Re: [Boost-users] [thread] multiple producers, single consumer - bosst-specific and generic questions

Subject: Re: [Boost-users] [thread] multiple producers, single consumer - bosst-specific and generic questions
From: John Dlugosz (JDlugosz_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-09-11 11:55:17

> If that particular writing thread stalls (or crashes!?), the reader
> thread may have to wait "forever", even though other writes are
> finished and waiting.
> 
> Not impossible to handle, but something to keep in mind.

That's a general issue that is always present.  If one thread is in the middle of some elaborate protocol "dance" with other threads, and throws an exception out of there (or just hangs), the other threads will be affected.

I see the particular issue here is fault-tolerance -- one worker fails, but others are still producing data.  The area that is sensitive is just 
   allocate the slot
   copy the fields in,
   being sure to copy the flag last.

I don't expect anything to go wrong when just copying PODS from one struct to another.  But perhaps I should elaborate that this "critical region" should indeed be that simple: make the record a simple struct or single pointer, not something that is elaborate to construct/copy.

I'll have to remember to document that if I make this into a reusable template.

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