How would you implement your own reader/writer lock in C++11?

user_894381 0
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I have a set of data structures I need to protect with a readers/writer lock. I am aware of boost::shared_lock, but I would like to have a custom implementation using std::mutex, std::condition_variable and/or std::atomic so that I can better understand how it works (and tweak it later).

Each data structure (moveable, but not copyable) will inherit from a class called Commons which encapsulates the locking. I'd like the public interface to look something like this:

class Commons {
public:
    void read_lock();
    bool try_read_lock();
    void read_unlock();

    void write_lock();
    bool try_write_lock();
    void write_unlock();
};

...so that it can be publicly inherited by some:

class DataStructure : public Commons {};

I'm writing scientific code and can generally avoid data races; this lock is mostly a safeguard against the mistakes I'll probably make later. Thus my priority is low read overhead so I don't hamper a correctly-running program too much. Each thread will probably run on its own CPU core.

Could you please show me (pseudocode is ok) a readers/writer lock? What I have now is supposed to be the variant that prevents writer starvation. My main problem so far has been the gap in read_lock between checking if a read is safe to actually incrementing a reader count, after which write_lock knows to wait. 

void Commons::write_lock() {
    write_mutex.lock();
    reading_mode.store(false);
    while(readers.load() > 0) {}
}

void Commons::try_read_lock() {
    if(reading_mode.load()) {
        //if another thread calls write_lock here, bad things can happen
        ++readers; 
        return true;
    } else return false;
}

I'm kind of new to multithreading, and I'd really like to understand it. Thanks in advance for your help!

readwritelock c++11 locking multithreading c++
4 Answers

You can implement a Readers-Writers lock following the exact Wikipedia algorithm from here (I wrote it):

#include <iostream>
#include <thread>
#include <mutex>
#include <condition_variable>

int g_sharedData = 0;
int g_readersWaiting = 0;
std::mutex mu;
bool g_writerWaiting = false;
std::condition_variable cond;

void reader(int i)
{
    std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lg{mu};
    while(g_writerWaiting)
        cond.wait(lg);
    ++g_readersWaiting;
    // reading
    std::cout << "\n reader #" << i << " is reading data = " << g_sharedData << '\n';
    // end reading
    --g_readersWaiting;
    while(g_readersWaiting > 0)
        cond.wait(lg);
    cond.notify_one();
}

void writer(int i)
{
    std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lg{mu};
    while(g_writerWaiting)
        cond.wait(lg);
    // writing
    std::cout << "\n writer #" << i << " is writing\n";
    g_sharedData += i * 10;
    // end writing
    g_writerWaiting = true;
    while(g_readersWaiting > 0)
        cond.wait(lg);
    g_writerWaiting = false;
    cond.notify_all();
}//lg.unlock()


int main()
{
    std::thread reader1{reader, 1};
    std::thread reader2{reader, 2};
    std::thread reader3{reader, 3};
    std::thread reader4{reader, 4};
    std::thread writer1{writer, 1};
    std::thread writer2{writer, 2};
    std::thread writer3{writer, 3};
    std::thread writer4{reader, 4};

    reader1.join();
    reader2.join(); 
    reader3.join();
    reader4.join();
    writer1.join();
    writer2.join();
    writer3.join();
    writer4.join();

    return(0);
}
user_47432750

I believe this is what you are looking for:

class Commons {
    std::mutex write_m_;
    std::atomic<unsigned int> readers_;

public:
    Commons() : readers_(0) {
    }

    void read_lock() {
        write_m_.lock();
        ++readers_;
        write_m_.unlock();
    }

    bool try_read_lock() {
        if (write_m_.try_lock()) {
            ++readers_;
            write_m_.unlock();
            return true;
        }
        return false;
    }

    // Note: unlock without holding a lock is Undefined Behavior!
    void read_unlock() {
        --readers_;
    }

    // Note: This implementation uses a busy wait to make other functions more efficient.
    //       Consider using try_write_lock instead! and note that the number of readers can be accessed using readers()
    void write_lock() {
        while (readers_) {}
        if (!write_m_.try_lock())
            write_lock();
    }

    bool try_write_lock() {
        if (!readers_)
            return write_m_.try_lock();
        return false;
    }

    // Note: unlock without holding a lock is Undefined Behavior!
    void write_unlock() {
        write_m_.unlock(); 
    }

    int readers() { 
        return readers_; 
    }
};

For the record since C++17 we have std::shared_mutex, see: https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/thread/shared_mutex

user_78061230
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