path: root/ANNOUNCE

                 PTHREADS-WIN32 SNAPSHOT 2002-??-??
                 ----------------------------------
       Web Site: http://sources.redhat.com/pthreads-win32/
      FTP Site: ftp://sources.redhat.com/pub/pthreads-win32
        Coordinator: Ross Johnson <rpj@ise.canberra.edu.au>


We are pleased to announce the availability of a new snapshot of
Pthreads-win32, an Open Source Software implementation of the
Threads component of the POSIX 1003.1c 1995 Standard for Microsoft's
Win32 environment. Some functions from POSIX 1003.1b are also
supported including semaphores. Other related functions include
the set of read-write lock functions.

Parts of the implementation also comply with the Open Group's
Single Unix specification for compatibility with major Unix
implementations and Linux.

Pthreads-win32 is free software, distributed under the GNU Lesser
General Public License (LGPL).

Please see the 'Acknowledgements' section at the end of this
announcement for the list of contributors.


-------------------------------
Changes since the last snapshot
-------------------------------

Cleanup code default style. (IMPORTANT)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Previously, if not defined, the cleanup style was determined automatically
from the compiler/language, and one of the following was defined accordingly:

	__CLEANUP_SEH	MSVC only
	__CLEANUP_CXX	C++, including MSVC++, GNU G++
	__CLEANUP_C		C, including GNU GCC, not MSVC

These defines determine the style of cleanup (see pthread.h) and,
most importantly, the way that cancelation and thread exit (via
pthread_exit) is performed (see the routine ptw32_throw() in private.c).

In short, the exceptions versions of the library throw an exception
when a thread is canceled or exits (via pthread_exit()), which is
caught by a handler in the thread startup routine, so that the
the correct stack unwinding occurs regardless of where the thread
is when it's canceled or exits via pthread_exit().

In this and future snapshots, unless the build explicitly defines (e.g.
via a compiler option) __CLEANUP_SEH, __CLEANUP_CXX, or __CLEANUP_C, then
the build NOW always defaults to __CLEANUP_C style cleanup. This style
uses setjmp/longjmp in the cancelation and pthread_exit implementations,
and therefore won't do stack unwinding even when linked to applications
that have it (e.g. C++ apps). This is for consistency with most
current commercial Unix POSIX threads implementations. Compaq's TRU64
may be an exception (no pun intended) and possible future trend.

Although it was not clearly documented before, it is still necessary to
build your application using the same __CLEANUP_* define as was
used for the version of the library that you link with, so that the
correct parts of pthread.h are included. That is, the possible
defines require the following library versions:

	__CLEANUP_SEH	pthreadVSE.dll
	__CLEANUP_CXX	pthreadVCE.dll or pthreadGCE.dll
	__CLEANUP_C	pthreadVC.dll or pthreadGC.dll

E.g. regardless of whether your app is C or C++, if you link with
pthreadVC.lib or libpthreadGC.a, then you must define __CLEANUP_C.


THE POINT OF ALL THIS IS: if you have not been defining one of these
explicitly, then the defaults as described at the top of this
section were being used.

THIS NOW CHANGES, as has been explained above, but to try to make this
clearer here's an example:

If you were building your application with MSVC++ i.e. using C++
exceptions and not explicitly defining one of __CLEANUP_*, then
__CLEANUP_C++ was automatically defined for you in pthread.h.
You should have been linking with pthreadVCE.dll, which does
stack unwinding.

If you now build your application as you had before, pthread.h will now
automatically set __CLEANUP_C as the default style, and you will need to
link with pthreadVC.dll. Stack unwinding will now NOT occur when a thread
is canceled, or the thread calls pthread_exit().

Your application will now most likely behave differently to previous
versions, and in non-obvious ways. Most likely is that locally
instantiated objects may not be destroyed or cleaned up after a thread
is canceled.

If you want the same behaviour as before, then you must now define
__CLEANUP_C++ explicitly using a compiler option and link with
pthreadVCE.dll as you did before.


WHY ARE WE MAKING THE DEFAULT STYLE LESS EXCEPTION-FRIENDLY?
Because no commercial Unix POSIX threads implementation allows you to
choose to have stack unwinding. Therefore, providing it in pthread-win32
as a default is dangerous. We still provide the choice but unless
you consciously choose to do otherwise, your pthreads applications will
now run or crash in similar ways irrespective of the threads platform
you use. Or at least this is the hope.


WHY NOT REMOVE THE EXCEPTIONS VERSIONS OF THE LIBRARY ALTOGETHER?
There are a few reasons:
- because there are well respected POSIX threads people who believe
  that POSIX threads implementations should be exceptions aware and
  do the expected thing in that context. (There are equally respected
  people who believe it should not be easily accessible, if it's there
  at all, for unconditional conformity to other implementations.)
- because pthreads-win32 is one of the few implementations that has
  the choice, perhaps the only freely available one, and so offers
  a laboratory to people who may want to explore the effects;
- although the code will always be around somewhere for anyone who
  wants it, once it's removed from the current version it will not be
  nearly as visible to people who may have a use for it.

Source module splitting
-----------------------
In order to enable smaller image sizes to be generated
for applications that link statically with the library,
most routines have been separated out into individual
source code files.

This is being done in such a way as to be backward compatible.
The old source files are reused to congregate the individual
routine files into larger translation units (via a bunch of
# includes) so that the compiler can still optimise wherever
possible, e.g. through inlining, which can only be done
within the same translation unit.

It is also possible to build the entire library by compiling
the single file named "pthread.c", which just #includes all
the secondary congregation source files. The compiler
may be able to use this to do more inlining of routines.

Although the GNU compiler is able to produce libraries with
the necessary separation (the -ffunction-segments switch),
AFAIK, the MSVC and other compilers don't have this feature.

Finally, since I use makefiles and command-line compilation,
I don't know what havoc this reorganisation may wreak amongst
IDE project file users. You should be able to continue
using your existing project files without modification.

New non-portable function
-------------------------
pthread_num_processors_np(): Returns the number of processors
in the system that are available to the process, as determined
from the processor affinity mask.

Platform dependence
-------------------
As Win95 doesn't provide one, the library now contains
it's own InterlockedCompareExchange() routine, which is used
whenever Windows doesn't provide it. InterlockedCompareExchange()
is used to implement spinlocks and barriers, and also in mutexes.
This routine relies on the CMPXCHG machine instruction which
is not available on i386 CPUs. This library (from snapshot
20010712 onwards) is therefore no longer supported on i386
processor platforms.

New routines
------------
For source code portability only - rwlocks cannot be process shared yet.
        pthread_rwlockattr_init()
        pthread_rwlockattr_destroy()
        pthread_rwlockattr_setpshared()
        pthread_rwlockattr_getpshared()

As defined in the new POSIX standard, and the Single Unix Spec version 3:
        sem_timedwait()
        pthread_mutex_timedlock()

pthread.h no longer includes windows.h
--------------------------------------
[Not yet for G++]

This was done to prevent conflicts.

HANDLE, DWORD, and NULL are temporarily defined within pthread.h if
they are not already.

Bug fixes
---------
* Fixed potential NULL pointer dereferences in pthread_mutexattr_init,
pthread_mutexattr_getpshared, pthread_barrierattr_init,
pthread_barrierattr_getpshared, and pthread_condattr_getpshared.
- Scott McCaskill <scott@magruder.org>

* Removed potential race condition in pthread_mutex_trylock and
pthread_mutex_lock;
- Alexander Terekhov <TEREKHOV@de.ibm.com>

* The behaviour of pthread_mutex_trylock in relation to
recursive mutexes was inconsistent with commercial implementations.
Trylock would return EBUSY if the lock was owned already by the
calling thread regardless of mutex type. Trylock now increments the
recursion count and returns 0 for RECURSIVE mutexes, and will
return EDEADLK rather than EBUSY for ERRORCHECK mutexes. This is
consistent with Solaris.
- Thomas Pfaff <tpfaff@gmx.net>

* Found a fix for the library and workaround for applications for
the known bug #2, i.e. where __CLEANUP_CXX or __CLEANUP_SEH is defined.
See the "Known Bugs in this snapshot" section below.

This could be made transparent to applications by replacing the macros that
define the current C++ and SEH versions of pthread_cleanup_push/pop
with the C version, but AFAIK cleanup handlers would not then run in the
correct sequence with destructors and exception cleanup handlers when
an exception occurs.

* Cancelation once started in a thread cannot now be inadvertantly
double canceled. That is, once a thread begins it's cancelation run,
cancelation is disabled and a subsequent cancel request will
return an error (ESRCH).


---------------------------
Known bugs in this snapshot
---------------------------

1. Under MS VC++ (only tested with version 6.0), a term_func
   set via the standard C++ set_terminate() function is not called
   for some reason. The code in private.c ptw32_threadStart()
   retrieves and calls the user supplied terminate routine, which
   works as expected under MinGW32 g++, but doesn't run under
   MS VC++ 6.0, presumably because set_terminate() returns NULL.

2. Cancellation problems in optimised code
   - Milan Gardian

   Workaround [rpj - 2 Feb 2002]
   -----------------------------
   The problem disappears when /Ob0 is used, i.e. /O2 /Ob0 works OK,
   but if you want to use inlining optimisation you can be much more
   specific about where it's switched off and on by using a pragma.

   So the inlining optimisation is interfering with the way that cleanup
   handlers are run. It appears to relate to auto-inlining of class methods
   since this is the only auto inlining that is performed at /O1 optimisation
   (functions with the "inline" qualifier are also inlined, but the problem
   doesn't appear to involve any such functions in the library or testsuite).

   In order to confirm the inlining culprit, the following use of pragmas
   eliminate the problem but I don't know how to make it transparent, putting
   it in, say, pthread.h where pthread_cleanup_push defined as a macro.

   #pragma inline_depth(0)
     pthread_cleanup_push(handlerFunc, (void *) &arg);

        /* ... */

     pthread_cleanup_pop(0);
   #pragma inline_depth()

   Note the empty () value after the pop macro. This resets depth to the
   default. Or you can specify a non-zero depth here.

   The pragma is also needed (and now used) within the library itself wherever
   cleanup handlers are used (condvar.c and rwlock.c).

   Use of these pragmas allows compiler optimisations /O1 and /O2 to be
   used for either or both the library and applications.

   Experimenting further, I found that wrapping the actual cleanup handler
   function with #pragma auto_inline(off|on) does NOT work.

   MSVC6.0 doesn't appear to support the C99 standard's _Pragma directive,
   however, later versions may. This form is embeddable inside #define
   macros, which would be ideal because it would mean that it could be added
   to the push/pop macro definitions in pthread.h and hidden from the
   application programmer.

   [/rpj]

   Original problem description
   ----------------------------

   The cancellation (actually, cleanup-after-cancel) tests fail when using VC
   (professional) optimisation switches (/O1 or /O2) in pthreads library. I
   have not investigated which concrete optimisation technique causes this
   problem (/Og, /Oi, /Ot, /Oy, /Ob1, /Gs, /Gf, /Gy, etc.), but here is a
   summary of builds and corresponding failures:

     * pthreads VSE (optimised tests): OK
     * pthreads VCE (optimised tests): Failed "cleanup1" test (runtime)
   
     * pthreads VSE (DLL in CRT, optimised tests): OK
     * pthreads VCE (DLL in CRT, optimised tests): Failed "cleanup1" test
   (runtime)

   Please note that while in VSE version of the pthreads library the
   optimisation does not really have any impact on the tests (they pass OK), in
   VCE version addition of optimisation (/O2 in this case) causes the tests to
   fail uniformly - either in "cleanup0" or "cleanup1" test cases.
   
   Please note that all the tests above use default pthreads DLL (no
   optimisations, linked with either static or DLL CRT, based on test type).
   Therefore the problem lies not within the pthreads DLL but within the
   compiled client code (the application using pthreads -> involvement of
   "pthread.h").

   I think the message of this section is that usage of VCE version of pthreads
   in applications relying on cancellation/cleanup AND using optimisations for
   creation of production code is highly unreliable for the current version of
   the pthreads library.


Caveats
-------

1. Due to what is believed to be a C++ compliance error in VC++,
if your application contains catch(...) blocks in your POSIX threads
then you will need to replace the "catch(...)" with the macro
"PtW32Catch", eg.

	#ifdef PtW32Catch
		PtW32Catch {
			...
		}
	#else
		catch(...) {
			...
		}
	#endif

Otherwise neither pthreads cancelation nor pthread_exit() will work
reliably.


Level of standards conformance
------------------------------

The following POSIX 1003.1c/1b/1j options are defined:

      _POSIX_THREADS
      _POSIX_THREAD_SAFE_FUNCTIONS
      _POSIX_THREAD_ATTR_STACKSIZE
      _POSIX_THREAD_PRIORITY_SCHEDULING
      _POSIX_SEMAPHORES
      _POSIX_READER_WRITER_LOCKS
      _POSIX_SPIN_LOCKS
      _POSIX_BARRIERS


The following POSIX 1003.1c options are not defined:

      _POSIX_THREAD_ATTR_STACKADDR
      _POSIX_THREAD_PRIO_INHERIT
      _POSIX_THREAD_PRIO_PROTECT
      _POSIX_THREAD_PROCESS_SHARED


The following functions are implemented:

      ---------------------------
      PThreads
      ---------------------------
      pthread_attr_init
      pthread_attr_destroy
      pthread_attr_getdetachstate
      pthread_attr_getstackaddr
      pthread_attr_getstacksize
      pthread_attr_setdetachstate
      pthread_attr_setstackaddr
      pthread_attr_setstacksize

      pthread_create
      pthread_detach
      pthread_equal
      pthread_exit
      pthread_join
      pthread_once
      pthread_self

      pthread_cancel
      pthread_cleanup_pop
      pthread_cleanup_push
      pthread_setcancelstate
      pthread_setcanceltype
      pthread_testcancel
          
      ---------------------------
      Thread Specific Data   
      ---------------------------
      pthread_key_create
      pthread_key_delete
      pthread_setspecific
      pthread_getspecific
                
      ---------------------------
      Mutexes
      ---------------------------
      pthread_mutexattr_init
      pthread_mutexattr_destroy
      pthread_mutexattr_getpshared
      pthread_mutexattr_setpshared
      pthread_mutexattr_gettype
      pthread_mutexattr_settype (types: PTHREAD_MUTEX_DEFAULT
                                        PTHREAD_MUTEX_NORMAL
                                        PTHREAD_MUTEX_ERRORCHECK
                                        PTHREAD_MUTEX_RECURSIVE  )
      pthread_mutex_init
      pthread_mutex_destroy
      pthread_mutex_lock
      pthread_mutex_trylock
      pthread_mutex_timedlock
      pthread_mutex_unlock

      ---------------------------
      Condition Variables
      ---------------------------
      pthread_condattr_init
      pthread_condattr_destroy
      pthread_condattr_getpshared
      pthread_condattr_setpshared

      pthread_cond_init
      pthread_cond_destroy
      pthread_cond_wait
      pthread_cond_timedwait
      pthread_cond_signal
      pthread_cond_broadcast  

      ---------------------------
      Read/Write Locks - POSIX 1j
      ---------------------------
      pthread_rwlock_init
      pthread_rwlock_destroy
      pthread_rwlock_tryrdlock
      pthread_rwlock_trywrlock
      pthread_rwlock_rdlock
      pthread_rwlock_rwlock
      pthread_rwlock_unlock
      pthread_rwlockattr_init
      pthread_rwlockattr_destroy
      pthread_rwlockattr_getpshared
      pthread_rwlockattr_setpshared

      ---------------------------
      Spin Locks - POSIX 1j
      ---------------------------
      pthread_spin_init
      pthread_spin_destroy
      pthread_spin_lock
      pthread_spin_unlock
      pthread_spin_trylock

      ---------------------------
      Barriers - POSIX 1j
      ---------------------------
      pthread_barrier_init
      pthread_barrier_destroy
      pthread_barrier_wait
      pthread_barrierattr_init
      pthread_barrierattr_destroy
      pthread_barrierattr_getpshared
      pthread_barrierattr_setpshared

      ---------------------------
      Semaphores - POSIX 1b
      ---------------------------
      sem_init
      sem_destroy
      sem_post
      sem_wait
      sem_trywait
      sem_timedwait
      sem_open               (returns an error ENOSYS)
      sem_close              (returns an error ENOSYS)
      sem_unlink             (returns an error ENOSYS)
      sem_getvalue           (returns an error ENOSYS)

      ---------------------------
      RealTime Scheduling
      ---------------------------
      pthread_attr_getschedparam  
      pthread_attr_setschedparam  
      pthread_attr_getinheritsched
      pthread_attr_setinheritsched
      pthread_attr_getschedpolicy (only supports SCHED_OTHER)
      pthread_attr_setschedpolicy (only supports SCHED_OTHER)
      pthread_getschedparam
      pthread_setschedparam
      pthread_getconcurrency
      pthread_setconcurrency
      pthread_attr_getscope
      pthread_attr_setscope  (only supports PTHREAD_SCOPE_SYSTEM)
      sched_get_priority_max (POSIX 1b)
      sched_get_priority_min (POSIX 1b)
      sched_rr_get_interval  (POSIX 1b  - returns an error ENOTSUP)
      sched_setscheduler     (POSIX 1b  - only supports SCHED_OTHER)
      sched_getscheduler     (POSIX 1b  - only supports SCHED_OTHER)
      sched_yield            (POSIX 1b)

      ---------------------------
      Signals
      ---------------------------
      pthread_sigmask

      ---------------------------
      Non-portable routines (see the README.NONPORTABLE file for usage)
      ---------------------------
      pthread_getw32threadhandle_np
      pthread_delay_np
      pthread_mutexattr_getkind_np
      pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np      (types: PTHREAD_MUTEX_FAST_NP,
                                                PTHREAD_MUTEX_ERRORCHECK_NP,
                                                PTHREAD_MUTEX_RECURSIVE_NP,
                                                PTHREAD_MUTEX_ADAPTIVE_NP,
                                                PTHREAD_MUTEX_TIMED_NP)
      pthread_num_processors_np
      pthread_win32_process_attach_np   (Required when statically linking the library)
      pthread_win32_process_detach_np   (Required when statically linking the library)
      pthread_win32_thread_attach_np    (Required when statically linking the library)
      pthread_win32_thread_detach_np    (Required when statically linking the library)

      ---------------------------
      Static Initializers
      ---------------------------
      PTHREAD_ONCE_INIT
      PTHREAD_MUTEX_INITIALIZER
      PTHREAD_COND_INITIALIZER
      PTHREAD_RWLOCK_INITIALIZER
      PTHREAD_SPINLOCK_INITIALIZER

      ---------------------------
      Thread-Safe C Runtime Library (macros)
      ---------------------------
      strtok_r
      asctime_r
      ctime_r
      gmtime_r
      localtime_r
      rand_r


The following functions are not implemented:
      
      ---------------------------
      RealTime Scheduling
      ---------------------------
      pthread_mutex_getprioceiling
      pthread_mutex_setprioceiling
      pthread_mutex_attr_getprioceiling
      pthread_mutex_attr_getprotocol
      pthread_mutex_attr_setprioceiling
      pthread_mutex_attr_setprotocol
      
      ---------------------------
      Fork Handlers
      ---------------------------
      pthread_atfork

      ---------------------------
      Stdio
      --------------------------- 
      flockfile
      ftrylockfile
      funlockfile
      getc_unlocked
      getchar_unlocked  
      putc_unlocked
      putchar_unlocked

      ---------------------------
      Thread-Safe C Runtime Library
      ---------------------------
      readdir_r
      getgrgid_r
      getgrnam_r
      getpwuid_r
      getpwnam_r
      
      ---------------------------
      Signals
      ---------------------------
      pthread_kill
      sigtimedwait
      sigwait
      sigwaitinfo
      
      
The library includes two non-API functions for creating cancellation
points in applications and libraries:
      
      pthreadCancelableWait
      pthreadCancelableTimedWait

      
Availability
------------ 

The prebuilt DLL, export libs (for both MSVC and Mingw32), and the header
files (pthread.h, semaphore.h, sched.h) are available along with the
complete source code.

The source code can be found at:

	ftp://sources.redhat.com/pub/pthreads-win32

and as individual source code files at

	ftp://sources.redhat.com/pub/pthreads-win32/source

The pre-built DLL, export libraries and include files can be found at:

	ftp://sources.redhat.com/pub/pthreads-win32/dll-latest


      
Mailing List 
------------  
      
There is a mailing list for discussing pthreads on Win32. To join,
send email to:

        pthreads-win32-subscribe@sourceware.cygnus.com
      

Application Development Environments
------------------------------------

See the README file for more information.
      
MSVC:
MSVC using SEH works. Distribute pthreadVSE.dll with your application.
MSVC using C++ EH works. Distribute pthreadVCE.dll with your application.
MSVC using C setjmp/longjmp works. Distribute pthreadVC.dll with your application.


Mingw32:
See FAQ Questions 6 and 10.

Mingw using C++ EH works. Distribute pthreadGCE.dll with your application.
Mingw using C setjmp/longjmp works. Distribute pthreadGC.dll with your application.


Cygwin: (http://sourceware.cygnus.com/cygwin/)
Developers using Cygwin will not need pthreads-win32 since it has POSIX threads
support. Refer to its documentation for details and extent.


UWIN:
UWIN is a complete Unix-like environment for Windows from AT&T. Pthreads-win32
doesn't currently support UWIN (and vice versa), but that may change in the
future.

Generally:
For convenience, the following pre-built files are available on the FTP site
(see Availability above):

	pthread.h	- for POSIX 1c threads
	semaphore.h	- for POSIX 1b semaphores
	sched.h		- for POSIX 1b scheduling
	pthreadVCE.dll	- built with MSVC++ compiler using C++ EH
	pthreadVCE.lib
	pthreadVC.dll	- built with MSVC compiler using C setjmp/longjmp
	pthreadVC.lib
	pthreadVSE.dll	- built with MSVC compiler using SEH
	pthreadVSE.lib
	pthreadGCE.dll	- built with Mingw32 G++ 2.95.2-1
	pthreadGC.dll	- built with Mingw32 GCC 2.95.2-1 using setjmp/longjmp
	libpthreadGCE.a	- derived from pthreadGCE.dll
	libpthreadGC.a	- derived from pthreadGC.dll
        gcc.dll         - needed if distributing applications that use pthreadGCE.dll

These are the only files you need in order to build POSIX threads
applications for Win32 using either MSVC or Mingw32.
      
See the FAQ file in the source tree for additional information.


Documentation
-------------

Currently, there is no documentation included in the package apart
from the copious comments in the source code.

For POSIX Thread API programming, several reference books are
available:  

        Programming with POSIX Threads
        David R. Butenhof
        Addison-Wesley (pub)

        Pthreads Programming
        By Bradford Nichols, Dick Buttlar & Jacqueline Proulx Farrell
        O'Reilly (pub)

On the web: see the links at the bottom of the pthreads-win32 site:

        http://sources.redhat.com/pthreads-win32/


Acknowledgements
----------------
      
This library is based substantially on a Win32 pthreads
implementation contributed by John Bossom <John.Bossom@cognos.com>.
      
The implementation of Condition Variables uses algorithms developed
by Alexander Terekhov and Louis Thomas.

The implementation of POSIX mutexes has been improved by Thomas Pfaff.

The implementation of read/write locks was contributed by
Aurelio Medina and improved by Alexander Terekhov.

Many others have contributed significant time and effort to solve critical
problems in order to make the library workable, robust and reliable.

There is also a separate CONTRIBUTORS file. This file and others are
on the web site:

        http://sources.redhat.com/pthreads-win32

As much as possible, the ChangeLog file acknowledges contributions to the
code base in more detail.

Enjoy!

Ross Johnson