Critical Sections and Semaphores A critical section is code that contains access to shared resources that can accessed by multiple processes. Critical sections can be managed with semaphores This chapter describes POSIX.1b semaphores and System V semaphores

Protecting CS Mutual Exclusion – Only one process is in CS at a time Progress – If no process is in CS, a process that wishes to can get in Bounded Wait – No process can be postponed indefinitely (starved)

Non-Atomic Operations Implementations of: c++; and c–– ; r1 = c;r2 = c; r1 = r1 + 1;r2 = r2 – 1; c = r1;c = r2; c = 6; Process AProcess B …; c++; ……; c ––; … At the end of processes A and B we expect c to be incremented and decremented so the final value is 6. However, if process A is interrupted after completing the instruction r1 = c; and process B executes to completion, c = 5 at the end of B and it is set to 7 after A finishes

test-and-set/swap Test-and-Set and Swap are routines implemented in hardware to coordinate lower level critical sections such as the implementing of a semaphore counter Review section 8.1 if you are unfamiliar with these operations

Busy-Wait Semaphores wait – while (*s <= 0) noop; (*s)––; signal – (*s)++; *s = 1; Process AProcess Bwait(&s); c++;c––;signal(&s); Busy-wait implementations waste CPU cycles One process can starve the others

Waiting List Semaphores wait – if (sp->value > 0) sp->value ––; else { list> signal – if (sp->list != NULL) <remove process at head of semaphore queue and place it in ready queue> else sp->value++;

Motivation for ‘and’ Syncronization *A = 1; *B = 1; Process 1Process 2Process 3 wait(&A);wait(&A);wait(&B); wait(&B); signal(&A); signal(&B); signal(&B); signal(&A);

‘and’ Syncronization *A = 1; *B = 1; Process 1Process 2Process 3 wait(&A);wait(&A, &B);wait(&B); signal(&A); signal(&A, &B); signal(&B); wait(&A, &B) denotes simultaneous wait on A and B. The semaphores A and B are decremented only if both of them can decremented without blocking

‘and’ Syncronization Implementation wait – if ((ap->value > 0) && (bp->value > 0)) { (ap->value)--; (bp->value)--; } else if (ap->value <= 0) list> else list> signal – ap->value++; list to ready queue> bp->value++; list to ready queue>

Why Wake All Processes on Signal? Process 1 Process 2Process 3 a1: wait(&A,&B); a2: wait(&B,&C);a3: signal(&B,&C); b1: b2: c1: signal(&A,&B); c2: signal(&B,&C); Assume a1 is executed followed by a2, the semaphore queues are: A: process 1 B: process 1, process 2 C: process 2 Then, if a3 is executed and the signal only wakes up the first process in each queue, the semaphore queues are: A: process 1 B: process 2 C: Now process 1 holds B while blocking on A. Process 2 cannot proceed until process 1 gets A. This defeats the purpose of ‘and’ synchronization

POSIX.1b Semaphores POSIX.1b standard was adopted in 1993 Since they are new, POSIX semaphores may not be available in all operating systems – even those that claim to be POSIX.1 compliant An implementation supports POSIX semaphores if _POSIX_SEMAPHORES is defined in unistd.h – It is defined there on the ect-unix machines

POSIX.1b Semaphore Variables Semaphore variable is of type sem_t Atomic operations for initializing, incrementing and decrementing value Unnamed semaphores – Can be used by a single process or by children of a process that created it Named semaphores – Can be used by all processes Unnamed semaphores are similar in operation to pipes, and named semaphores are similar to named pipes

POSIX.1b Semaphore Declaration #include sem_t sem; sem is a semaphore variable POSIX.1b does not specify underlying type of sem_t One possibility is for it to act like a file descriptor that points to a local table and the table entries point to entries in a system file table

Semaphore Operations SYNOPSIS #include int sem_init (sem_t *sem, int pshared, unsigned int value); int sem_destroy (sem_t *sem); int sem_wait (sem_t *sem); int sem_try (sem_t *sem); int sem_post (sem_t *sem); int sem_getvalue (sem_t *sem, int *sval); POSIX.1b All semaphore functions return –1 and set errno on error It is uncertain what semaphore functions return on success, but usually 0 _POSIX_SEMAPHORES may be defined but system may NOT support POSIX.1b semaphores POSIX.1b semaphores are counting semaphores

sem_init Initializes semaphore to value parameter If the value of pshared is non-zero, the semaphore can be used between processes (the process that initializes it and by children of that process) If the value of pshared is zero, the semaphore can only be used by threads of a single process Think of sem as referring to a semaphore rather than being the semaphore itself

sem_destroy Destroys a previously initialized semaphore If sem_destroy attempts to destroy a semaphore that is being used by another process, it may return –1 and set errno to EBUSY – Unfortunately, the specifications do not require that the system detect this

sem_wait and sem_trywait sem_wait is a standard semaphore wait operation If the semaphore value is 0, sem_wait blocks until it can successfully decrement value or when interrupted such as by SIGINT sem_trywait is similar to sem_wait except instead of blocking on 0, it returns –1 and sets errno to EAGAIN

sem_post sem_post increments the semaphore value and is the classical semaphore signal operation sem_post must be async_signal_safe and may be invoked from a signal handler

sem_getvalue Allows the user to examine the value of a named or unnamed semaphore Sets the integer referenced by sval to the value of the semaphore If there are processes waiting for the semaphore, POSIX.1b allows setting sval to either 0 or a negative number whose absolute value is equal to the number of waiting processes – ambiguity! Returns 0 on success and –1 and sets errno on error

Unnamed Semaphore Example #include … void main(); { … if (sem_init(&my_lock, 1, 1) { perror(“could not initialize my_lock semaphore); … for (i = 1; i < n; ++i) if (childpid = fork()) break; … if (sem_wait (&my_lock) == – 1) { perror (“semaphore invalid); exit (1); } Critical Section if (sem_post (&my_lock) == – 1) { perror (“semaphore done”); exit(1); } … }

Named Semaphores Named semaphores can synchronize processes that do not have common ancestors Have a name, user ID, group ID and permissions just like files do POSIX.1b does not require name to appear in file system nor does it specify consequences of having two processes refer to same name If name begins with a slash (/), two processes (or threads) open the same semaphore

sem_open SYNOPSIS #include sem_t *sem_open(const char *name, int oflag); sem_t *sem_open(const char *namd, int oflag, mode_t mode, unsigned int value); POSIX.1b sem_open establishes a connection between a named semaphore and a sem_t value sem_open returns a pointer identifying the semaphore

sem_open oflag parameter oflag determines whether sem_open access a previously defined semaphore or creates a new one If oflag is 0 the semaphore is previously defined with the same name – If no such name is found sem_open returns –1 and sets errno to ENOENT oflag of O_CREAT or O_CREAT|O_EXCL means the semaphore is not previously defined and requires the second form of sem_open that includes permissions and semaphore value oflag of O_CREAT|O_EXCL opens a semaphore if one of that name does not exist or returns –1 if one DOES exist and sets errno to EEXIST

sem_close SYNOPSIS #include int sem_close (sem_t *sem); int sem_unlink(const char *name); POSIX.1b A process calls sem_close to deallocate system resources allocated to the user of the semaphore sem_close does not necessarily remove the semaphore, but makes it inaccessible to the process _exit and exec system calls also deallocate process semaphores

sem_unlink sem_unlink removes a named semaphore from the system If there is still a reference to the semaphore, destruction is delayed until the other references are closed by sem_close, _exit or exec Calls to sem_open with the same name after sem_unlink with refer to a different semaphore

Named Semaphore Example – (top) #include #define S_MODE S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR … void main(); { if ((my_lock = sem_open (“my.dat”, O_CREAT|O_EXCL, S_MODE, 1) == – 1) && errno == ENOENT) { perror(“semaphore open failed”); exit(1); } … for (i = 1; i < n; ++i) if (childpid = fork()) break;

Named Semaphore Example – (bottom) … if (sem_wait (&my_lock) == – 1) { perror (“semaphore invalid); exit (1); } Critical Section if (sem_post (&my_lock) == – 1) { perror (“semaphore done”); exit(1); } … if (sem_close (&my_lock) == – 1) { perror(“semaphore close failed”); exit(1); } }

System V Semaphores System V semaphores are part of the general System V interprocess communication facility A System V semaphore is created by executing a semget system call The semget creats a semaphore data structure in the kernel and returns an integer handle to the semaphore Processes cannot access semaphore data structures directly – only through system calls Semaphore ids or handles are analogous to file descriptors

Posix vs System V Semaphores System V semaphores, shared memory and message queues are not part of POSIX.1 – they are included in the Spec 1170 specification System V data structures are created and kept in the kernel and are referenced through integer handles In POSIX.1, a program declares a variable of type sem_t and passes a pointer to that variable

Semaphore Sets A semaphore set is an array of semaphore elements A process can perform operations on the entire set in a single system call The internal representation of semaphore sets and semaphore elements is not directly accessible Each semaphore includes at least the following: –A nonnegative integer representing semaphore value –Process ID of the last process to manipulate the semaphore element –Number of processes waiting for the semaphore element to increase –Number of processes waiting for the semaphore element value to equal 0

Semaphore Sets (Cont) Semaphore operations allow a process to block until a semaphore element value is 0 or until it becomes positive Each element has two queues associated with it – a queue of processes waiting for the semaphore element value to increase and a queue of processes waiting for the value to equal 0

Semaphore Creation SYNOPSIS #include int semget (key_t key, int nsems, int semflg); Spec 1170

IPC_PRIVATE #include #include #include #include #include #define PERMS S_IRUSR|S_IWUSR #define SET_SIZE 3 int semid; void main(void) { int seimid; if ((semid = semget(IPC_PRIVATE, SET_SIZE, PERMS)) < 0) perror("Could not create new private semaphore"); else printf("Semaphore created with ID %d\n",semid); }

#include #include #include #include #include #include #define PERMS S_IRUSR|S_IWUSR|S_IRGRP|S_IWGRP|S_IROTH|S_IWOTH #define SET_SIZE 1 #define KEY ((key_t)99887) void main(void) { int semid; if ((semid = semget(KEY, SET_SIZE, PERMS | IPC_CREAT)) < 0) fprintf(stderr, "Error creating semaphore with key %d: %s\n", (int)KEY, strerror(errno)); else printf("Semaphore with ID %d created for key %d\n",semid,(int)KEY); } Random Key

Generate Key from ftok int semid; key_t mykey; if (argc != 3) { fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s filename id\n", argv[0]); exit(1); } if ((mykey = ftok(argv[1], atoi(argv[2]))) == (key_t) -1) { fprintf(stderr, "Could not derive key from filename %s: %s\n", argv[1], strerror(errno)); exit(1); } else if ((semid = semget(mykey, SET_SIZE, PERMS | IPC_CREAT)) < 0) { fprintf(stderr, "Error creating semaphore with key %d: %s\n", (int)mykey, strerror(errno)); exit(1);

semop SYNOPSIS #include int semop(int semid, struct sembuf *sops, int nsops); Spec 1170 A process can increment, decrement or test individual semaphore elements with the semop system call semid is handle returned by semget sops points to an array of element operations nsops specifies the number of element operations in the sops array semop returns –1 and sets errno on error

struct sembuf struct sembuf has the following three fields –short sem_num: The number of the semaphore element –short sem_op: The particular operation to be performed on the semaphore element –shore sem_flg: The flags to specify options for the opration

sem_op If sem_op > 0, semop adds the value to the corresponding semaphore element and awakens processes waiting for semaphore element to increase If sem_op = 0, and semaphore element value is not 0, semop blocks the calling process (waiting for 0) and increments the count of processes waiting for a zero value of that element If sem_op < 0, semop adds the value to the corresponding semaphore element value provided the result would not be negative. If the operation would make the element value negative, semop blocks the process on the event that the semaphore element value increases. If the resulting value is 0, semop wakes the processes waiting for 0

set_sembuf_struct /* Example 8.21 */ #include #include #include void set_sembuf_struct(struct sembuf *s, int num, int op, int flg) { s->sem_num = (short) num; s->sem_op = op; s->sem_flg = flg; return; } Do not set sembuf elements in a declaration such as: struct sembuf myopbuf = {1, –1, 0}

Semaphore – Example 1 struct sembuf GET_TAPES[2] struct sembuf RELEASE_TAPES[2] set_sembuf_struct(&(GET_TAPES[0]), 0,–1,0); set_sembuf_struct(&(GET_TAPES[1]), 1,–1,0); set_sembuf_struct(&(RELEASE_TAPES[0]), 0,1,0); set_sembuf_struct(&(RELEASE_TAPES[0]), 1,1,0); Process 1:semop(S, GET_TAPES,1); semop(S, RELEASE_TAPES,1); Process 2:semop(S,GET_TAPES,2); semop(S,RELEASE_TAPES,2); Process 3:semop(S, GET_TAPES + 1,1); semop(S, RELEASE_TAPES + 1,1);

struct sembuf – Example 1 GET_TAPES[0]RELEASE_TAPES[0]num = 0 op = –1 op = 1 flg = 0 flg = 0 GET_TAPES[1]RELEASE_TAPES[1]num = 1 op = –1 op = 1flg = 0

Semaphore – Ex 2 (1) … int semid; int semop_ret; struct sembuf semwait[1]; struct sembuf semsignal[1]; … if ( (argc != 2) || ((n = atoi (argv[1])) <= 0) ) { fprintf (stderr, "Usage: %s number_of_processes\n", argv[0]); exit(1); } /* Create a semaphore containing a single element */ if ((semid = semget(IPC_PRIVATE, SET_SIZE, PERMS)) == -1) { fprintf(stderr, "[%ld]: Could not access semaphore: %s\n", (long)getpid(), strerror(errno)); exit(1); }

Semaphore – Ex 2 (2) /* Initialize the semaphore element to 1 */ set_sembuf_struct(semwait, 0, -1, 0); set_sembuf_struct(semsignal, 0, 1, 0); if (semop(semid, semsignal, 1) == -1) { fprintf(stderr, "[%ld]: semaphore increment failed - %s\n", (long)getpid(), strerror(errno)); if (remove_semaphore(semid) == -1) fprintf(stderr, "[%ld], could not delete semaphore - %s\n", (long)getpid(), strerror(errno)); exit(1); }

for (i = 1; i < n; ++i) if (childpid = fork()) break; Each child sends pid and ppid info to buffer while(( (semop_ret = semop(semid, semwait, 1)) == -1) && (errno == EINTR)) ; if (semop_ret == -1) fprintf(stderr, "[%ld]: semaphore decrement failed - %s\n", (long)getpid(), strerror(errno)); else { Each child prints out its pid and ppid buffer while(((semop_ret = semop(semid, semsignal, 1)) == -1) && (errno == EINTR)) ; if (semop_ret == -1) fprintf(stderr, "[%ld]: semaphore increment failed - %s\n", (long)getpid(), strerror(errno)); } Semaphore – Ex 2 (3)

Semaphore – Ex 2 (4) while((wait(&status) == -1) && (errno == EINTR)) ; if (i == 1) /* the original process removes the semaphore */ if (remove_semaphore(semid) == -1) fprintf(stderr, "[%ld], could not delete semaphore - %s\n", (long)getpid(), strerror(errno)); exit(0); }

Semaphore – Example 3 #include #define SET_SIZE 2 struct sembuf myop[SET_SIZE]; set_sembuf_struct(&(myop[0]), 0, 0, 0); set_sembuf_struct(&(myop[1]), 0, 1, 0); if (semop(semid, myop, 2) == -1) perror(“Semaphore operation failed”);

struct sembuf – Example 2 myop[0] num = 0 op = 0 flg = 0 myop[1] num = 0 op = 1 flg = 0

#include #include #include #include #include #define PERMS S_IRUSR|S_IWUSR #define SET_SIZE 2 int create_and_initialize(key_t mykey, int value) { int semid; struct sembuf getlock, setlock, setinit; semid = semget(mykey, SET_SIZE, PERMS|IPC_CREAT|IPC_EXCL); if ((semid 0) { /* initialize the semaphore and open the lock */ set_sembuf_struct(&setinit, 1, value, 0); semop(semid, &setinit, 1); set_sembuf_struct(&setlock, 0, 1, 0); semop(semid, &setlock, 1); Create and Set Semaphore (top)

Create and Set Semaphore (bottom) } else { /* semaphore already exists -- wait for initialization */ if ((semid = semget(mykey, SET_SIZE, PERMS)) < 0) { perror("Could not access existing semaphore"); return -1; } set_sembuf_struct(&getlock, 0, -1, 0); semop(semid, &getlock, 1); set_sembuf_struct(&setlock, 0, 1, 0); semop(semid, &setlock, 1); } return semid; }

semctl #include int semctl(int semid, int semnum, int cmd, /* union semun arg */ semctl querries or sets the values of individual semaphore elements semid identifies the semaphore set semnum indicates the semaphore element within the set cmd refers to individual elements and specifies which command is to be executed arg is used differently for different cmd values

Important Commands GETVAL:Return the value of a specific semaphore element GETPID:Return process ID of last process to manipulate element GETNCNT: Return number of processes waiting for element to increment GETZCNT:Return number of processes waiting for element to become 0 SETVAL: Set value of a specific semaphore element to arg.val IPC_RMID:Remove the semaphore identified by semid IPC_SET:Set the permissions of the semaphore semctl returns –1 on error and and sets errno – On success the return value is 0 for all commands except GETVAL, GETPID, GETNCNT, and GETZCNT return the value of the command

semnum Paramater union semnum { int val; struct semid_ds *buf; ushort *array; }; May not be included directly in programs, since some systems do not define it in semaphore header files

… int initialize_sem_element(int semid, int semnum, int semvalue) { union semun arg; arg.val = semvalue; return semctl(semid, semnum, SETVAL, arg); } void main(void) { int semid; int retval; if ((semid = semget(IPC_PRIVATE, 2, 0600)) < 0) perror("Could not create new private semaphore"); retval = initialize_sem_element(semid,1,3); printf("initialize_sem_element returned %d\n",retval); } initialize_sem_element returns 0 on success and –1 and sets errno on error initialize _sem_element

remove_semaphore /* Example 8.26 */ #include #include #include int remove_semaphore(int semid) { return semctl(semid, 0, IPC_RMID); }

Command Prompt Semaphore Ops List all semaphores:ipcs –s Remove semaphore id 12345:ipcrm 12345

/* Example 8.29 */ #include #include #include #include int semop_restart(int semid, struct sembuf *sops, int nsops) { int retval; while ( ((retval = semop(semid, sops, nsops)) == -1) && (errno == EINTR) ) ; return retval; } semop_restart

sem_wait_restart /* Example 8.30 */ #include #include int sem_wait_restart(sem_t *sem) { int retval; while ( ((retval = sem_wait(sem)) == -1) && (errno == EINTR) ) ; return retval; }