I have the following code:
#include <chrono>
#include <iostream>
#include <mutex>
#include <thread>
int shared_var {0};
std::mutex shared_mutex;
void task_1()
{
while (true)
{
shared_mutex.lock();
const auto temp = shared_var;
std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::seconds(1));
if(temp == shared_var)
{
//do something
}
else
{
const auto timenow = std::chrono::system_clock::to_time_t(std::chrono::system_clock::now());
std::cout << ctime(&timenow) << ": Data race at task_1: shared resource corrupt \n";
std::cout << "Actual value: " << shared_var << "Expected value: " << temp << "\n";
}
shared_mutex.unlock();
}
}
void task_2()
{
while (true)
{
std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::seconds(2));
++shared_var;
}
}
int main()
{
auto task_1_thread = std::thread(task_1);
auto task_2_thread = std::thread(task_2);
task_1_thread.join();
task_2_thread.join();
return 0;
}
shared_var
is protected in task_1
but not protected in task_2
What is expected:
I was expecting else
branch is not entered in task_1
as the shared resource is locked.
What actually happens:
Running this code will enter else
branch in task_1
.
Expected outcome is obtained when replace shared_mutex.lock();
with std::lock_guard<std::mutex> lock(shared_mutex);
and shared_mutex.unlock();
with std::lock_guard<std::mutex> unlock(shared_mutex);
Questions:
I am running the code on: https://www.onlinegdb.com/online_c++_compiler
Suppose you have a room with two entries. One entry has a door the other not. The room is called shared_var
. There are two guys that want to enter the room, they are called task_1
and task_2
.
You now want to make sure somehow that only one of them is inside the room at any time.
taks_2
can enter the room freely through the entry without a door. task_1
uses the door called shared_mutex
.
Your question is now: Can achieve that only one guy is in the room by adding a lock to the door at the first entry?
Obviously no, because the second door can still be entered and left without you having any control over it.
If you experiment you might observe that without the lock it happens that you find both guys in the room while after adding the lock you don't find both guys in the room. Though this is pure luck (bad luck actually, because it makes you beleive that the lock helped). In fact the lock did not change much. The guy called task_2
can still enter the room while the other guy is inside.
The solution would be to make both go through the same door. They lock the door when going inside and unlock it when leaving the room. Putting an automatic lock on the door can be nice, because then the guys cannot forget to unlock the door when they leave.
Oh sorry, i got lost in telling a story.
TL;DR: In your code it does not matter if you use the lock or not. Actually also the mutex in your code is useless, because only one thread un/locks it. To use the mutex properly, both threads need to lock it before reading/writing shared memory.