Implementing boost::barrier in C++11

h4lc0n picture h4lc0n · Jun 28, 2014 · Viewed 12.2k times · Source

I've been trying to get a project rid of every boost reference and switch to pure C++11.

At one point, thread workers are created which wait for a barrier to give the 'go' command, do the work (spread through the N threads) and synchronize when all of them finish. The basic idea is that the main loop gives the go order (boost::barrier .wait()) and waits for the result with the same function.

I had implemented in a different project a custom made Barrier based on the Boost version and everything worked perfectly. Implementation is as follows:

Barrier.h:

class Barrier {
public:
    Barrier(unsigned int n);
    void Wait(void);
private:
    std::mutex counterMutex;
    std::mutex waitMutex;

    unsigned int expectedN;
    unsigned int currentN;
};

Barrier.cpp

Barrier::Barrier(unsigned int n) {
    expectedN = n;
    currentN = expectedN;
}

void Barrier::Wait(void) {
    counterMutex.lock();

    // If we're the first thread, we want an extra lock at our disposal

    if (currentN == expectedN) {
        waitMutex.lock();
    }

    // Decrease thread counter

    --currentN;

    if (currentN == 0) {
        currentN = expectedN;
        waitMutex.unlock();

        currentN = expectedN;
        counterMutex.unlock();
    } else {
        counterMutex.unlock();

        waitMutex.lock();
        waitMutex.unlock();
    }
}

This code has been used on iOS and Android's NDK without any problems, but when trying it on a Visual Studio 2013 project it seems only a thread which locked a mutex can unlock it (assertion: unlock of unowned mutex).

Is there any non-spinning (blocking, such as this one) version of barrier that I can use that works for C++11? I've only been able to find barriers which used busy-waiting which is something I would like to prevent (unless there is really no reason for it).

Answer

Jinfeng Yang picture Jinfeng Yang · Nov 25, 2014
class Barrier {
public:
    explicit Barrier(std::size_t iCount) : 
      mThreshold(iCount), 
      mCount(iCount), 
      mGeneration(0) {
    }

    void Wait() {
        std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lLock{mMutex};
        auto lGen = mGeneration;
        if (!--mCount) {
            mGeneration++;
            mCount = mThreshold;
            mCond.notify_all();
        } else {
            mCond.wait(lLock, [this, lGen] { return lGen != mGeneration; });
        }
    }

private:
    std::mutex mMutex;
    std::condition_variable mCond;
    std::size_t mThreshold;
    std::size_t mCount;
    std::size_t mGeneration;
};