A would need to know that anyway, but if you're going for a design that abstracts away even the knowledge about which thread a given object is running in, you could include an owner-thread-ID as part of the object-ID, so that your postMessage() method could examine the destination-object-ID to figure out which thread to send the message to.