Using shared_ptr to implement RCU (read-copy-update)?
- by yongsun
I'm very interested in the user-space RCU (read-copy-update), and trying to simulate one via tr1::shared_ptr, here is the code, while I'm really a newbie in concurrent programming, would some experts help me to review?
The basic idea is, reader calls get_reading_copy() to gain the pointer of current protected data (let's say it's generation one, or G1). writer calls get_updating_copy() to gain a copy of the G1 (let's say it's G2), and only one writer is allowed to enter the critical section. After the updating is done, writer calls update() to do a swap, and make the m_data_ptr pointing to data G2. The ongoing readers and the writer now hold the shared_ptr of G1, and either a reader or a writer will eventually deallocate the G1 data.
Any new readers would get the pointer to G2, and a new writer would get the copy of G2 (let's say G3). It's possible the G1 is not released yet, so multiple generations of data my co-exists.
template <typename T>
class rcu_protected
{
public:
typedef T type;
typedef std::tr1::shared_ptr<type> rcu_pointer;
rcu_protected() : m_data_ptr (new type())
{}
rcu_pointer get_reading_copy ()
{
spin_until_eq (m_is_swapping, 0);
return m_data_ptr;
}
rcu_pointer get_updating_copy ()
{
spin_until_eq (m_is_swapping, 0);
while (!CAS (m_is_writing, 0, 1))
{/* do sleep for back-off when exceeding maximum retry times */}
rcu_pointer new_data_ptr(new type(*m_data_ptr));
// as spin_until_eq does not have memory barrier protection,
// we need to place a read barrier to protect the loading of
// new_data_ptr not to be re-ordered before its construction
_ReadBarrier();
return new_data_ptr;
}
void update (rcu_pointer new_data_ptr)
{
while (!CAS (m_is_swapping, 0, 1))
{}
m_data_ptr.swap (new_data_ptr);
// as spin_until_eq does not have memory barrier protection,
// we need to place a write barrier to protect the assignments of
// m_is_writing/m_is_swapping be re-ordered bofore the swapping
_WriteBarrier();
m_is_writing = 0;
m_is_swapping = 0;
}
private:
volatile long m_is_writing;
volatile long m_is_swapping;
rcu_pointer m_data_ptr;
};
