I'm writing a program that creates two threads. Each thread is responsible for reading through one text file, with one char on each line.
The first is formatted like:
h
0
h
0
...
The second is formatted like:
0
i
0
i
0
i
Sometimes there can be multiple letters after each other, or multiple zeros after each other. However, the one certainty is that if there is a letter on one line of one file, the corresponding line of the second file will have a 0, and vice versa.
The threads are supposed to keep reading the file input into a global char array until they reach a zero. At this point, they allow the other thread to take over. And they keep going back and forth until both files are completely read.
At this point, when I run, I get variations of either (1) many h's followed by many i's or (2) (the correct answer) a continuous stream of hihihi's, or (3) sometimes many i's followed by many h's. So, I know that my synchronization methods are off.
Here is an example of one of my threads: (Note both threads are exactly the same, except for the file being opened.)
void *getMessage1()
{
FILE *studentOne = fopen("Student1", "r");
size_t howManyChars;
char *placeHolderChars;
int count = 1;
while (count < 501)
{
placeHolderChars = NULL;
getline(&placeHolderChars, &howManyChars, studentOne);
if(strcmp(placeHolderChars, "0\n") == 0) //if we've reached a zero
{
pthread_mutex_unlock(&lock);
}
else
{ while(1)
{
if(pthread_mutex_trylock(&lock) == 0)
{
break;
}
}
if(strlen(placeHolderChars)>0)
{
placeHolderChars[1] = '\0';
}
strcat(message,placeHolderChars);
}
free(placeHolderChars);
if(feof(studentOne))
{
pthread_mutex_unlock(&lock); //unlock
fclose(studentOne);
break;
}
count++;
}
return 0;
}
Here is my main method:
int main(void)
{
pthread_t id1;
pthread_t id2;
pthread_create((&id1), NULL, getMessage1, NULL);
pthread_create((&id2), NULL, getMessage2, NULL);
pthread_join(id1, NULL);
pthread_join(id2, NULL);
int j;
for (j = 0; j < 1001; j++)
{
printf ("%c ",message[j]);
}
return 0;
}
I would appreciate any guidance on how I can better use lock, unlock, wait, and/or signal to create a working synchronization technique with consistent results.