Below is the example source code of thread safe list using lock from c++ concurrency in action 2nd.
template<typename T>
class threadsafe_list
{
struct node
{
std::mutex m;
std::shared_ptr<T> data;
std::unique_ptr<node> next;
node():
next()
{}
node(T const& value):
data(std::make_shared<T>(value))
{}
};
node head;
public:
threadsafe_list()
{}
~threadsafe_list()
{
remove_if([](node const&){return true;});
}
threadsafe_list(threadsafe_list const& other)=delete;
threadsafe_list& operator=(threadsafe_list const& other)=delete;
void push_front(T const& value)
{
std::unique_ptr<node> new_node(new node(value));
std::lock_guard<std::mutex> lk(head.m);
new_node->next=std::move(head.next);
head.next=std::move(new_node);
}
template<typename Function>
void for_each(Function f)
{
node* current=&head;
std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lk(head.m);
while(node* const next=current->next.get())
{
std::unique_lock<std::mutex> next_lk(next->m);
lk.unlock();
f(*next->data);
current=next;
lk=std::move(next_lk);
}
}
template<typename Predicate>
std::shared_ptr<T> find_first_if(Predicate p) // (1) is it safe ?
{
node* current=&head;
std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lk(head.m);
while(node* const next=current->next.get())
{
std::unique_lock<std::mutex> next_lk(next->m);
lk.unlock();
if(p(*next->data))
{
return next->data;
}
current=next;
lk=std::move(next_lk);
}
return std::shared_ptr<T>();
}
template<typename Predicate>
void remove_if(Predicate p)
{
node* current=&head;
std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lk(head.m);
while(node* const next=current->next.get())
{
std::unique_lock<std::mutex> next_lk(next->m);
if(p(*next->data))
{
std::unique_ptr<node> old_next=std::move(current->next);
current->next=std::move(next->next);
next_lk.unlock();
}
else
{
lk.unlock();
current=next;
lk=std::move(next_lk);
}
}
}
};
I understand how this code works. But I don't think this code is perfect. I put marks on the place to argue with.
(1) find_first_if returns shared_ptr instead of copied value of T. It gives chance of concurrency issue. I'll explain more. If user get the shared_ptr of data using find_first_if, then user can access the data through this pointer even while node is being modified. Is this safe action? I don't think so. My suggestion is that it should return copied value of T, which results in T find_first_if(Predicate p) {...}. Am I correct?
Edit : I separated the other questions from original one and create another post to focus on one subject