Reader/Writer Locks in C++

Question

I'm looking for a good reader/writer lock in C++. We have a use case of a single infrequent writer and many frequent readers and would like to optimize for this. Preferable I would like a cross-platform solution, however a Windows only one would be acceptable.

Answer 1

You can use boost to create a read-write lock:

#include <boost/thread/locks.hpp>
#include <boost/thread/shared_mutex.hpp>

typedef boost::shared_mutex Lock;
typedef boost::unique_lock< Lock >  WriteLock;
typedef boost::shared_lock< Lock >  ReadLock;

Lock myLock;


void ReadFunction()
{
    ReadLock r_lock(myLock);
    //Do reader stuff
}

void WriteFunction()
{
     WriteLock w_lock(myLock);
     //Do writer stuff
}

Answer 2

Whatever you decide to use, benchmark your work load against simple locks, as read/write locks tend to be 3-40x slower than simple mutex, when there is no contention.

Here is some reference

Answer 3

Using standard pre-tested, pre-built stuff is always good (for example, Boost as another answer suggested), but this is something that's not too hard to build yourself. Here's a dumb little implementation pulled out from a project of mine:

#include <pthread.h>

struct rwlock {
    pthread_mutex_t lock;
    pthread_cond_t read, write;
    unsigned readers, writers, read_waiters, write_waiters;
};

void reader_lock(struct rwlock *self) {
    pthread_mutex_lock(&self->lock);
    if (self->writers || self->write_waiters) {
        self->read_waiters++;
        do pthread_cond_wait(&self->read, &self->lock);
        while (self->writers || self->write_waiters);
        self->read_waiters--;
    }
    self->readers++;
    pthread_mutex_unlock(&self->lock);
}

void reader_unlock(struct rwlock *self) {
    pthread_mutex_lock(&self->lock);
    self->readers--;
    if (self->write_waiters)
        pthread_cond_signal(&self->write);
    pthread_mutex_unlock(&self->lock);
}

void writer_lock(struct rwlock *self) {
    pthread_mutex_lock(&self->lock);
    if (self->readers || self->writers) {
        self->write_waiters++;
        do pthread_cond_wait(&self->write, &self->lock);
        while (self->readers || self->writers);
        self->write_waiters--;
    }
    self->writers = 1;
    pthread_mutex_unlock(&self->lock);
}

void writer_unlock(struct rwlock *self) {
    pthread_mutex_lock(&self->lock);
    self->writers = 0;
    if (self->write_waiters)
        pthread_cond_signal(&self->write);
    else if (self->read_waiters)
        pthread_cond_broadcast(&self->read);
    pthread_mutex_unlock(&self->lock);
}

void rwlock_init(struct rwlock *self) {
    self->readers = self->writers = self->read_waiters = self->write_waiters = 0;
    pthread_mutex_init(&self->lock, NULL);
    pthread_cond_init(&self->read, NULL);
    pthread_cond_init(&self->write, NULL);
}

pthreads not really being Windows-native, but the general idea is here. This implementation is slightly biased towards writers (a horde of writers can starve readers indefinitely); just modify writer_unlock if you'd rather the balance be the other way around.

Yes, this is C and not C++. Translation is an exercise left to the reader.

Edit

Greg Rogers pointed out that the POSIX standard does specify pthread_rwlock_*. This doesn't help if you don't have pthreads, but it stirred my mind into remembering: Pthreads-w32 should work! Instead of porting this code to non-pthreads for your own use, just use Pthreads-w32 on Windows, and native pthreads everywhere else.

Answer 4

I can recommend the ACE library, which provides a multitude of locking mechanisms and is ported to various platforms.

Depending on the boundary conditions of your problem, you may find the following classes useful:

• ACE_RW_Process_Mutex
• ACE_Write_Guard and ACE_Read_Guard
• ACE_Condition

Answer 5

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/threads/ReaderWriterLock.aspx

Here is a good and lightweight implementation suitable for most tasks.

Answer 6

C++17 supports std::shared_mutex . It is supported in MSVC++ 2015 and 2017.