Question

So, I am working on a scheduler in one of my classes. Basically, we are pretending that only one thread can be executing at a time. We are supposed to use a semaphore class to allow these threads to block themselves to simulate the thread waiting for the CPU.

The problem is, the threads seem to block at the wrong time and execute at the wrong time. I was wondering if I am missing some conceptual understanding of a semaphore and how to implement it. I was wondering if I could get some feedback on my implementation. The instructor provided this header file which I have not modified in any way:

class Semaphore {
private:
  int             value;
  pthread_mutex_t m;
  pthread_cond_t  c;

public:

  /* -- CONSTRUCTOR/DESTRUCTOR */

  Semaphore(int _val);

  //~Semaphore();

  /* -- SEMAPHORE OPERATIONS */

  int P();
  int V();
};

This is my implementation using posix stuff:

Semaphore::Semaphore(int _val){
    value = _val;
    c = PTHREAD_COND_INITIALIZER;
    m = PTHREAD_MUTEX_INITIALIZER;
}

int Semaphore::P(){
    if(value <= 0){
        pthread_cond_wait(&c, &m);
    }
    value--;
}

int Semaphore::V(){
    value++;
    if(value > 0){
        pthread_cond_signal(&c);
    }
}

Answer 1

You are neglecting to lock the mutex.

Secondly, what you have here is a counting semaphore, not a binary semaphore. A binary semaphore has only two states, and so a bool variable is appropriate:

class Semaphore {
private:
  bool            signaled;   // <- changed
  pthread_mutex_t m;
  pthread_cond_t  c;

  void Lock() { pthread_mutex_lock(&m); }          // <- helper inlines added
  void Unlock() { pthread_mutex_unlock(&m); }
public:

  /* -- CONSTRUCTOR/DESTRUCTOR */

  Semaphore(bool);

  //~Semaphore();

  /* -- SEMAPHORE OPERATIONS */

  void P();   // changed to void: you don't return anything
  void V();
};

Impl:

// consider using C++ constructor initializer syntax.

Semaphore::Semaphore(bool s){        // don't use leading underscores on identifiers
    signaled = s;
    c = PTHREAD_COND_INITIALIZER;    // Not sure you can use the initializers this way!
    m = PTHREAD_MUTEX_INITIALIZER;   // they are for static objects.

    // pthread_mutex_init(&m); // look, this is shorter!
}

void Semaphore::P(){
    Lock();              // added
    while (!signaled){   // this must be a loop, not if!
        pthread_cond_wait(&c, &m);
    }
    signaled = false;
    Unlock();
}

void Semaphore::V(){
    bool previously_signaled;
    Lock();
    previusly_signaled = signaled; 
    signaled = true;
    Unlock();  // always release the mutex before signaling
    if (!previously_signaled)
      pthread_cond_signal(&c); // this may be an expensive kernel op, so don't hold mutex
}