Tiny Thread Pool

A lightweight thread pool for Linux.

This is a lightweight thread pool designed for Linux, it is implemented in C language. Its goal is to provide simple and stable services, so it does not provide functions such as priority and dynamic adjustment of the number of threads, and only provides the simplest threads pool implementation.

The thread pool allows users to handle multiple tasks conveniently, and saves the additional overhead of thread creation and destruction, which is very useful in tasks that require a large number of short-term concurrent executions. There are four life cycle phases in this tiny thread pool design:

• PREPARING: At this stage, the thread pool is in a ready state, and tasks can be added at this time, but will not be run.

• RUNNING: The thread pool runs at this stage, all tasks will be assigned to each thread for execution in sequence, and new tasks can still be added.

• STOPPING: The thread pool is about to be closed, and new tasks are no longer allowed at this time, and the remaining tasks will be completed one by one.

• EXITING: At this point, there are no pending tasks, only working threads. When all threads complete their tasks, the thread pool will be destroyed.

These four life cycles must proceed sequentially: PREPARING -> RUNNING -> STOPPING -> EXITING

NOTE: The STOPPING and EXITING states are automatically managed by the thread pool, and users do not need to care about them.

Usage

When using it, you need to use tiny_pool_create to create a thread pool first, and then use the tiny_pool_submit function to submit tasks to it. After the preparation is completed, use tiny_pool_boot to start the operation of the thread pool, and then you can also add other tasks.

When preparing to exit, you have two options. The first is to use tiny_pool_join, which will block and wait for all remaining tasks to be completed, then destroy the threads and free the memory. The second is to use tiny_pool_detach, which will detach the thread pool and perform the same behavior as the former after all tasks are completed. It is worth noting that after running these two functions, no tasks can be added to this thread pool, and you should no longer perform any operations on the thread pool.

In addition, there is a tiny_pool_kill, this command will directly clear all tasks, kill all threads, all ongoing work will be canceled, it should only be used in emergency situations (such as a fatal error in the main program). In other cases, it is recommended to use tiny_pool_join or tiny_pool_detach interface.

Demo

This is a basic c-based use, file at demo/c/demo.c:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include "tiny_pool.h"

void test_fun(void *i) {
    int num = *(int*)i;
    printf("task %d start\n", num);
    for (int t = 0; t < num; ++t) {
        sleep(1);
        printf("task %d running...\n", num);
    }
    printf("task %d complete\n", num);
}

int main() {
    int dat[] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9};

    pool_t *pool = tiny_pool_create(4);

    tiny_pool_submit(pool, test_fun, (void*)&dat[0]);
    tiny_pool_submit(pool, test_fun, (void*)&dat[1]);

    tiny_pool_boot(pool);

    sleep(5);

    tiny_pool_submit(pool, test_fun, (void*)&dat[2]);
    tiny_pool_submit(pool, test_fun, (void*)&dat[3]);
    tiny_pool_submit(pool, test_fun, (void*)&dat[4]);
    tiny_pool_submit(pool, test_fun, (void*)&dat[5]);
    tiny_pool_submit(pool, test_fun, (void*)&dat[6]);

    sleep(6);

    tiny_pool_submit(pool, test_fun, (void*)&dat[7]);
    tiny_pool_submit(pool, test_fun, (void*)&dat[8]);

    tiny_pool_join(pool);

    return 0;
}

In C++, the C ABI interface can be called directly. Here, OOP is used to repackage, which provides stronger functions under C++11, file at demo/cpp/demo.cc:

#include <future>
#include <functional>
#include "tiny_pool.h"

class TinyPool {
    pool_t *pool;
    static void wrap_c_func(void *func) {
        (*static_cast<std::function<void()>*>(func))();
        free(func);
    }

public:
    void boot() { tiny_pool_boot(pool); }
    void join() { tiny_pool_join(pool); }
    void kill() { tiny_pool_kill(pool); }
    void detach() { tiny_pool_detach(pool); }
    explicit TinyPool(uint32_t size) { pool = tiny_pool_create(size); }

    template <typename Func, typename ...Args>
    auto submit(Func &&func, Args &&...args) -> std::future<decltype(func(args...))>;
};

template <typename Func, typename ...Args>
auto TinyPool::submit(Func &&func, Args &&...args) -> std::future<decltype(func(args...))> {
    std::function<decltype(func(args...))()> wrap_func = std::bind(
        std::forward<Func>(func), std::forward<Args>(args)...
    );
    auto func_ptr = std::make_shared<
        std::packaged_task<decltype(func(args...))()>
    >(wrap_func);
    tiny_pool_submit(pool, TinyPool::wrap_c_func, (void*)(
        new std::function<void()> (
            [func_ptr]() { (*func_ptr)(); }
        )
    ));
    return func_ptr->get_future();
}

/// ------------------------------------ start test ------------------------------------

#include <iostream>
#include <unistd.h>

int test_func(char c) {
    int num = c - '0';
    printf("char -> `%c`\n", c);
    for (int i = 0; i < num; ++i) {
        printf("task %d running...\n", num);
        usleep(500 * 1000);
    }
    return num;
}

int main() {
    auto pool = TinyPool(3);

    auto f0 = pool.submit(test_func, '0');
    auto f1 = pool.submit(test_func, '1');
    auto f2 = pool.submit(test_func, '2');
    auto f3 = pool.submit(test_func, '3');

    pool.boot();

    auto f4 = pool.submit(test_func, '4');
    auto f5 = pool.submit(test_func, '5');

    printf("get future: %d\n", f0.get());
    printf("get future: %d\n", f4.get());
    printf("get future: %d\n", f3.get());

    auto f6 = pool.submit(test_func, '6');
    auto f7 = pool.submit(test_func, '7');
    auto f8 = pool.submit(test_func, '8');
    auto f9 = pool.submit(test_func, '9');

    printf("get future: %d\n", f2.get());
    printf("get future: %d\n", f5.get());
    printf("get future: %d\n", f8.get());

    pool.join();

    printf("get future: %d\n", f6.get());
    printf("get future: %d\n", f1.get());
    printf("get future: %d\n", f9.get());
    printf("get future: %d\n", f7.get());
}

Compile

This project uses CMake to build and compile, you can use it to get started quickly, or manually call the compiler.

CMake

This will build libtiny_pool.a static library and demo executable.

cmake -B cmake-build
cmake --build cmake-build

This will build libtiny_pool.so dynamic library and demo executable.

cmake -B cmake-build -DBUILD_DYN=ON
cmake --build cmake-build

GCC

Manually build the static library.

gcc -std=gnu99 -c tiny_pool.c -o libtiny_pool.a

Build the demo and link the static library.

gcc demo/c/demo.c -o demo_c -I. -L. -ltiny_pool -lpthread
g++ demo/cpp/demo.cc -o demo_cpp -I. -L. -ltiny_pool -lpthread

Manually build the dynamic library.

gcc -std=gnu99 -shared -fPIC -c tiny_pool.c -o libtiny_pool.so

License

MIT ©2023 @dnomd343