Question

The task is to have 5 threads present at the same time, and the user assigns each a burst time. Then a round robin algorithm with a quantum of 2 is used to schedule the threads. For example, if I run the program with

$ ./m 1 2 3 4 5

The output should be

A 1
B 2
C 2
D 2
E 2
C 1
D 2
E 2
E 1

But for now my output shows only

A 1
B 2
C 2

Since the program errs where one thread does not end for the time being, I think the problem is that this thread cannot unlock to let the next thread grab the lock. My sleep() does not work, either. But I have no idea how to modify my code in order to fix them. My code is as follows:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <pthread.h>
double times[5];
char process[] = {'A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E'};
int turn = 0;

void StartNext(int tid)     //choose the next thread to run
{
    int i;
    for(i = (tid + 1) % 5; times[i] == 0; i = (i + 1) % 5)
        if(i == tid)    //if every thread has finished
            return;
    turn = i;
}

void *Run(void *tid)    //the thread function
{
    int i = (int)tid;
    while(times[i] != 0)
    {
        while(turn != i);   //busy waiting till it is its turn
        if(times[i] > 2)
        {
            printf("%c 2\n", process[i]);
            sleep(2);   //sleep is to simulate the actual running time
            times[i] -= 2;
        }
        else if(times[i] > 0 && times[i] <= 2)      //this thread will have finished after this turn
        {
            printf("%c %lf\n", process[i], times[i]);
            sleep(times[i]);
            times[i] = 0;
        }
        StartNext(i);   //choose the next thread to run
    }
    pthread_exit(0);
}

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    pthread_t threads[5];
    int i, status;

    if(argc == 6)
    {
        for(i = 0; i < 5; i++)
            times[i] = atof(argv[i + 1]);   //input the burst time of each thread
        for(i = 0; i < 5; i++)
        {
            status = pthread_create(&threads[i], NULL, Run, (void *)i);    //Create threads
            if(status != 0)
            {
                printf("While creating thread %d, pthread_create returned error code %d\n", i, status);
                exit(-1);
            }
            pthread_join(threads[i], 0);    //Join threads
        }
    }
    return 0;
}

The program is directly runnable. Could anyone help me figure it out? Thanks!

Answer 1

Some things I’ve figured out reading your code:

1. At the beginning of the Run function, you convert tid (which is a pointer to void) directly to int. Shouldn’t you dereference it?

2. It is better to make int turn volatile, so that the compiler won’t make any assumptions about its value not changing.

3. When you call the function sleep the second time, you pass a parameter that has type double (times[i]), and you should pass an unsigned int parameter. A direct cast like (unsigned int) times[i] should solve that.

4. You’re doing the pthread_join before creating the other threads. When you create thread 3, and it enters its busy waiting state, the other threads won’t be created. Try putting the joins after the for block.