Synchronization Across Process Boundaries

Each of the synchronization primitives can be used across process boundaries. The primitives are set up by ensuring that the synchronization variable is located in a shared memory segment and by calling the appropriate init() routine. The primitive must have been initialized with its shared attribute set to interprocess.

Producer and Consumer Problem Example

Example 4-17 shows the producer and consumer problem with the producer and consumer in separate processes. The main routine maps zero-filled memory shared with its child process into its address space.

A child process is created to run the consumer. The parent runs the producer.

This example also shows the drivers for the producer and consumer. The producer_driver() reads characters from stdin and calls producer(). The consumer_driver() gets characters by calling consumer() and writes them to stdout.

The data structure for Example 4-17 is the same as the structure used for the condition variables example, shown in Example 4-4. Two semaphores represent the number of full and empty buffers. The semaphores ensure that producers wait for empty buffers and that consumers wait until the buffers are full.

Example 4-17 Synchronization Across Process Boundaries

main() {
    int zfd;
    buffer_t *buffer;
    pthread_mutexattr_t mattr;
    pthread_condattr_t cvattr_less, cvattr_more;

    zfd = open("/dev/zero", O_RDWR);
    buffer = (buffer_t *)mmap(NULL, sizeof(buffer_t),
        PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, zfd, 0);
    buffer->occupied = buffer->nextin = buffer->nextout = 0;

    pthread_mutex_attr_init(&mattr);
    pthread_mutexattr_setpshared(&mattr,
        PTHREAD_PROCESS_SHARED);

    pthread_mutex_init(&buffer->lock, &mattr);
    pthread_condattr_init(&cvattr_less);
    pthread_condattr_setpshared(&cvattr_less, PTHREAD_PROCESS_SHARED);
    pthread_cond_init(&buffer->less, &cvattr_less);
    pthread_condattr_init(&cvattr_more);
    pthread_condattr_setpshared(&cvattr_more,   
        PTHREAD_PROCESS_SHARED);
    pthread_cond_init(&buffer->more, &cvattr_more);

    if (fork() == 0)
        consumer_driver(buffer);
    else
        producer_driver(buffer);
}

void producer_driver(buffer_t *b) {
    int item;

    while (1) {
        item = getchar();
        if (item == EOF) {
            producer(b, `\0');
            break;
        } else
            producer(b, (char)item);
    }
}

void consumer_driver(buffer_t *b) {
    char item;

    while (1) {
        if ((item = consumer(b)) == '\0')
            break;
        putchar(item);
    }
}