The C++ Thread Classes

The server-side Ice run time by default creates a thread pool for you and automatically dispatches each incoming request in its own thread. As a result, you usually only need to worry about synchronization among threads to protect critical regions when you implement a server. However, you may wish to create threads of your own. For example, you might need a dedicated thread that responds to input from a user interface. And, if you have complex and long-running operations that can exploit parallelism, you might wish to use multiple threads for the implementation of that operation.

Ice provides a simple thread abstraction that permits you to write portable source code regardless of the native threading platform. This shields you from the native underlying thread APIs and guarantees uniform semantics regardless of your deployment platform.

On this page:

The C++ Thread Class

The basic thread abstraction in Ice is provided by two classes, ThreadControl and Thread (defined in IceUtil/Thread.h):

C++
namespace IceUtil
{
    class Time;

    class ThreadControl 
    {
    public:
#ifdef _WIN32
        typedef DWORD ID;
#else
        typedef pthread_t ID;
#endif

        ThreadControl();
#ifdef _WIN32
        ThreadControl(HANDLE, DWORD);
#else
        ThreadControl(explicit pthread_t);
#endif
        ID id() const;

        void join();
        void detach();

        static void sleep(const Time&);
        static void yield();

        bool operator==(const ThreadControl&) const;
        bool operator!=(const ThreadControl&) const;

    };

    class Thread :virtual public Shared
    {
    public:
        virtual void run() = 0;

        ThreadControl start(size_t stBytes = 0);
        ThreadControl start(size_t stBytes, int priority);
        ThreadControl getThreadControl() const;
        bool isAlive() const;

        bool operator==(const Thread&) const;
        bool operator!=(const Thread&) const;
        bool operator<(const Thread&) const;
    };
    typedef Handle<Thread> ThreadPtr;
}

The Thread class is an abstract base class with a pure virtual run method. To create a thread, you must specialize the Thread class and implement the run method (which becomes the starting stack frame for the new thread). Note that you must not allow any exceptions to escape from run. The Ice run time installs an exception handler that calls ::std::terminate if run terminates with an exception.

The remaining member functions behave as follows:

  • start(size_t stBytes = 0)
    start(size_t stBytes, int priority)
    This member function starts a newly-created thread (that is, calls the run method). The stBytes parameter specifies a stack size (in bytes) for the thread. The default value of zero creates the thread with a default stack size that is determined by the operating system.

    You can also specify a priority for the thread. (If you do not supply a priority, the thread is created with the system default priority.) The priority value is system-dependent; on POSIX systems, the value must be a legal value for the SCHED_RR real-time scheduling policy. (SCHED_RR requires root privileges.) On Windows systems, the priority value is passed through to the Windows setThreadPriority function. Priority Inversion in C++ provides information about how you can deal with priority inversion.

    The return value is a ThreadControl object for the new thread.

    You can start a thread only once; calling start on an already-started thread raises ThreadStartedException.

    If the calling thread passes an invalid priority or, on POSIX systems, does not have root privileges, start raises ThreadSyscallException.
  • getThreadControl
    This member function returns a ThreadControl object for the thread on which it is invoked. Calling this method before calling start raises a ThreadNotStartedException.
  • id
    This method returns the underlying thread ID (DWORD for Windows and pthread_t for POSIX threads). This method is provided mainly for debugging purposes. Note also that pthread_t is, strictly-speaking, an opaque type, so you should not make any assumptions about what you can do with a thread ID.
  • isAlive
    This method returns false before a thread's start method has been called and after a thread's run method has completed; otherwise, while the thread is still running, it returns true. isAlive is useful to implement a non-blocking join:

    C++
    ThreadPtr p = new MyThread();
    // ...
    while(p->isAlive())
    {
        // Do something else...
    }
    p->getThreadControl().join(); // Will not block
    
  • operator==
    operator!=
    operator<
    These member functions compare the in-memory address of two threads. They are provided so you can use Thread objects in sorted STL containers.

Note that IceUtil also defines the type ThreadPtr. This is the usual reference-counted smart pointer to guarantee automatic clean-up: the Thread destructor calls delete this once its reference count drops to zero.

Implementing Threads in C++

To illustrate how to implement threads, consider the following code fragment:

C++
#include <IceUtil/IceUtil.h>
// ...

Queue q;

class ReaderThread : public IceUtil::Thread
{
public:
    virtual void run()
     {
        for(int i = 0; i < 100; ++i)
        {
            cout << q.get() << endl;
        }
    }
};

class WriterThread : public IceUtil::Thread 
{
public:
    virtual void run() 
    {
        for(int i = 0; i < 100; ++i)
        {
            q.put(i);
        }
    }
};

This code fragment defines two classes, ReaderThread and WriterThread, that inherit from IceUtil::Thread. Each class implements the pure virtual run method it inherits from its base class. For this simple example, a writer thread places the numbers from 1 to 100 into an instance of the thread-safe Queue class we defined in our discussion of monitors, and a reader thread retrieves 100 numbers from the queue and prints them to stdout.

Creating Threads in C++

To create a new thread, we simply instantiate the thread and call its start method:

C++
IceUtil::ThreadPtr t = new ReaderThread;
t->start();
// ...

Note that we assign the return value from new to a smart pointer of type ThreadPtr. This ensures that we do not suffer a memory leak:

  1. When the thread is created, its reference count is set to zero.
  2. Prior to calling run (which is called by the start method), start increments the reference count of the thread to 1.
  3. For each ThreadPtr for the thread, the reference count of the thread is incremented by 1, and for each ThreadPtr that is destroyed, the reference count is decremented by 1.
  4. When run completes, start decrements the reference count again and then checks its value: if the value is zero at this point, the Thread object deallocates itself by calling delete this; if the value is non-zero at this point, there are other smart pointers that reference this Thread object and deletion happens when the last smart pointer goes out of scope.

Note that, for all this to work, you must allocate your Thread objects on the heap — stack-allocated Thread objects will result in deallocation errors:

C++
ReaderThread thread;
IceUtil::ThreadPtr t = &thread; // Bad news!!!

This is wrong because the destructor of t will eventually call delete, which has undefined behavior for a stack-allocated object.

Similarly, you must use a ThreadPtr for an allocated thread. Do not attempt to explicitly delete a thread:

C++
Thread* t = new ReaderThread();

// ...

delete t; // Disaster!

This will result in a double deallocation of the thread because the thread's destructor will call delete this.

It is legal for a thread to call start on itself from within its own constructor. However, if so, the thread must not be (very) short lived:

C++
class ActiveObject : public Thread
{
public:
    ActiveObject()
    {
        start();
    }

    void done() 
    {
        getThreadControl().join();
    }

    virtual void run()
    {
        // *Very* short lived...
    }
};
typedef Handle<ActiveObject> ActiveObjectPtr;

// ...

ActiveObjectPtr ao = new ActiveObject;

With this code, it is possible for run to complete before the assignment to the smart pointer ao completes; in that case, start will call delete this; before it returns and ao ends up deleting an already-deleted object. However, note that this problem can arise only if run is indeed very short-lived and moreover, the scheduler allows the newly-created thread to run to completion before the assignment of the return value of operator new to ao takes place. This is highly unlikely to happen — if you are concerned about this scenario, do not call start from within a thread's own constructor. That way, the smart pointer is assigned first, and the thread started second, so the problem cannot arise.

The C++ ThreadControl Class

The start method returns an object of type ThreadControl. The member functions of ThreadControl behave as follows:

  • ThreadControl
    The default constructor returns a ThreadControl object that refers to the calling thread. This allows you to get a handle to the current (calling) thread even if you had not previously saved a handle to that thread. For example:

    C++
    IceUtil::ThreadControl self;    // Get handle to self
    cout << self.id() << endl;      // Print thread ID
    

    This example also explains why we have two classes, Thread and ThreadControl: without a separate ThreadControl, it would not be possible to obtain a handle to an arbitrary thread. (Note that this code works even if the calling thread was not created by the Ice run time; for example, you can create a ThreadControl object for a thread that was created by the operating system.)

    The (implicit) copy constructor and assignment operator create a ThreadControl object that refers to the same underlying thread as the source ThreadControl object.

    Note that the constructor is overloaded. For Windows, the signature is

    C++
    ThreadControl(HANDLE, DWORD);
    

    For Unix, the signature is

    C++
    ThreadControl(pthread_t);
    

    These constructors allow you to create a ThreadControl object for the specified thread.

  • join
    This method suspends the calling thread until the thread on which join is called has terminated. For example:

    C++
    IceUtil::ThreadPtr t = new ReaderThread; // Create a thread
    IceUtil::ThreadControl tc = t->start();  // Start it
    tc.join();                               // Wait for it
    

    If the reader thread has finished by the time the creating thread calls join, the call to join returns immediately; otherwise, the creating thread is suspended until the reader thread terminates.

    Note that the join method of a thread must be called from only one other thread, that is, only one thread can wait for another thread to terminate. Calling join on a thread from more than one other thread has undefined behavior.

    Calling join on a thread that was previously joined with or calling join on a detached thread has undefined behavior.
    You must join with each thread you create; failure to join with a thread has undefined behavior.

  • detach
    This method detaches a thread. Once a thread is detached, it cannot be joined with.

    Calling detach on an already detached thread, or calling detach on a thread that was previously joined with has undefined behavior.

    Note that, if you have detached a thread, you must ensure that the detached thread has terminated before your program leaves its main function. This means that, because detached threads cannot be joined with, they must have a life time that is shorter than that of the main thread.
  • sleep
    This method suspends the calling thread for the amount of time specified by the Time class.
  • yield
    This method causes the calling thread to relinquish the CPU, allowing another thread to run.
  • operator==
    operator!=
    These operators compare thread IDs. (Note that operator< is not provided because it cannot be implemented portably.) These operators yield meaningful results only for threads that have not been detached or joined with.

C++ Thread Example

Following is a small example that uses the Queue class we defined in our discussion of monitors. We create five writer and five reader threads. The writer threads each deposit 100 numbers into the queue, and the reader threads each retrieve 100 numbers and print them to stdout:

C++
#include <vector>
#include <IceUtil/IceUtil.h>
// ...

Queue q;

class ReaderThread : public IceUtil::Thread
{
    virtual void run() 
    {
        for(int i = 0; i < 100; ++i)
        {
            cout << q.get() << endl;
        }
    }
};

class WriterThread : public IceUtil::Thread
{
    virtual void run() 
    {
        for(int i = 0; i < 100; ++i)
        {
            q.put(i);
        }
    }
};

int
main()
{
    vector<IceUtil::ThreadControl> threads;
    int i;

    // Create five reader threads and start them
    //
    for(i = 0; i < 5; ++i)
    {
        IceUtil::ThreadPtr t = new ReaderThread;
        threads.push_back(t->start());
    }

    // Create five writer threads and start them
    //
    for(i = 0; i < 5; ++i)
    {
        IceUtil::ThreadPtr t = new WriterThread;
        threads.push_back(t->start());
    }

    // Wait for all threads to finish
    //
    for(vector<IceUtil::ThreadControl>::iterator i = threads.begin(); i != threads.end(); ++i)
    {
        i->join();
    }
}

The code uses the threads variable, of type vector<IceUtil::ThreadControl>, to keep track of the created threads. The code creates five reader and five writer threads, storing the ThreadControl object for each thread in the threads vector. Once all the threads are created and running, the code joins with each thread before returning from main.

Note that you must not leave main without first joining with the threads you have created: many threading libraries crash if you return from main with other threads still running. (This is also the reason why you must not terminate a program without first calling Communicator::destroy; the destroy implementation joins with all outstanding threads before it returns.)

See Also