Question

Someone can show me how to create a non-blocking timer to delete data of a struct?
I’ve this struct:

struct info{
         char buf;
         int expire;
      };

Now, at the end of the expire’s value, I need to delete data into my struct. the fact is that in the same time, my program is doing something else. so how can I create this? even avoiding use of signals.

Answer 1

It won’t work. The time it takes to delete the structure is most likely much less than the time it would take to arrange for the structure to be deleted later. The reason is that in order to delete the structure later, some structure has to be created to hold the information needed to find the structure later when we get around to deleting it. And then that structure itself will eventually need to be freed. For a task so small, it’s not worth the overhead of dispatching.

In a difference case, where the deletion is really complicated, it may be worth it. For example, if the structure contains lists or maps that contain numerous sub-elements that must be traverse to destroy each one, then it might be worth dispatching a thread to do the deletion.

The details vary depending on what platform and threading standard you’re using. But the basic idea is that somewhere you have a function that causes a thread to be tasked with running a particular chunk of code.

Update: Hmm, wait, a timer? If code is not going to access it, why not delete it now? And if code is going to access it, why are you setting the timer now? Something’s fishy with your question. Don’t even think of arranging to have anything deleted until everything is 100% finished with it.