{"id":4744,"date":"2016-05-10T20:13:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-10T20:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.modernescpp.com\/index.php\/the-risk-of-mutexes\/"},"modified":"2023-06-26T12:58:29","modified_gmt":"2023-06-26T12:58:29","slug":"the-risk-of-mutexes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.modernescpp.com\/index.php\/the-risk-of-mutexes\/","title":{"rendered":"The Risks of Mutexes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The usage of mutexes seems extremely simple. There is a critical section in the code that a single thread can only access at any point in time. It’s ensured by a mutex m<\/span>. The calls m.lock()<\/span> and m.unlock()<\/span> guarantee this exclusivity. But the devil is in the details.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Deadlock<\/h2>\n

The different names for deadlocks are frightening. Some call them deadly embrace  (hug of death :-)? or kiss of death. But wait, what is a deadlock?<\/p>\n

\n
Deadlock<\/dt>\n
   A deadlock is a state in which at least two threads are blocked because each thread is waiting for the release of some resource with which the other thread works before it releases its resource.<\/dd>\n
<\/dd>\n
<\/dd>\n
<\/dd>\n
<\/dd>\n
\n

The result of a deadlock is a total standstill. The Thread and usually the whole program is blocked forever<\/strong>. It is easy to produce a deadlock. Curious?<\/p>\n

Exceptions and unknown code<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
std::mutex m;\r\nm.lock();\r\nsharedVariable= getVar();\r\nm.unlock();\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
 <\/p>\n
If the unknown code in the function getVar()<\/span> throws an exception, m.unlock()<\/span> will not be called. Every attempt to ask for the mutex m<\/span> will fail, and the program will block. Forever. But that is not the only issue with that piece of code. It calls some (unknown to us) function get.Var()<\/span>, while m.lock()<\/span> is active. What will happen if the function getVar()<\/span> tries to get the same lock? Of course, you know it\u2014a deadlock.<\/p>\n
Do you want to have a more visual example?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Lock mutexes in a different order<\/h3>\n<\/dd>\n
<\/dd>\n
<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\"Deadlock\"<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
Thread 1 and 2 need access to two resources to finish their work. Unfortunately, they ask for the resources protected by two mutexes in a different order. In this case, the thread executions will interleave so that thread 1 gets mutex 1, then thread 2 gets mutex 2, and we have a standstill. Each thread wants to get the other’s mutex. For this, the thread has to wait for the release of the resource.<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
It’s easy to express the picture in code.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n\n\n\n
\n
 1\r\n 2\r\n 3\r\n 4\r\n 5\r\n 6\r\n 7\r\n 8\r\n 9\r\n10\r\n11\r\n12\r\n13\r\n14\r\n15\r\n16\r\n17\r\n18\r\n19\r\n20\r\n21\r\n22\r\n23\r\n24\r\n25\r\n26\r\n27\r\n28\r\n29\r\n30\r\n31\r\n32\r\n33\r\n34\r\n35\r\n36<\/pre>\n<\/td>\n
\n
\/\/ deadlock.cpp<\/span>\r\n\r\n#include <iostream><\/span>\r\n#include <chrono><\/span>\r\n#include <mutex><\/span>\r\n#include <thread><\/span>\r\n\r\nstruct<\/span> CriticalData{\r\n  std::mutex mut;\r\n};\r\n\r\nvoid<\/span> deadLock(CriticalData& a, CriticalData& b){\r\n\r\n  a.mut.lock();\r\n  std::cout << \"get the first mutex\"<\/span> << std::endl;\r\n  std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::milliseconds(1));\r\n  b.mut.lock();\r\n  std::cout << \"get the second mutex\"<\/span> << std::endl;\r\n  \/\/ do something with a and b<\/span>\r\n  a.mut.unlock();\r\n  b.mut.unlock();\r\n  \r\n}\r\n\r\nint<\/span> main(){\r\n\r\n  CriticalData c1;\r\n  CriticalData c2;\r\n\r\n  std::thread<\/span> t1([&]{deadLock(c1,c2);});\r\n  std::thread<\/span> t2([&]{deadLock(c2,c1);});\r\n\r\n  t1.join();\r\n  t2.join();\r\n\r\n}\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n
 <\/p>\n
Thread t1<\/span> and thread t2<\/span> call the function deadlock<\/span> (lines 12 – 20). To process deadlock<\/span>, both functions need the  CriticalData<\/span> c1<\/span> and c2<\/span> (lines 27 and 28). Because the objects c1<\/span> and c2<\/span> must be protected from shared access, they  have a mutex (to keep this example code short and straightforward CriticalData <\/span>doesn’t have any other methods or members apart from mutex)<\/p>\n
Only a sleep about 1 Millisecond in line 16, and we have the deadlock.<\/span>
 <\/p>\n
\"deadlockCode\"<\/p>\n
The only choice now is the press CTRL+C to kill the process.<\/p>\n
What’s next?<\/h2>\n
Honestly, the example will not boost your confidence in writing multithreading programs. Additionally, the complexity will increase to the power of 2, which each new mutex. The solution to the problem is locks because they safely encapsulate mutexes. How? Have a look here<\/a>. (Proofreader Alexey<\/strong> Elymanov<\/strong>)<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
 <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The usage of mutexes seems extremely simple. There is a critical section in the code that a single thread can only access at any point in time. It’s ensured by a mutex m. The calls m.lock() and m.unlock() guarantee this exclusivity. But the devil is in the details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":4742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[366],"tags":[433],"class_list":["post-4744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-multithreading","tag-mutex"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.modernescpp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.modernescpp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.modernescpp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.modernescpp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.modernescpp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4744"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.modernescpp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6984,"href":"https:\/\/www.modernescpp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4744\/revisions\/6984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.modernescpp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.modernescpp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.modernescpp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.modernescpp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}