Semaphores in Linux
Pages: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Understanding the Utility of Semaphores

The advantage of semaphores over other synchronization mechanisms is that they can be used to synchronize two related or unrelated processes trying to access the same resource.

Related Process

The processes are said to be related if the new process is created from within an existing process, which ends up in duplicating the resources of the creating process. Such processes are called related processes. The following example shows how the related processes are synchronized.

#include <semaphore.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <sys/mman.h>

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
  int fd, i,count=0,nloop=10,zero=0,*ptr;
  sem_t mutex;

  //open a file and map it into memory

  fd = open("log.txt",O_RDWR|O_CREAT,S_IRWXU);
  write(fd,&zero,sizeof(int));
  ptr = mmap(NULL,sizeof(int),PROT_READ |PROT_WRITE,MAP_SHARED,fd,0);
  close(fd);

  /* create, initialize semaphore */
  if( sem_init(&mutex,1,1) < 0)
    {
      perror("semaphore initilization");
      exit(0);
    }
  if (fork() == 0) { /* child process*/
    for (i = 0; i < nloop; i++) {
      sem_wait(&mutex);
      printf("child: %d\n", (*ptr)++);
      sem_post(&mutex);
    }
    exit(0);
  }
  /* back to parent process */
  for (i = 0; i < nloop; i++) {
    sem_wait(&mutex);
    printf("parent: %d\n", (*ptr)++);
    sem_post(&mutex);
  }
  exit(0);
}

In this example, the related process access a common piece of memory, which is synchronized.

Unrelated Process

Processes are said to be unrelated if the two processes are unknown to each other and no relationship exists between them. For example, instances of two different programs are unrelated process. If such programs try to access a shared resource, a semaphore could be used to synchronize their access. The following source code demonstrates this:

<u>File1: server.c </u>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/ipc.h>
#include <sys/shm.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <semaphore.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>

#define SHMSZ 27
char SEM_NAME[]= "vik";

int main()
{
  char ch;
  int shmid;
  key_t key;
  char *shm,*s;
  sem_t *mutex;

  //name the shared memory segment
  key = 1000;

  //create & initialize semaphore
  mutex = sem_open(SEM_NAME,O_CREAT,0644,1);
  if(mutex == SEM_FAILED)
    {
      perror("unable to create semaphore");
      sem_unlink(SEM_NAME);
      exit(-1);
    }

  //create the shared memory segment with this key
  shmid = shmget(key,SHMSZ,IPC_CREAT|0666);
  if(shmid<0)
    {
      perror("failure in shmget");
      exit(-1);
    }

  //attach this segment to virtual memory
  shm = shmat(shmid,NULL,0);

  //start writing into memory
  s = shm;
  for(ch='A';ch<='Z';ch++)
    {
      sem_wait(mutex);
      *s++ = ch;
      sem_post(mutex);
    }

  //the below loop could be replaced by binary semaphore
  while(*shm != '*')
    {
      sleep(1);
    }
  sem_close(mutex);
  sem_unlink(SEM_NAME);
  shmctl(shmid, IPC_RMID, 0);
  _exit(0);
}

<u>File 2: client.c</u>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/ipc.h>
#include <sys/shm.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <semaphore.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>

#define SHMSZ 27
char SEM_NAME[]= "vik";

int main()
{
  char ch;
  int shmid;
  key_t key;
  char *shm,*s;
  sem_t *mutex;

  //name the shared memory segment
  key = 1000;

  //create & initialize existing semaphore
  mutex = sem_open(SEM_NAME,0,0644,0);
  if(mutex == SEM_FAILED)
    {
      perror("reader:unable to execute semaphore");
      sem_close(mutex);
      exit(-1);
    }

  //create the shared memory segment with this key
  shmid = shmget(key,SHMSZ,0666);
  if(shmid<0)
    {
      perror("reader:failure in shmget");
      exit(-1);
    }

  //attach this segment to virtual memory
  shm = shmat(shmid,NULL,0);

  //start reading
  s = shm;
  for(s=shm;*s!=NULL;s++)
    {
      sem_wait(mutex);
      putchar(*s);
      sem_post(mutex);
    }

  //once done signal exiting of reader:This can be replaced by another semaphore
  *shm = '*';
  sem_close(mutex);
  shmctl(shmid, IPC_RMID, 0);
  exit(0);
}

The above executables (client and server) demonstrate how semaphore could be used between completely different processes.

In addition to the applications shown above, semaphores can be used cooperatively to access a resource. Please note that a semaphore is not a Mutex. A Mutex allows serial access to a resource, whereas semaphores, in addition to allowing serial access, could also be used to access resources in parallel. For example, consider resource R being accessed by n number of users. When using a Mutex, we would need a Mutex "m" to lock and unlock the resource, thus allowing only one user at a time to use the resource R. In contrast, semaphores can allow n number of users to synchronously access the resource R. The best common example could be the Toilet Example.

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