source: downloads/boost_1_33_1/libs/thread/doc/overview.xml @ 14

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<section id="threads.overview" last-revision="$Date: 2004/07/17 04:33:59 $">
  <title>Overview</title>
  <section id="threads.introduction">
    <title>Introduction</title>
    <para>&Boost.Threads; allows C++ programs to execute as multiple,
    asynchronous, independent threads-of-execution. Each thread has its own
    machine state including program instruction counter and registers. Programs
    which execute as multiple threads are called multithreaded programs to
    distinguish them from traditional single-threaded programs. The <link
        linkend="threads.glossary">glossary</link> gives a more complete description
        of the multithreading execution environment.</para>
    <para>Multithreading provides several advantages:
    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para>Programs which would otherwise block waiting for some external
        event can continue to respond if the blocking operation is placed in a
        separate thread. Multithreading is usually an absolute requirement for
        these programs.</para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>Well-designed multithreaded programs may execute faster than
        single-threaded programs, particularly on multiprocessor hardware.
        Note, however, that poorly-designed multithreaded programs are often
        slower than single-threaded programs.</para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>Some program designs may be easier to formulate using a
        multithreaded approach. After all, the real world is
        asynchronous!</para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist></para>
  </section>
  <section>
    <title>Dangers</title>
    <section>
    <title>General considerations</title>
    <para>Beyond the errors which can occur in single-threaded programs,
    multithreaded programs are subject to additional errors:
    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para><link linkend="threads.glossary.race-condition">Race
            conditions</link></para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para><link linkend="threads.glossary.deadlock">Deadlock</link>
        (sometimes called "deadly embrace")</para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para><link linkend="threads.glossary.priority-failure">Priority
        failures</link> (priority inversion, infinite overtaking, starvation,
                etc.)</para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist></para>
    <para>Every multithreaded program must be designed carefully to avoid these
        errors. These aren't rare or exotic failures - they are virtually guaranteed
        to occur unless multithreaded code is designed to avoid them. Priority
        failures are somewhat less common, but are nonetheless serious.</para>
    <para>The <link linkend="threads.design">&Boost.Threads; design</link>
    attempts to minimize these errors, but they will still occur unless the
    programmer proactively designs to avoid them.</para>
        <note>Please also see <xref linkend="threads.implementation_notes"/>
        for additional, implementation-specific considerations.</note>
        </section>
    <section>
      <title>Testing and debugging considerations</title>
      <para>Multithreaded programs are non-deterministic. In other words, the
      same program with the same input data may follow different execution
      paths each time it is invoked. That can make testing and debugging a
      nightmare:
      <itemizedlist>
        <listitem>
          <para>Failures are often not repeatable.</para>
        </listitem>
        <listitem>
          <para>Probe effect causes debuggers to produce very different results
          from non-debug uses.</para>
        </listitem>
        <listitem>
          <para>Debuggers require special support to show thread state.</para>
        </listitem>
        <listitem>
          <para>Tests on a single processor system may give no indication of
          serious errors which would appear on multiprocessor systems, and visa
          versa. Thus test cases should include a varying number of
          processors.</para>
        </listitem>
        <listitem>
          <para>For programs which create a varying number of threads according
          to workload, tests which don't span the full range of possibilities
          may miss serious errors.</para>
        </listitem>
      </itemizedlist></para>
    </section>
    <section>
      <title>Getting a head start</title>
      <para>Although it might appear that multithreaded programs are inherently
      unreliable, many reliable multithreaded programs do exist. Multithreading
      techniques are known which lead to reliable programs.</para>
      <para>Design patterns for reliable multithreaded programs, including the
      important <emphasis>monitor</emphasis> pattern, are presented in 
      <emphasis>Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture Volume 2 - Patterns for
      Concurrent and Networked Objects</emphasis>
          &cite.SchmidtStalRohnertBuschmann;. Many important multithreading programming
          considerations (independent of threading library) are discussed in
          <emphasis>Programming with POSIX Threads</emphasis> &cite.Butenhof97;.</para>
      <para>Doing some reading before attempting multithreaded designs will
      give you a head start toward reliable multithreaded programs.</para>
    </section>
  </section>
  <section>
    <title>C++ Standard Library usage in multithreaded programs</title>
    <section>
      <title>Runtime libraries</title>
      <para>
      <emphasis role="bold">Warning:</emphasis> Multithreaded programs such as
          those using &Boost.Threads; must link to <link
          linkend="threads.glossary.thread-safe">thread-safe</link> versions of
          all runtime libraries used by the program, including the runtime library
          for the C++ Standard Library. Failure to do so will cause <link
          linkend="threads.glossary.race-condition">race conditions</link> to occur
          when multiple threads simultaneously execute runtime library functions for
          <code>new</code>, <code>delete</code>, or other language features which
          imply shared state.</para>
    </section>
    <section>
      <title>Potentially non-thread-safe functions</title>
      <para>Certain C++ Standard Library functions inherited from C are
      particular problems because they hold internal state between
      calls:
      <itemizedlist>
        <listitem>
          <para><code>rand</code></para>
        </listitem>
        <listitem>
          <para><code>strtok</code></para>
        </listitem>
        <listitem>
          <para><code>asctime</code></para>
        </listitem>
        <listitem>
          <para><code>ctime</code></para>
        </listitem>
        <listitem>
          <para><code>gmtime</code></para>
        </listitem>
        <listitem>
          <para><code>localtime</code></para>
        </listitem>
      </itemizedlist></para>
      <para>It is possible to write thread-safe implementations of these by
      using thread specific storage (see
          <classname>boost::thread_specific_ptr</classname>), and several C++ 
          compiler vendors do just that. The technique is well-know and is explained
          in &cite.Butenhof97;.</para>
      <para>But at least one vendor (HP-UX) does not provide thread-safe
      implementations of the above functions in their otherwise thread-safe
      runtime library. Instead they provide replacement functions with
      different names and arguments.</para>
      <para><emphasis role="bold">Recommendation:</emphasis> For the most
          portable, yet thread-safe code, use Boost replacements for the problem
          functions. See the <libraryname>Boost Random Number Library</libraryname>
          and <libraryname>Boost Tokenizer Library</libraryname>.</para>
    </section>
  </section>
  <section>
    <title>Common guarantees for all &Boost.Threads; components</title>
    <section>
      <title>Exceptions</title>
      <para>&Boost.Threads; destructors never
          throw exceptions. Unless otherwise specified, other
          &Boost.Threads; functions that do not have
          an exception-specification may throw implementation-defined
          exceptions.</para>
      <para>In particular, &Boost.Threads;
          reports failure to allocate storage by throwing an exception of type
          <code>std::bad_alloc</code> or a class derived from
          <code>std::bad_alloc</code>, failure to obtain thread resources other than
          memory by throwing an exception of type
          <classname>boost::thread_resource_error</classname>, and certain lock
          related failures by throwing an exception of type
          <classname>boost::lock_error</classname>.</para>
      <para><emphasis role="bold">Rationale:</emphasis> Follows the C++ Standard
          Library practice of allowing all functions except destructors or other
          specified functions to throw exceptions on errors.</para>
    </section>
    <section>
      <title>NonCopyable requirement</title>
      <para>&Boost.Threads; classes documented as
          meeting the NonCopyable requirement disallow copy construction and copy
          assignment. For the sake of exposition, the synopsis of such classes show
          private derivation from <classname>boost::noncopyable</classname>. Users
          should not depend on this derivation, however, as implementations are free
          to meet the NonCopyable requirement in other ways.</para>
    </section>
  </section>
</section>