lab-threads-2

gistfile1.txt

- signals and threads (*go through the slide first*):
  - create process with N threads
  - see if sending a signal to the whole process with multiple threads will deliver the signal to
    different threads (perform various activities in the threads - I/O, CPU intensive, mix of both, ...)

- define a foo_t type as structure with a reference count and implement 2 macros:
  FOO_REHOLD - bumps the refcount
  FOO_REFRELE - decrement the refcount and if 0, call foo_free()
                that will de-initialize the data structure
  - implement negative unit test
  - can use mutexes or functions for atomic arithmetic operations

- warm-up: implement pthread_once() (called pthread_myonce()) (*needs mutexes*)
           - design pthread_myonce_t/PTHREAD_ONCE_INIT without looking at actual implementation
           - write a test case(s) - try leaving out the:
             a) init = true
             b) mutex_unlock - the test should always complete

- practical coding (*needs mutexes*):
  - implement hash table of items (structures) with ref-counting scheme (atomic increment/decrement !)
  - hash function - modulo, table has fixed number of buckets, each bucket contains linked list
  - strict locking protocol: lock the bucket first, then lock the item
  - hash table find, insertion, deletion [traversal]
  -