Advanced Programming in the UNIX® Environment

ptg10805159

414 Threads Chapter 11

variable, but if the condition variable is allocated dynamically, we can use the

pthread_cond_initfunction to initialize it.

We can use the pthread_cond_destroyfunction to deinitialize a condition

variable beforefreeing its underlying memory.

#include <pthread.h>

int pthread_cond_init(pthread_cond_t *restrictcond,

const pthread_condattr_t *restrictattr);

int pthread_cond_destroy(pthread_cond_t *cond);

Both return: 0 if OK, error number on failure

Unless you need to create a conditional variable with nondefault attributes, theattr

argument topthread_cond_initcan be set toNULL.Wewill discuss condition

variable attributes in Section 12.4.3.

We usepthread_cond_waitto wait for a condition to be true. A variant is

provided to return an error code if the condition hasn’t been satisfied in the specified

amount of time.

#include <pthread.h>

int pthread_cond_wait(pthread_cond_t *restrictcond,

pthread_mutex_t *restrict mutex);

int pthread_cond_timedwait(pthread_cond_t *restrictcond,

pthread_mutex_t *restrict mutex,

const struct timespec *restrict tsptr);

Both return: 0 if OK, error number on failure

The mutex passed topthread_cond_wait protects the condition. The caller

passes it locked to the function, which then atomically places the calling thread on the

list of threads waiting for the condition and unlocks the mutex. This closes the window

between the time that the condition is checked and the time that the thread goes to sleep

waiting for the condition to change, so that the thread doesn’t miss a change in the

condition. Whenpthread_cond_waitreturns, the mutex is again locked.

Thepthread_cond_timedwaitfunction provides the same functionality as the

pthread_cond_waitfunction with the addition of the timeout (tsptr). The timeout

value specifies how long we arewilling to wait expressed as atimespecstructure.

Just as we saw in Figure11.13, we need to specify how long we arewilling to wait

as an absolute time instead of a relative time. For example, suppose we arewilling to

wait 3 minutes. Instead of translating 3 minutes into atimespecstructure, we need to

translate now+3minutes into atimespecstructure.

We can use theclock_gettimefunction (Section 6.10) to get the current time

expressed as atimespecstructure. However,this function is not yet supported on all

platforms. Alternatively, we can use thegettimeofdayfunction to get the current

time expressed as atimevalstructureand translate it into atimespecstructure. To