Fair Threads in C

FairThreads offers a very simple framework for concurrent and parallel programming. Basically, it defines schedulers which are synchronization servers, to which threads can dynamically link or unlink. All threads linked to the same scheduler are executed in a cooperative way, at the same pace, and they can synchronize and communicate using broadcast events. Threads which are not linked to any scheduler are executed by the OS in a preemptive way, at their own pace. FairThreads offers programming constructs for linking and unlinking threads.

FairThreads is fully compatible with the standard Pthreads library and has a precise and clear semantics for its cooperative part; in particular, systems exclusively made of threads linked to one unique scheduler are actually completely deterministic. Special threads, called automata, are provided for short-lived small tasks or when a large number of tasks is needed. Automata do not need the full power of a native thread to execute and thus consume less resources.

A paper describes FairThreads, the API in C, and the man pages:

• html version
• ps version (500k)
• pdf version (280k)

• ps version (446k)
• pdf version (221k)

• The orders issued from ft_scheduler_stop, ft_scheduler_suspend, and ft_scheduler_resume are processed in the order in which they are issued (no more priority of suspend on resume, or the converse...).
• Schedulers have an access in constant time to the next thread to execute (see files itemlist.h and itemlist.c).
• This version is used as a target for the compilation of LOFT.

FairThreads is distributed under the Gnu Public License.

Frederic Boussinot
EMP-CMA/INRIA - MIMOSA Project
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