Implementing Locks

Lecture Notes for CS 140
Winter 2012
John Ousterhout

• Readings for this topic from Operating System Concepts: Section 6.5.2.

• Uniprocessor solution: can just disable interrupts.

  struct lock {
      int locked;
      struct queue q;
  };
  
  void lock_acquire(struct lock *l) {
      intr_disable();
      if (!l->locked) {
          l->locked = 1;
      } else {
          queue_add(&l->q, thread_current());
          thread_block();
      }
      intr_enable();
  }
  
  void lock_release(struct lock *l) {
      intr_disable();
      if (queue_empty(&l->q) {
          l->locked = 0;
      } else {
          thread_unblock(queue_remove(&l->q));
      }
      intr_enable();
  }
  
• Implementing locks on a multiprocessor: turning off interrupts isn't enough.
  • Hardware provides some sort of atomic read-modify-write instruction, which can be used to build higher-level synchronization operations such as locks.
  • Example: swap: atomically read memory value and replace it with a given value: returns old value.
• Attempt #1:

  struct lock {
      int locked;
  };
  
  void lock_acquire(struct lock *l) {
      while (swap(&l->locked, 1)) {
          /* Do nothing */
      }
  }
  
  void lock_release(struct lock *l) {
      l->locked = 0;
  }
  
• Attempt #2:

  struct lock {
      int locked;
      struct queue q;
  };
  
  void lock_acquire(struct lock *l) {
      if (swap(&l->locked, 1) != 0) {
          queue_add(&l->q, thread_current());
          thread_block();
      }
  }
  
  void lock_release(struct lock *l) {
      if (queue_empty(&l->q) {
         l->locked = 0;
      } else {
          thread_unblock(queue_remove(&l->q));
      }
  }
  
• Attempt #3:

  struct lock {
      int locked;
      struct queue q;
      int sync;         /* Normally 0. */
  };
  
  void lock_acquire(struct lock *l) {
      while (swap(&l->sync, 1) != 0) {
          /* Do nothing */
      }
      if (!l->locked) {
          l->locked = 1;
          l->sync = 0;
      } else {
          queue_add(&l->q, thread_current());
          l->sync = 0;
          thread_block();
      }
  }
  
  void lock_release(struct lock *l) {
      while (swap(&l->sync, 1) != 0) {
          /* Do nothing */
      }
      if (queue_empty(&l->q) {
          l->locked = 0;
      } else {
          thread_unblock(queue_remove(&l->q));
      }
      l->sync = 0;
  }
  
• Final solution:

  struct lock {
      int locked;
      struct queue q;
      int sync;         /* Normally 0. */
  };
  
  void lock_acquire(struct lock *l) {
      intr_disable();
      while (swap(&l->sync, 1) != 0) {
          /* Do nothing */
      }
      if (!l->locked) {
          l->locked = 1;
          l->sync = 0;
      } else {
          queue_add(&l->q, thread_current());
          l->sync = 0;
          thread_block();
      }
      intr_enable();
  }
  
  void lock_release(struct lock *l) {
      intr_disable();
      while (swap(&l->sync, 1) != 0) {
          /* Do nothing */
      }
      if (queue_empty(&l->q) {
          l->locked = 0;
      } else {
          thread_unblock(queue_remove(&l->q));
      }
      l->sync = 0;
      intr_enable();
  }